I am an experienced OR Nurse (over 35 years) and also an experienced Traveling Nurse. I have been permanent for the last three years and I am considering traveling again. I would like to know how the travel nurse industry is holding up (in our current economic situation) in terms of getting contracts that will allow the nurse to continue to be employed full-time within a travel nurse setting. In other words, is it realistically possible to get three to four contracts per year which would constitute full-time hours?

Ask a Travel Nurse Answer:

Hello.  As you might already know, 2009 was a bad year for the traveler with assignments down almost 50%. The following year was a “bounce back” year, but things were certainly not up to their pre-2009 state. In 2011, we only continued the climb, but I’d say that with hospitals around the nation facing state and federal cutbacks, we are not going to see anything like pre-2009 for a long time.

However, one thing remains and will continue for a LONG time. We are still in a nursing shortage, that by all accounts, will only continue to worsen. That means staffing needs throughout the country.

If you still have inactive (or active) licenses in a few states, you will be ahead of the game. The major thing is that needs are more immediate and the quicker you can interview, accept, and have license in hand, the better off you will be. Many travelers will now obtain their license before interviewing in a particular state (I believe all the travel agencies I use will still reimburse for that license if it is used on an assignment with them, even after the fact).

You might also need to be more flexible in assignment locations and if you were not using several agencies before, I recommend everyone be on file with at least two or three (I am currently on file with about 6 or 7).

So, if you understand how the market has changed, you should still expect to be able to work on a full time basis. Most of my years as a traveler have been spent on multiple extensions or repeat locations to help me limit my gap time, but you should still be able to keep traveling full time even if you need a change of venue every 13 weeks.

Hope this helps.

David
TravelNursesBible.com
david@travelnursesbible.com

When your recruiter calls you, you will want to take the chance to verify the information about the travel nursing job and verify the details of the contract. At this point you should have already discussed the position details, benefits and pay thoroughly with your travel nurse recruiter (see Ultimate Travel Nurse Checklist #15) and have no surprises about it, but this is still your chance to follow-up and make sure that everything you have discussed is still accurate. You will need to verify the following pieces of information about your travel nursing job are in alignment with what you have been told:

• Name and location of the assignment
• Unit you’ll be working in
• Assignment start and end dates
• Shift and hours you are being hired to work
• Assignment pay rate (with any overtime and holiday rates included)
• Travel money to be paid at the start or end of your assignment
• Any other bonuses to be paid by the facility or travel nursing company
• Any deducted amounts from your pay for any health, dental, vision, or other company benefit plans
• Special pay rates (i.e. on-call or charge pay)
• Whether the travel nursing company is providing housing or what the monthly amount is to be paid for a housing allowance
• Any scheduling requirements you need to be aware of

Hopefully you are not being submitted for a travel nursing job you don’t plan on taking, so if after going over all the job and contract details everything matches up, you will need to let them know that you have officially accepted the assignment and sign the travel nursing contract. The travel nursing contract will probably be faxed or emailed to you and need returned as soon as possible so the hospital can confirm that the you are indeed taking the job and they can close it.

However in the instance that you did not get offered the travel nursing job the part of the process of getting submitted to a travel nursing job will have to start over at least partially. But the key is not to get discouraged. The next installment of the Ultimate Travel Nursing Checklist will lay out some tips to help you with that.

Finding the right travel nursing recruiter is something you can either let happen by accident or you take a proactive approach and ask the right kind of questions to make sure you find the best recruiter for your personality.

