Toggle navigation
SUCCESS!
We look forward to helping you advance your career as a travel nurse!
Have you just accepted your first travel nurse assignment and are thinking, “Now what?!” or have you been at it a while and thinking there has to be a better way to prepare for a new assignment? We have been at this for five years now and have about got it down to a science. That being said, we are always tweaking the way we prepare for an assignment to be as efficient as possible. And we have learned over the years that every traveler has their own way of doing things. My advice is to use my tips as a guideline and make your own personal tweaks along the way.
Find your dream assignment here.
Once you verbally accept a travel nurse assignment things start moving fast, and you have to keep pace! Your recruiter might put you in touch with customer service and housing, depending on the company, and you will have a list a mile long of things they need you to complete. Just keep in constant communication with them and get them everything they need asap. This will range from licenses, ID, miscellaneous paperwork, tax forms, and testing…lots. of. testing. Each position/facility/agency has different requirements, but do not procrastinate. If you don’t have your stuff done on time, you will be sent home (or won’t even be deployed), so just get it done in a timely fashion.
New travel jobs available now!
While you are working on making your file compliant, it is also important to get things at home in order for while you are gone. This is going to mean something different for everybody, depending on your specific circumstances. We always try to spend time with all of our close friends and family when home (and eat at our favorite restaurants – haha). Some things to keep in mind regarding your permanent residence when preparing for a travel assignment include:
Once your affairs are in order and your file is in compliance it is time to start thinking about what/how to pack for a travel assignment. As I described above, every traveler I have met has their own unique way of doing things and it involves a lot of trial and error. But in general, LESS IS MORE! As you pack, think to yourself, “Do I like this item so much that I am willing to
unpack and re-pack it 4-6 times a year?” You will be surprised with how little you really need. Before we had a baby, we finally got our travel items down to what would fit in the back of our Suburban, which was perfect. Moving was quick and easy. We got to take enough items to feel comfortable, but not so much we were stuck un/packing for a week at the beginning and end of each assignment (like we do now). Trust me, it gets old fast if you take too much junk! I love shoes, so I tried to bring all of my shoes in the beginning. But I soon realized that it just wasn’t worth it to me to lug around a huge box full of shoes when I might wear most of them maybe once a year. So now I travel with a few favorite, versatile pairs. On the flip side, our Keurig and Crock Pot have definitely earned their keep on our travel list, whereas somebody who prefers to just eat out probably wouldn’t need those items. Below is a list of items I recommend taking. You will notice a lot of stuff not on the list that you might think are must haves. But for us, we rebuy things (at the dollar store) for each assignment (like plates, trash can, etc.) in order to keep our packing load a bit lighter.
Travel jobs available across the country – find your perfect assignment
I have an initial shopping list saved to my computer that I print before each move. I usually try to make it to a Target or Wal-Mart and a grocery store within the first couple of days. And for us, this shopping trip is costly and usually takes a while. You have to essentially restock a house each time, so budget accordingly. These lists are just a start to get you to thinking about what specific things you need to take care of as you prepare for a travel nurse assignment. But of course, everybody’s situation is different. My advice is to start your own “to do” list and as you think of something new, add it to the list! And try to pack as minimal and compact as possible! It will make your experience as a traveler much more enjoyable, I promise!
New travel jobs available now!
We get asked all the time, “Where was your favorite location?” or, “What has been your favorite travel experience?” These types of questions always stump me because we have had so many incredible experiences and loved each city for very different reasons. So far, we have gotten exactly what we hoped to out of travel nursing! We wanted to truly experience our country as locals would in each given city, and we have done that and more.
Find your next travel assignment here.
I honestly can’t choose just one favorite experience throughout our four year travel nursing journey. However, San Diego does win out so far as my favorite city and therefore the culmination of memories and experiences we had there rank right at the top of our favorites list. Our time in San Diego was fairly short actually, but in only 8 weeks we managed to live it up!!!
There were so many factors that went into our San Diego travel nurse assignment that made it such an awesome experience. First off, my husband’s best friend lives there. They just had a baby (our first nephew), so that was special to have the opportunity to be around during that exciting time, and just to have friends on an assignment was nice. As a traveler, sometimes we make new friends and sometimes we don’t. So going someplace that we already know people is always a plus!
Other than being near friends, the coolest part about the San Diego travel nurse assignment was our apartment. It was incredible! We lived downtown in the hip Gaslamp district and loved every second of it! The apartment itself was modern and very cool, and the location was perfect. You can check out my previous article about how important housing is to us here. This one is a perfect example of what I was describing in that article. Our housing in San Diego truly made the assignment for us.
