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If you’re an RN and thinking of taking your work on the road as a travel nurse, you’re in good company. Travel nursing is a popular option among nursing professionals today, allowing you to seek interesting opportunities, competitive salaries, and the chance to visit different parts of the country.
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Travel nurses are hired to fill positions in high-demand areas or when a specific type of specialization is needed. As such, these positions are desirable for RNs who want to have a variety of nursing experiences in different settings.
But travel nursing wasn’t always as popular as it is today. Take a look at how this nursing specialization began, and the major milestones that have helped propel it into the lucrative career track that it is today.
It is believed that the first area to hire contracted nurses that were brought in from other parts of the country was New Orleans in the late 1970s. With a large number of patients to deal with during the busy Mardi Gras week, hiring travel nurses for a few weeks helped fill the need for more staffing.
The idea took off in a more widespread way during the 1980s as a temporary solution to a national nursing shortage, according to the American Society of Registered Nurses website. As more and more healthcare organizations hired temporary nurses, more agencies opened to help place RNs who could fill in for short-term work.
Another common reason that travel nursing took off was to meet seasonal demand in areas of the country that attract larger numbers of travelers and retirees during winter seasons, such as in Florida and Arizona. According to a 2011 study by accounting firm KPMG, 45 percent of hospitals surveyed said busy seasons led them to hire traveling nurses.
Travel nursing has definitely grown in popularity as shortages continued, and it became a viable option for RNs who were looking for another career avenue.
One of the things that contributed to the growth was the growth of the internet and mobile technology. These advances have made it easier for travel nurses to move around and still maintain their connections to a home base. In addition, it is easier to find out about travel nursing jobs and make industry connections with the internet, not to mention that agencies have an easier time finding candidates and conducting interviews.
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Healthcare in general has seen a surge in demand over the last decade or so as the population ages and life expectancy gets longer. In fact, as pointed out by the National Institute of Nursing Research, approximately 80% of people age 65 and older have at least one chronic illness, such as heart disease, diabetes, or arthritis, and that the number of older adults with multiple chronic illnesses is substantial.
Those changing demographics have made nursing professionals more important than ever, and travel nurses have helped fill in the gaps when short-staffed healthcare institutions haven’t been able to keep up.
Perhaps no single milestone has affected the growth of travel nursing than the passing of the Affordable Care Act. It’s estimated that an additional 8 million people signed up for health insurance in 2014. In fact, Keiser Health News reports that the demand for travel nursing has reached a 20-year high as a result.
At the same time, other factors have been in play, including the aforementioned aging population, shortages in healthcare staffing, regulatory changes, and an improving economy, says AMN Healthcare, a travel-nurse agency. Its CEO, Susan Salka, says requests from hospitals for travel nurses have doubled or tripled in recent years. This has been especially true for hospitals that have seen their profits rise thanks to an expansion of Medicaid.
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Although the nation has been through a nursing shortage before, it’s only expected to get worse in the coming decade. As per the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it is expected that there will be 1.2 million vacancies for registered nursing jobs between 2014 and 2022 as older nurses retire. With fewer nurses and more need for them, something has got to give.
It could very well end up that medical centers begin to rely more and more on travel nurses and other contracted workers since it’s a cost-effective solution for them.
Only time will tell, but for anyone considering going the travel nursing route, these trends are worth watching.
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For many years, Americans heard that there was a big shortage of nurses. But is there still a nursing shortage?
“In today’s world, that answer is both yes and no,” says Peter Buerhaus, professor of nursing and director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Workforce Studies at Montana State University, Bozeman.
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Everyone knows that there are more and more people coming into the health system. And that explosion comes from all the millions of aging Baby Boomers and the thousands and thousands of new people who got health insurance through the Affordable Care Act.
Buerhaus and fellow researchers have looked into the nursing shortage through the years, and it has improved in many areas but not all. Their recent study results appear in the September issue of Medical Care, the official journal of the American Public Health Association.
“We still project the nation will have a shortage of around 130,000 nurses by 2025, which is by no means a small number. But it’s not the overwhelming shortage that we had once anticipated,” he says.
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During the recession in 2007 and 2008, national initiatives prompted many women and men to enter nursing programs because jobs were plentiful and nursing programs were growing across the country.
Now that nurses who are Baby Boomers will be retiring in the next 10-15 years that leaves more openings for the younger generations.
The average age of the RN nurse force is 44.4 years old this year. Buerhaus’ research shows that the overall number of registered nurse will increase from about 2.7 million in 2013 to 3.3 million by 2030 – only if new nurses enter the workforce at the current high rates. However, the growth in nursing school enrollment experienced in the 2000s already has leveled off.