The relationship you have with your recruiter needs to be one based on trust and respect, so make sure you take the time to learn as much as you can about them before you enter a travel nursing job. It also definitely helps the success of your travel nursing job if you like your recruiter too. Travel nurses can come to rely on their recruiters for a lot during the course of an assignment, so it is not a relationship to be taken too lightly. That’s why I came up with this list of questions you can ask when you are talking to new recruiters to get to know them better:

1. How long have you been working in the travel nursing industry?
2. How many years have you been recruiting?
3. Are you going to be my recruiter the whole time I work with your company?
4. How many travel nurses do you work with right now?
5. What is the max number of travel nurses you are allowed to work with?
6. What is the standard travel nurse to recruiter ratio at your travel nursing company?
7. Tell me something about your background? Where did you go to school? Where did you grow up? Etc.
8. How many times a week will I talk to you?
9. How are you going to contact me? Email? Phone? Text? Etc.
10. What sets you apart from other recruiters?
11. How do your help your travel nurses succeed?
12. What made you want to work for this travel nurse company?
13. What is it about this company that you like? Dislike? Is there anything you would change? 
14. What’s your favorite color?

What about you? Are there any questions you have used to qualify or get to know your recruiter better?

The first thing you should do if you are notified that your contract is cancelled, or might be cancelled, is to notify your recruiter. In travel nursing, the contract that you sign is between you and your travel company. So in fact, the contract of employment that the hospital will be terminating is the one they have with your travel company. Therefore, you need to get your company in on what may be happening. If your contract has already been terminated, it might actually be your company that is notifying you of the termination. Either way, your company is the one that has established your contract of work and should have answers for you, or, if they are also in the dark about the termination, be the ones who can get the answers for you.

Whatever the cause, if you find that your contract will be terminated and you won’t in fact be returning to work, contact your recruiter immediately. If you are able to stay in the area for another thirteen week contract, ask your recruiter if there are any other travel assignments in the area. I was terminated in L.A. and my recruiter had me interviewed, accepted, and back to work in one week’s time. Now you must understand that this was L.A. and you might not find a dozen jobs waiting for you if your contract was in Boise, Idaho. However, you might find something close that will enable you to continue work without having to return home.

The next thing you might consider is working registry or agency if your travel company has this option. Some travel companies also have a division that runs like a temp agency and might be able to find you work in the area that will let you finish out your contract. If your company does not offer this, you might be able to find a local agency that staffs the area hospitals and would allow you to finish the time you have left in the area. The reason you might want to do this is because it is possible, depending on the reason for the termination, that your travel nursing company could hold you responsible for payment of the remaining time on the lease (if you have company housing). All of this is of course dependent on your situation and there are about a thousand variables in any given situation.

While having a contract terminated can be a horrible thing to happen, it is not the end of the world. Talk to your recruiter immediately and find out your options. There are too many different things that can happen when a contract is terminated to cover every given situation (in my book, I devote about eleven pages to this single subject). The key is open communication with everyone involved to see what can be done. You might never have the unfortunate situation of having a contract cancelled, but hopefully you now have a few ideas on where to start should it happen to you.

Travel nursing is often a temporary position with most assignments lasting only thirteen weeks in duration. Many times there is the opportunity to extend or even take another thirteen week contract, but again, this is often a temporary fix for the facility.

Now I have seen some travel postings for positions as a charge nurse or even a nursing supervisor, but these are not the norm and to expect to travel extensively in such a position is not realistic. Most travel positions are for nurses at the bedside.

Once you get into a position like the aforementioned Director of ER, you are typically looking at a position that will be filled internally. Travelers are usually foreign workers to a facility. That is to say that the facility often has no idea what type of employee you will be. You might have a great work record and great experience, but as a traveler, you are often hired after a simple telephone interview and a few credentials on a piece of paper. For such an important position as the one we mentioned, I cannot see a hospital wanting to invest in someone without a face-to-face interview, and, someone who might only be there for a thirteen week duration. Can you imagine how chaotic your unit would be if you had a new manager every thirteen weeks?

Again, these positions are not impossible to come by, but they do take an effort to track them down. If you wished to try to travel exclusively in any position away from the bedside, make sure you are signed up with quite a few travel companies that will enable you to have many options when it comes time for a new assignment.