If you aren’t familiar with San Diego, the Gaslamp district is downtown within walking distance to the baseball stadium, bars, restaurants, the seaport, etc.; and a short drive to many other highlights of the city like Balboa Park, the Chargers stadium, Coronado Island, several beaches, etc. So as you can imagine, we stayed super busy every day my husband had off work trying to cram in all the hot spots before our next assignment! Here are just some of the reasons I consider our time in San Diego my favorite travel nurse experience to date…
Explore the country while getting paid – start here.
My two favorite restaurants EVER are both in San Diego. Lucha Libre’s has the most awesome burrito called the Surfin’ California. It was featured on Man V Food and is a-maz-ing!!! Also, our favorite seafood restaurant, Baypark Fish Co., is in San Diego. A random girl in the hot tub at a hotel told us about it on a vacation several years ago and we immediately fell in love with their incredible seafood dishes and casual atmosphere. Every time we visit San Diego, both of these restaurants make our itinerary! Another favorite is The Local downtown. They serve the best lobster tacos for $3 every Tuesday. Yum!
My husband and I aren’t big into the whole “nightlife” scene, but we did hit up a happy hour or two while we lived downtown San Diego. There were some really neat bars with funky atmospheres that we had a lot of fun at. We had quite a bit of company while we lived in San Diego and took full advantage of our convenient downtown location. A couple of our favorites were the Tipsy Crow and Yard House. The Tipsy Crow does their happy hour with a stock market theme. Whatever type of drink they are selling the most of the price increases, drinks that aren’t selling as well are cheap. It’s a lot of fun and to top it off they have great appetizer specials too. Yard House is a chain, but an awesome one! They have tons of beers on tap and excellent food! We love their California roll and spinach dip. Man, this post is making me hungry!
There are so, so, so many great things to do in San Diego! Some of our favorites that make this city so special to us are Balboa Park, Seaport Village, Point Loma, Harbor Tour, and Petco Park for a Padres game. Balboa Park is massive and incredible! It spans 1200 acres and includes the highly acclaimed San Diego Zoo, several museums, and gorgeous gardens. Our top picks include the Rose Garden, the Cactus Garden, and the Spanish Village Art Center. You could spend a week in Balboa Park and still not see everything. It is that awesome!
Another place we frequented in San Diego was Seaport Village. As the name suggests, it’s a cute little village on the seaport downtown with fun shops and restaurants. They do live, local music down there most weekends and they have fun festivals and events throughout the year. It’s just a happy place to walk around and enjoy San Diego’s beautiful weather. It was one of our favorite ways to spend a relaxing afternoon.
Point Loma was always our first stop when we had company in town. The view of the city from Cabrillo National Monument is stunning! It is the perfect way to start any visit to this glorious city! We would take our visitors to the lookout and tell them to take a look at the city they were about to have a lot of fun in. Another favorite place to take visitors was the harbor tour. It is such a fantastic way to experience and learn about the city all from a breezy boat.
We lived within walking distance to Petco Park in San Diego so we hit up a few Padres games and even toured the stadium one day. We have been to lots of ball games over the years, but for some reason we really enjoy going to Petco Park. Our favorite thing to do there was purchase their cheapest tickets and then get there early enough to get a spot on the balcony of the Hall of Fame Bar and Grill restaurant within the park that overlooks the field. They are amazing seats and you get a server that brings out your food and drink order. They had the best (and biggest) nachos, we caught a ball during batting practice, and had pretty great seats for pretty cheap. Padres game definitely rank as one of our best travel memories!
Discover new travel assignments here.
The best attribute of San Diego is the beautiful weather and one of the best outdoor activities for enjoying that weather has to be the many beaches. With temperatures often in that perfect 70-80 degrees Fahrenheit sweet spot, the weather in San Diego is ideal for frequent trips to the beach. There are so many different beaches to choose from, but a couple of our favorites include Coronado Island and Mission Beach. Coronado has the historic Hotel del Coronado along with lots of cute shops and restaurants and a beautiful beach. Mission Beach has a different vibe all together with a little carnival and more of a casual feel. Our favorite thing to do in Mission Beach is watch people on the surf machines at Wave House. It is definitely an entertaining way to spend an afternoon! No matter what beach you visit in San Diego though, you’re bound to have a great day!
So I know that isn’t exactly one favorite experience, but it is the culmination of all of these experiences that make San Diego and the experience of that short 8 week assignment stand out for me as my favorite travel nursing experience so far. I’m not convinced that anything will ever top it…but here’s to hoping!