“This probably isn’t a significant shortage at all. But regionally and in some markets, there is a big shortage of nurses,” he says. “Many rural areas are where you more likely will find shortages.”
Buerhaus pays attention to the statistics of AMN Healthcare, a national nursing staffing agency service.
“They are having a great year. Where they are the most active is probably highly correlated with shortages. There are shortages in Tulsa, Oklahoma and parts of Texas, California and Florida,” he says.
Another reason shortages could get worse than predicted is that people can’t get into nursing schools. According to a report by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) titled 2014-2015 Enrollment and Graduations in Baccalaureate and Graduate Programs in Nursing, U.S. nursing schools turned away nearly 70,000 qualified applicants from baccalaureate and graduate nursing programs in 2014. The reasons were due to an insufficient number of faculty, clinical sites, classroom space, clinical preceptors and budget constraints.
“The greatest myth about the nursing shortage is that it is the result of a failure to recruit new individuals into the profession. Not true,” says Deborah Trautman, president /CEO of AACN, headquartered in Washington, D.C. More than 150,000 people entered the workforce as new RNs in 2013 compared to only 68,000 in 2001.
“At AACN, we are most troubled by the shortage of nurses prepared at the baccalaureate and graduate levels since research shows that having enough of these nurses is important to lower patient mortality rates, reducing medication errors and realizing other positive care outcomes,” says Trautman, president /CEO of AACN, headquartered in Washington, D.C.
Right now, only 55 percent of the registered nurse population is prepared at the baccalaureate or higher degree level. Faculty shortages at nursing schools across the country are limiting student capacity at a time when the need for professional registered nurses continues to grow.
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Buerhaus says that the nursing shortage can be a big plus for traveling nurses. Hospitals and clinics sometimes raise their pay scale to attract temporary nurses to fill the vacancies without committing to full-time employees. And when the budgets of any healthcare facility are constrained, it makes economic sense to hire traveling employees because they don’t have to make long-term commitments, he says.
The shortage of nurses in some areas is prominent and growing. In other areas, well-qualified nurses are abundant.
Having too few nurses available to provide care anywhere can impact many people and their ability to access essential services and the quality of care, Trautman states. That’s why nursing organizations, heads of healthcare companies and nursing colleges are working hard to assure that good, qualified and educated nurses are available to help people in all their healthcare needs.
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There are a lot of compassionate people in the world, but in my opinion nurses go above and beyond the typical standards of compassion. Here are some reasons why nurses prove they are hardwired to care for those need.
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Yes, nurses are awesome! We value the time we are able to spend helping people both professionally and personally. Nurses who work in the hospitals generally work three 12 hour shifts, during the work week allowing us to spend time with loved ones outside of work.
During those twelve hour shifts we are fully devoted to our patients. Bottom line is that nurses love helping people. It is one of our natural abilities as nurses.
Having a flexible work schedule allows us to help both patients and our loved ones. I have often been known to use the phrase that I am in the business of “people helping people.”
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Nurses show compassion by handling difficult and complex situations while maintaining a calm and professional manner. This is because we are constantly thrown into unpredictable and chaotic situations. Some of these situations are often medical emergencies.
We consistently train, practice and unfortunately have to take part in emergent situations while giving care to people. The next time you see a nurse jumping into an emergent situation or simply helping you out with a really bad cut to your finger, take notice at our overall calm demeanor.
With years and years of practice, it becomes very natural for us to handle difficult situations calmly and effectively.
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We have this ability where we can smile and hold our breath at the same time, without anyone noticing or picking up on it. The more experienced nurses can even talk while doing this. I know it sounds crazy but when you are caring for a person that is often helpless and is covered with bodily fluids, you quickly learn the smile and hold your breath technique.
We show our compassion by helping patients without making them feel uncomfortable, but we are human and do have noses that are exposed to a lot of bad smells. So trust me when I say we can handle any gross and fowl smelling thing you present to us. Don’t worry or ever feel embarrassed, odds are we have probably seen and smelled a lot worse.
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All of the above mentioned traits are but just a few reasons why nurses are compassionate. We have to be, afterall we are in the business of people helping people.
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Someone would think that after four years of college that a person would have some idea of what their profession would entail; this was not the case for me. I’m pretty sure that my new grad years were more educational than all of my years spent in college. Here is what I learned my first year nursing.
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Anatomy and physiology, chemistry and biology classes all contain interesting factoids, but in the real world, they didn’t really apply to my daily work life. The real skills like understanding when someone needs an intervention, navigating family dynamics and time management are all learned on the job and with experience.
Relying on yours or other people’s memories can lead to mistakes. Always reference drip rates, drugs, drug interactions or anything else you don’t know with actual evidence based reference material.