Two great resources for tax information for the traveler are Kobaly.com and Traveltax.com. The later of these two is the site of Joseph Smith who actually contributed content to my book in the chapter on taxes. Joseph was actually once a traveling professional himself and has quite a bit of information posted on his website.

Since everyone will have different circumstances under which they travel, you should always seek the information that is specific to your situation. If you require more assistance, I always recommend finding a tax professional like the two mentioned above.

Send us your “Ask a Travel Nurse Question”

Your travel nursing agency will be contacting the hospital on your behalf trying to convince them that you are the best candidate to meet their needs. And sometimes this is not just based on years of experience alone. So don’t get too worried. Travel nursing is such a unique job and good travel nurse candidates have a few different characteristics than just what makes a good nurse. For instance a nurse with 5 years travel experience out of 8 years of nursing experience may have the edge over a first time travel nurse with 20 years nursing experience, or a nurse who has already worked in a particular part of the country may have an edge over a nurse who didn’t. It all just depends on the hospital’s needs.

Depending on how the hospital is set up and how many travel nursing companies they work with, two basic processes will be going on while you are waiting to hear from the hospital.  Either a staffing or HR manager will look over your profile, one among anywhere from 10 to 40 other candidates (less companies means less competition for you) and decide which ones meet the needs that the nurse unit manager has told her she has for the position. She will usually narrow this down to the top three or so and and them to the nursing manager to evaluate and/or interview. If the hospital is smaller the nurse unit manager is more likely to be in direct contact with the travel nursing agency eliminating the go between, but leaving her with more profiles to evaluate. Either of these situations means you will have to sit and wait a little until you get your travel nursing interview, but don’t take it as a time to veg, instead use it to prepare so that you can blow the hiring nurse manager away during your interview.

One of the first and obvious differences of a travel nursing interview versus a traditional interview is that it will be done over the phone. For some nurses that is a cause to breathe easy, for others it is a cause to panic.  If you are the latter don’t worry we have done several posts here at TravelNursingBlogs.com full of great travel nursing interview tips, so rather than rehash them all here are the links:

Travel Nursing Job Interview Tips
All the ingredients to a great interview
Are you ready for the five types of nursing interviews?

Overall when it comes to interviewing for a travel nursing job the key is to be confident of your skills and not to get nervous. Taking the time to prepare will help you a ton in this regard.

Keep an eye out for the next step in the Ultimate Travel Nursing Checklist installment; accepting the travel nursing job.

Sure you can always rely on the permanent nurses at the hospital where your travel nursing assignment is, which is great. As locals they probably know who to go to and who to stay away from, but for those times when they are not around or you don’t have a chance to do your own research, then check out Angie’s List. It is a consumer review site where actual people like you, not anonymous marketers in disguise, review local services like:
 
HOME
Carpet Cleaning
Electrical
Handymen
Heating & A/C
Housecleaning
Painting
Plumbing
Remodeling
Roofing
Windows

OUTDOOR
Bicycles
Fencing
Landscaping
Lawn Irrigation
Lawn Mower Repair
Lawn Treatment
Lawn & Yard Work
Mulch & Topsoil
Pool & Spa Service
Tree Service

HEALTH
Dentists
Dermatologists
Elder Care
Hospitals
OBGYN
Ophthalmologists
Pediatricians
Plastic Surgeons
Primary Care
Psychiatrists

AND MUCH MORE…
Catering
Child Care
Dance Instruction
Fitness Centers
Hair Salon/Barbers
Jewelery Sales & Repair
Limousine Service
Manicures/Pedicures
Massage Therapy

You do have to pay but the cost is not all that much ($20 a year at the most or $2.60 a month) really. If you are career travel nurse, it is just another service you need to make your travel nursing life easier. 

They have a quick tour and an extensive FAQ section you can take a look at before you decide if it is for you, but I definitely recommend taking a look if you are not one of those fortunate travel nurses who have zero of life’s little problems on their travel nursing assignments.

Who of us out there hasn’t dreamt of the possibility of being our own boss? This is especially true for those of us travel nurses who have an idea of just how much our agencies are charging the hospital for our services. So after a few years on the road, I imagine most travelers start to ask themselves, “Why can’t I just go it on my own?” If you know where to start, any traveler willing to spend the time and effort can gain more freedom through independent contracting.

Let me start off by saying that for most traveling nurses, this should only be a consideration after a few years of travel nursing. After all, if eliminating the middle man (the travel nursing company), was the best solution for everyone, then why wouldn’t we all be doing it? Travel companies do earn a living directly off the hours you work, but their function is not solely to be another entity that is digging into your pocket. Let’s take a quick look at why a travel company should be entitled to some of your pay.

First, your travel nursing company has already done the legwork of securing relationships with many hospital systems all over the country. This is why you can simply call them up, tell them where you want to go, and have your recruiter give you a list of all the assignments they have in that area. Their contacts open you up to hundreds of positions throughout the country. This alone is a very useful tool in finding a travel nurse position and one that can be very time consuming for those who independently contract.

Next, a travel nursing company will secure the items that enable you to work in all those different part of the country. This can include finding (and paying for) your housing, your health insurance, travel expenses, licensure, medical malpractice insurance, and even 401K plans with company contribution. Are all of these things something you can do on your own? Certainly, but how many phone calls will it take to accomplish all this compared to just one to your travel company to get the ball rolling.

So, travel nursing companies do provide a service, but obviously, they do so at a premium (a good portion of your pay). Travel companies are the way many travelers do business. But, for those who want to see more of their pay going into their pocket, there are some options when it comes to travel nursing. 

One of the first things you will need to do as an independent contractor is decide just how independent you want to be. If you want to do everything for yourself, obviously there will be more work involved. However, if you wanted to test the waters a bit, there are agencies out there that fall somewhere in between being a conventional “travel nurse agency” and letting the nurse be a totally independent entity. These agencies already have established relationships with hospital systems and can reduce the start-up workload, but they will also ultimately decrease the amount of your salary that you will keep for yourself.

If you have your mind set on being totally independent from any outside agency, then your research will need to cover much more than I could ever provide in this column. Furthermore, although I have dabbled a bit with independent contracting, there are those out there far more knowledgeable than I. Being a good advice columnist is not always about having the answers, but knowing where to find them.

Probably the best site I can recommend would be the Independent Nurses page on Delphi forums. The page is moderated by NedRN who has compiled an extensive FAQ section that can be found under the “useful link” part of the site. He has written many useful tips in getting started in the world of independent contracting. When I wrote to Ned about how the economy has affected independent contractors, he echoed what most travel nurse agencies are saying these days, “less work available and more competition for fewer assignments”. However, independent contracting still remains an option for those nurses wanting to take more control of their travel careers. 

Honestly, I am just way too fond of my free time to devote much of it to learning what needs to be done to be an independent contractor. However, for those of you with the initiative, it can be a very lucrative prospect. Start with the website I mentioned and read all the information and posts. Also, don’t be afraid to email other members asking for help or advice. If you are willing to put forth the time and effort, any travel nurse can be on their way to becoming an independent contractor.

The concept of hiring registered nurses that travel in their hometown or across the country developed in the 1980s when the healthcare industry realized that there was a serious shortage of nurses. At that time travel nurses were considered a short-term fix for states like Arizona and California where there were not enough local nurses available to staff vacant hospital positions. What was originally meant to be a short term solution for hospitals that were short staffed turned into an industry, which consists of countless travel nursing companies who offer thousands of positions to nurses who have at least 1 to 3  years of experience in the nursing profession.