I learned to never say “quiet” or “slow” when referring to my night and I would resent anyone who told me my assignment would be easy. Full moons are the real deal and so is Friday the 13th.
Especially when it comes to assessing patients, looking at EKGs and organizing your day. It may take time to develop but it ensures you don’t skip a beat. Organize your day in a way that works best for you, not your co-worker.
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If someone tells you that insulin drops their blood sugar and they request not to have it then don’t give it to them. I made this mistake early on.
I didn’t actually learn how to trust my gut until a few years later but I definitely felt my gut yelling at me on multiple occasions as a new grad. Your first reaction is usually the right one. Learn to listen to it.
There is nothing worse than feeling like you have no one to turn to in the midst of a crisis. Finding someone who is kind, supportive, patient, compassionate, has a positive attitude and a good sense of humor is very important.
You can have the worst patients on earth but as long as you have great personal relationships with your coworkers and good teamwork, then any night no matter how crazy, won’t be that terrible.
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There are people in this world who are in a mental or emotional place where they just don’t have the desire or ability to better their situation.
Whether it be quitting drinking, smoking or changing their eating habits, the most you can do for someone is to educate and not judge them. When they are ready to make the change they will. It is not up to you to do it for them.
Your coworkers are your greatest resource. If you think your patient doesn’t look good but can’t put a finger on it then ask one of your coworkers for a second opinion. Nursing is a never ending learning experience. You will NEVER know everything. If you need help than ask for it.
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My first year post grad year of nursing was both exciting and humbling. There was a tremendous learning curve that was extremely stressful and overwhelming at times. Mistakes were made, tears were shed and judgements were formed; all of which affect my nursing practice to this day.
The first year in the trenches was the hardest but it was also the most memorable. I saved a life, witnessed a death and made more friends than I had ever before, all in my first year nursing.
I could probably go on forever about the reasons I love travel nursing, but I’ll narrow it down to my favorites. Here are my top 8 favorite things about living this lifestyle.
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In my opinion, the best part about travel nursing is the opportunity to see the country while getting paid. You get to experience everything from small, one-stoplight towns to sprawling, congested cities.
So many people never get a chance to explore much outside of their home-state but in five years my husband and I have seen 46 of the 50 states – most we would have never thought of going to if it weren’t for travel nursing.
Traveling and seeing the country creates the coolest life of excitement and adventure. There definitely isn’t anything routine or mundane about this lifestyle. It is unpredictable and loads of fun!
We all have those moments where it feels like we are just waiting for time to pass with not much excitement in our day-to-day lives. As a traveler, there isn’t time for boredom.
One of the best parts of being a travel nurse is there is no such thing as a typical day. It is an ever-changing, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of life.
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This one is pretty self-explanatory, but usually, travel nurses make more than staff nurses. How much more depends on location and contract. The tax-free benefits and free housing are awesome perks too!
The experience you can gain as a travel nurse is priceless. My husband, Skyler feels like he is a much better nurse now than what he would be if we hadn’t started traveling five years ago.
He has worked with some of the top doctors and nurses in the country at some of the top hospitals in the country. He has seen how to perform the same tasks multiple different ways. He has learned new procedures/methods/ways of doing things/etc.
Being a travel nurse has provided him with invaluable experience and made him a very confident, flexible, and competent nurse.
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My husband and I have made friends all around the country since we started traveling. There is a special bond between nurses so it is always exciting to connect with other travelers!
Thanks to social media, it is easy to stay connected with all of our new friends from everywhere.
One of our goals when we started traveling was to experience living situations and locations that we probably wouldn’t have been able to experience had we not traveled and probably won’t get to experience once we are done traveling.
We have always wanted to experience living ocean front, so for one assignment we lived on The Strand in Hermosa Beach, CA, which was incredible. Similarly, we wanted to experience the true downtown lifestyle, so we lived in the Gaslamp District in San Diego, CA.
We know that in real life, once we are done traveling, we want to live in a farm house in the country, but we both still had the desire to experience other living arrangements and travel nursing is one of the only ways I can think of to test drive so many with no long-term commitment. Plus, it has helped us to feel confident in knowing what we do and do not want when we buy or build our next home.
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This might not sound like a big deal, but just think of how cool it is to live in whatever climate you choose to live in year-round. We tend to fancy a nice and mild 60-80 degree range so a lot of our travels have taken this into consideration.
We have spent winters in Arizona and Florida and summers in Seattle. When we started missing the snow we decided to take a winter assignment in Boston.
It is truly awesome to enjoy your favorite season all year round!