Travel nurses are independent, competent and flexible. They love challenges and are problem solvers, who usually have a great deal of experience. Travel nursing positions are very attractive for several reasons. The assignments can be as short as three months or in some cases they can turn into a full time position. The financial benefits aren’t bad either. RN’s can average anywhere from $30 to $40 per hour and overtime can be time and a half or double time, depending on the location of the hospital. Some living expenses are covered, but there are some out of pocket expenses. The lodging expense allowance is usually around $800 per month. Insurance and retirement benefits and the flexible schedules that are included in some travel agreements make the concept an excellent choice for nurses who want to see other parts of the country and in certain situations, other parts of the world and get paid doing it.

If I am an RN do I need a BSN to become a travel nurse?

As long as a nurse has a current RN license in the state where they will be employed or the new state honors your current license and you have at least 1 to 3 years of experience plus you’re current on all certifications in your specialty and have completed a health exam, a drug test, immunization requirements and have at least 3 solid references and pass a criminal background check, then you qualify for a position as a travel nurse. Some travel nurses do pursue an online BSN because the travel position gives them the freedom to continue studying in order to increase their benefits and compensation.

Travel nurse’s fall into four categories: Independent contractor, travel nurse, agency nurse and registry nurse. The independent contractor works with human resource departments directly and creates their own deal with a hospital. A travel nurse works through a travel nursing agency to secure a travel position. An agency nurse will work on a casual basis and is able to sign up for work on very short notice regardless of the location and the registry nurse who is falls into the category of a agency nurse but only works locally and is usually managed by a nursing agency. All four categories have enough free time available to enroll in an online BSN program because they all offer flexibility and most online courses can be completed in less than 4 years.

What are the advantages to earning a BSN?

The difference between an RN and a BSN may not be noticeable to the patient, but the additional technical training as well as the education gained, plus the potential to advance in the healthcare industry are worth the time and money. A nurse with a BSN reviews research papers, works with medical leaders in their healthcare facility and are candidates for management positions which include head nurse, assistant director, director and other high level positions within the organization. A BSN degree also helps a nurse move into the business aspect of nursing. A nurse with a BSN can become a manager of a pharmaceutical company or an insurance company as well as other healthcare organizations.

Is it hard to find an online program?

There are over 700 RN to BSN online programs available. Employers usually have tuition reimbursement programs, which can be an incentive to study online, but the biggest incentive to continue a nursing education is the personal satisfaction of advancing professionally using intellectual and technological skills. Once a BSN degree is achieved an online MSN and a doctorate are the next steps in developing critical leadership skills which completely change your personal dynamics not only in the travel nursing industry, but in any area of the healthcare industry.

For more information on a nursing education online, make sure to visit DegreeFinders.com which is your online guide to careers.

This can start to be a chore if you are licensed in many different states. I have held licenses in close to a dozen states, but might only use two or three in any given two year period (the time for which most state licenses are valid before renewal). This makes the process somewhat easier as I will usually only have to concentrate on the mandates of a few states. However, if you hop from state to state frequently, it can be a bit more challenging, but still manageable.

My best recommendation is to keep a log somewhere of all your state license information. For each state, write down your license number, when it expires, contact information for the board of nursing (including website address), and the continuing education requirements (including number of hours and any special requirements). Then as each state comes up for renewal, decide if you are going to keep you license active, or place it on inactive status. Some states will require you to pay even to keep your license on inactive status. I usually just let my licenses expire unless I am headed back soon.

I have completed an assignment years later in a few of the states in which I had let a license expire. All that was required of me was to sign something attesting that I had met the CEU requirements and send the board their fee to reinstate the license. Even though this worked for me in two separate states, please do not assume it will work in every state. Call the nursing board for each individual state if you have any questions on what their process would be for reinstatement after a license lapses.

The easiest way to meet all your education requirements is to join a website that offers nursing CEU’s online. You can either buy a set number of hours (one website is currently offering 30 CEU’s for $30) or join a website that offers unlimited CEU’s for a certain duration (another website currently offers $31.95 for one year unlimited). State mandates on education vary drastically and some states do not require them at all. The most hours you will find on a two year license at present is 30 (however Iowa requires 36 for renewal of a three year license). If you ever have any question on a state’s requirements, contact the state board directly.

Joining a website is probably the easiest way to manage your CEU’s. If you were to carry three licenses in different states (one requiring 15 units of CEU’s, one requiring 24 CEU’s, and the last requiring 30 CEU’s), you could possibly satisfy all three state’s licensing requirements by completing 30 CEU’s online.

However, if you choose to take your CEU’s online, you must check and make sure that your nursing board will accept CEU’s from that vendor. Not ALL online CEU’s are accepted in each state. Typing “nursing CEU’s” in any search engine should bring up a list of a few of the major sites that are accepted by virtually every state.

One last thing you must check is if the state requires any special courses to meet their education requirement. For example, my home state of Ohio requires 24 CEU’s for renewing a license, but at least one contact hour must deal with Ohio Laws and Rules. In Kentucky, one hour must deal with domestic violence and in Oregon one hour must deal with pain management. Some states have several hours of specific course titles that must be taken to renew your license. Once again, if you ever have questions regarding a particular state’s education requirements, contact the state board of nursing.

Multiple state licensure can be a challenge when it comes to CEU’s, but fifteen or twenty minutes spent keeping your information up to date can ease this burden. Also, check with your travel company as many of them now offer free CEU’s for their travelers.

While usually not an ideal assignment for a critical care nurse, if you want to get to a certain location and there are no critical care assignments, you might ask your recruiter to look for and submit you for step-down or tele positions; just be sure to tell your recruiter to let the facility know up front. But, I don’t imagine many tele or step-down managers would mind having an ICU nurse fill a position on their unit.
 
The next specialty just follows down that line. A tele nurse might not like working med-surg, but certainly should be able to deliver care competently in that environment. If you are having trouble finding assignments as a tele nurse, ask your recruiter to expand their search to include med-surg assignments.
 
Another thing that you should already have done if you are scrambling for an assignment is to join another agency (actually, join three, four, or five). Right now while assignment listings are in short supply, you want to utilize every resource you can in finding a travel contract.

This usually occurs with those of us who have had many years in nursing, but have not practiced all of those years in the same specialty. The reader who wrote to me had 27 years of experience and was currently an ICU nurse. However, she also had experience in PACU and OR. She wondered if she would be able to take an assignment in OR or PACU, even though her experience was not recent.

The answer depends on a few factors; first, the agency with whom you are working. In many cases, your agency wants to get you placed in a position. While they might state that you should have recent experience, many recruiters will not have a problem submitting you for a position in which you feel comfortable working. The area in which you might run into resistance will be with the hiring facility.

Honestly, this shouldn’t ever be a big obstacle as long as you are up front with the facility. If I was the aforementioned nurse, seeking a job in PACU, I would simply state my current role and experience to the person with whom I was interviewing. I might say something like: “Although I am currently employed as an ICU nurse, I have also worked in PACU and feel that my current position has led me to keep up the skills necessary to function well in a recovery setting. Furthermore, there are instances where I have taken patients directly from the OR and recovered them in an ICU setting. I have no doubts that I would be able to function competently and independently in a PACU travel position.”

After that, it is up to the hiring facility. You have made your case for being a qualified applicant and have been forthcoming in your current experience. As long as you feel comfortable in the environment in which you are applying, why not expand your options when it comes time to take an assignment. However, if the assignment seems even a little outside your scope of practice, I would advise you to decline (even if they accept you). Being on a travel assignment, sometimes thousands of miles from home, is not the place where you want to find yourself in over your head.

Stay safe by always being up front with all those with whom you interview and use common sense in deciding whether the assignment is within your experience level.

In over a decade of travel I have had assignments where I did not want to leave and assignments where I was counting the minutes. In almost every circumstance, my mood was dependent upon the people with whom I was working.