Travel nursing can be hard because you are away from friends, family and places that you are familiar with. But the beauty in that is that it forces you to become truly independent and self-sufficient. It builds confidence and can strengthen your relationship(s) if you are traveling with a partner or family.
There are so many wonderful things about travel nursing, far too many to list. Traveling in itself is an amazing experience, but traveling the country while doing what you love…that is unbeatable.
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One tip I would recommend to all travelers is try to take time to enjoy and actually explore new locations as you travel to and from assignments.
My husband Skyler and I began travel nursing solely for the travel. We knew upfront that the way we planned to do things wouldn’t necessarily be aligned with maximizing income. Our top priority was to see our beautiful country and get paid to do it! What a cool, once-in-a-lifetime type of opportunity, right?!
Skyler and I have now been to 46 states in five years. No, we haven’t had 46 separate assignments, but we have taken the time to enjoy our road trips to and from assignments, and we have done lots of exploring in and around our new “homes” on each and every assignment.
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The first way we make sure to get as much out of our adventures as possible is to take our time going to and from assignments. Now, that isn’t always possible of course. There have certainly been times when we had to book it to get from point A to point B in time for a new start date, but our general rule of thumb was to give ourselves at least a couple extra days in between to site-see along the way.
I LOVE road tripping! I typically plug in our start and end points into Mapquest, check out the route, figure out convenient stopping points to break up the drive, and then start filling in fun things to see and do along the way.
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On our very first road trip from Missouri to California we stopped at The Big Texan in Amarillo, Texas (home of the 72oz steak challenge). Skyler chickened out on the challenge but it was a neat stop nonetheless.
Our next stop was a day in Albuquerque, New Mexico where we explored Old Town and rode the 2.7 mile Sandia Peak Aerial Tram at sunset, experiencing some breathtaking views.
From there we stopped off in Phoenix, Arizona where we spent a couple of days golfing and relaxing by the pool.
Then, before making the final trek to Los Angeles we stopped off in San Diego to see our friends and be with them the night their son was born. We did all of that in less than a week, and got to see and do so much along the way. It was the perfect way to kick off our travel nursing adventures.
On our way to Seattle we spent some time checking out Portland, Oregon, including Voodoo Doughnuts. On our way from Washington back to Missouri we stopped at the Little Bighorn Battlefield in Montana, as well as Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse in South Dakota. We also happened to be driving through during the Sturgis bike rally, so that was an experience all in itself.
As you can see, we really try to make the most of our travels to and from assignments. I would say we try to site see on at least half of our road trips. The other half we end up being in a hurry or on a budget crunch so just get there as quickly as possible. Just like with anything in life, it’s all about balance.
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We also like making the most of our new surroundings while on assignment with mini vacations and day trips. Once we know where we are going I get busy researching the entire surrounding area and start planning our next adventure.
We try to see and do a wide variety of things. We take city tours, visit museums, go to various sporting events, try out raved restaurants, hit up the popular and even the less known sites, festivals, markets, etc. We like to really feel like we are getting a good idea of what life is like in a particular area.
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One thing to note with all of this gallivanting around the country is that it definitely is not cheap. We accepted before we ever started that we weren’t going to get rich off of travel nursing. We wanted the adventure and excitement of it all and that, of course, takes money. You have to be smart about it so you don’t go backwards financially while you are traveling.
We have a working budget that I keep saved in an Excel spreadsheet. When I plan activities I try to spread them out based on expense. If we have a five day trip planned to see and do as much as possible in NYC one week, then the next couple of weeks we might take it easy by doing low budget or free things.
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The average 13 week assignment flies by much faster than you might anticipate, especially if you are living it up like we do. I recommend making a list of your must see places, another for places that you would love to see if it works out, and one list of places that sound interesting but you’re kind of indifferent to then try to plan it out as best as possible.
Schedule the bigger, more expensive road trips that are on your must list first. Then, based on time availability and your budget, start fitting in the other things that you want to do.
I write all of the details into my planner. As soon as we get his schedule I write it into my planner. Then I find where he has several chunks of days off together and write in those bigger trips and must do’s and of course anything that is date/time specific. I also include how much I anticipate it to cost (including food, lodging, gas, entertainment, etc.).
After I schedule our must see’s, I write a list of those things that sound neat but we aren’t going to worry one way or the other if we make it or not. It’s nice to have options if you wind up having a day where you want to do something but don’t have anything planned. Often times they wind up being an unexpected awesome day!
However you go about planning things, just make sure that you live up your time as a travel nurse and get the most out of the experience. Not many people are as blessed as those of us that get to travel for a living so we owe it to ourselves to have as many awesome experiences as possible! Ask your new co-workers what they recommend doing, do your homework, and get to exploring!
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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.
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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…
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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!
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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!