You are dealing with personalities, pure and simple. How you fit into the mix is not necessarily dependent upon your skill as a nurse, rather your skill as a communicator. Whenever I mention interpersonal skills, I always think about Dale Carnegie’s famous book, How to Win Friends and Influence People. Truly, your interactions with your co-workers could always be defined as more of an art than a science.

You will run into the territorial nurses, the helpful nurses, the saboteurs, the knowledgeable nurses, and those who are just flying by the seat of their pants practicing in ways you have never seen. What this means to you as a traveler is that you need to develop the art of assimilation. Basically, YOU are the one charged with the task of “fitting in”.

The best advice I can give is to try to be friendly and helpful to develop the trust and respect of your new co-workers. Be receptive to the way “they do things” and whatever your personality might be, take a more passive approach if confronted with a regular staff member on a power trip. I have actually been terminated from two assignments for what amounted to nothing more than a regular staff member who decided they didn’t like me for one reason or another.

On a majority of your assignments, you will find a staff that welcomes your presence. However, knowing how to deal with different personalities will help you greatly on those assignments when the staff is somewhat less than receptive.

ePublicist provided photo

Being a current traveler, I can tell you without doubt, there are still plenty of travel positions out there. However, I am also fortunate enough to have some additional training as a critical care nurse, which brings me to the first question you should ask yourself, “Am I in a specialty in need?”

To answer this, all you need to do is look at the current postings or talk to a recruiter from a travel nursing company. Typically, positions that require specialized training are more in demand. This usually holds true for critical care positions (for both adults and children). Plus, if you have additional training, you might be able to take a position outside your specialty if needed.

For example, no one in critical care likes when they have to float to a telemetry or medical-surgical floor. But, it is always assumed that a critical care nurse should be able to do so with ease (possibly not always the case). While tele and med-surg nurses would not be considered for a travel position in an intensive care unit, there are certainly tele and med-surg units that would consider hiring a critical care nurse for a travel position in their unit. The greater number of environments in which you are able to function, the more options you will have in travel positions.

Another question you should ask yourself is, “What expectations do I have in taking a travel assignment?” While there are companies out there that have boasted their travelers have made over $100,000 a year, this is not the norm. While you can still make a very decent living as a travel nurse, you might not find the rates as high, or as many positions with completion bonuses, as you did a year ago.

If you are interested in pursuing a career in travel nursing, there are a few things you can do to help with your success. I always advise joining at least a few travel companies so you can access more postings (I am currently on file with at least a half dozen companies). Talk to the recruiters and see what hospitals and areas of the country are still posting and where they have been placing most of their travelers. No one seems to be arguing the fact that the need for nurses will continue to rise and while the current climate has forced a few changes in the industry, I don’t think I’ll ever live to see a time when I cannot find a position as a travel nurse.

As always, feel free to click on the “Ask a Travel Nurse” banner to submit your questions regarding travel nursing.

When you’re on the road, you can’t really worry about improving your house to increase equity. You don’t worry about job promotions or raises. You live from assignment to assignment. It’s that simple.

So if I can leave you with one last piece of advice for your travel nursing career, it would be this: learn to enjoy the journey.

• When you’re traveling to and from assignments, enjoy the drive. Don’t just try to get from A to B as quickly as possible. If you’re driving through Wisconsin, stop at a farm to pick apples. If you’re driving through California, detour to a state park on the beach and take a private walk along the coast of the Pacific. If you’re driving through Arkansas, stop at the welcome center and enjoy a free cup of coffee, a roaring fire, and all the information you could ever want about The Natural State. Driving from assignment to assignment can either be a boring task or a relaxing vacation.
• When you’re on assignment, take the time to soak in the culture of wherever you are. Each state, each city, each town is different. Eat at local diners, hike the state parks, and visit an art gallery featuring local artists. Very few people get the opportunity to spend three months at a time in various cities across the country. Learn about the history of each place. Meet as many people as possible.
• Finally, enjoy your rare time at home. It’s so easy to fall into the world of to-do lists when you finally make it back home. Between unpacking, repacking, car tune-ups, and the long lists of people to visit, time at home can quickly become nothing more than a stressful stop on the way to your next destination. Don’t let it be that way.

With all of its challenges and trials, traveling has still been the most rewarding and fun experience of my life. I wouldn’t trade this time for anything. Enjoy it.

Courtney
Adventures in Travel Nursing

We are sad to say that this was the final article in Courtney’s Guest Series. We hope to have her back some time, but in the meantime visit her blog Adventures in Travel Nursing to read more of here great insight into the travel nursing life.

I eventually settled into a routine. I would cook breakfast, clean the house, exercise, play at the pool, talk on the phone, read, and search for ways to fill the hours until Brandon got home at midnight.

It was fun in its own way, but I couldn’t handle it for long. Friends and family encouraged me to explore and sight-see on my own; but really, exploring and sightseeing is just more vacationing, and I needed a break from vacation.

So how do you fight off the boredom while on the road with your travel nurse? Here are a few tips that have helped me get past the boredom and actually start enjoying my new “career.”

• See it as your job too. There are a lot of ways that you can help your partner. Make it your job to research the assignments, look for apartments, plan your driving routes, and schedule sightseeing. Volunteer to keep up with your partner’s paperwork and deadlines.
• Develop a working relationship with your partner’s recruiter, so that you can handle some of the phone calls. Doing some of the grunt work will not only keep you occupied, it will give your partner some of that vacation time you’ve been enjoying.
• Continue pursuing your own dreams. It’s easy to fall into the trap of seeing this as your partner’s time to advance his/her career, but it can be a great time for you to work on your goals as well. Take a class at the community college, or sign up for a distance learning program. Keep learning and building a skill set that will help you in your own career.
• Use this time to do the things you’ve never had time to do before. We all have books we’ve always wanted to read or sports we’ve always wanted to try. If you’ve always wanted to get a black belt in karate, then this is the time to go for it.

Traveling with your partner can either be mind-numbingly boring, or the greatest adventure of your life. I’ve seen spouses burn out after one thirteen week assignment, simply because they were bored. Don’t fall into the same trap—this time can be incredibly rewarding. It just takes a little creativity.

Courtney
Adventures in Travel Nursing

Here is a little bit about Courtney and her husband. Courtney is a freelance writer. Her husband, Brandon, is an Emergency Department travel nurse. Courtney travels with Brandon across the country. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, photography, and painting. She keeps a blog about their travel nursing experiences at http://www.brandonandcourtney.blogspot.com, and is currently working on a book detailing the ins and outs of travel nursing.

Travel Nursing Questions List 3: About the travel nursing company

• How long has the travel nursing company been around?
• How big is your company?
• What do you feel your company has to offer that is above and beyond any other?
• What sets you apart?
• Are there nurses who can give references?
• Is someone always available to take my call?
• Can I see a blank contract?
• What makes your company better than all the other travel nursing companies out there?
• Is my travel nursing job guaranteed by written contract?
• How much will I be paid on my travel nursing assignment?
• Can you explain your mileage reimbursement policy for travel nursing assignments?
• Does the travel nursing company provide help with licensing and my other credentialing needs?
• Is there someone at the travel nursing company to talk to 24 hours a day, 7 days a week?
• Who do I talk to if my recruiter isn’t around?
• Will I only have one recruiter my entire time with the travel nursing company?
• If I want to go perm find out if there is a clause in your contract to prevent you from being hired as a perm employee?
• What are the details of the clause if there is one?
• When did your company first start up?
• What, if anything do you see is an area in which your company could work on?

If you ask these questions of the travel nursing company you are considering up front you may be able to avoid some surprises during the travel nursing assignment. Do you have any standard questions you ask that I did not mention?