Travel nursing checklist item #1

The first step in becoming a travel nurse is determining exactly why you want to travel. Is it to make more money? Do you want more control of your schedule? Are you looking for more time for yourself? Do you want to improve your current skills? Learn new ones? Are you looking to meet new people? Or, are you just wanting to see new places?
Considering the real reason or reasons you want to take a travel nursing job will help you in many of the decisions you will have to make down the road in the travel nursing process.   The first step in becoming a travel nurse is determining exactly why you want to travel. Is it to make more money? Do you want more control of your schedule? Are you looking for more time for yourself? Do you want to improve your current skills? Learn new ones? Are you looking to meet new people? Or, are you just wanting to see new places? Considering the real reason or reasons you want to take a travel nursing job will help you in many of the decisions you will have to make down the road in the travel nursing process.

Travel nursing checklist item #2

The next step in becoming a travel nurse is to figure out where you want to go. Like determining why you want to travel, knowing where you want to go will guide many of your future decisions in the early stages of your travel nursing career. Maybe you want to see new places that aren’t like your permanent home. So instead of spending the summer in muggy Mississippi you want to experience a cool New England summer in Maine. Maybe you want to spend time with family, well then obviously you will want to go where they are. The choices are endless really.

Travel nursing checklist item #3

Figure out how long you want to work on a travel nursing assignment. Most travel nursing jobs last 13 weeks, but this is not necessarily always the case. Some assignments can be either shorter or longer depending on the hospital’s needs, so make sure you know if you are willing to be away from home that long before you take an assignment. If not, you may want to find a travel nursing assignment that is a little more short term or has the potential to turn into a longer assignment if you want.    Figure out how long you want to work on a travel nursing assignment. Most travel nursing jobs last 13 weeks, but this is not necessarily always the case. Some assignments can be either shorter or longer depending on the hospital’s needs, so make sure you know if you are willing to be away from home that long before you take an assignment. If not, you may want to find a travel nursing assignment that is a little more short term or has the potential to turn into a longer assignment if you want.

Travel nursing checklist item #4

Determine who you want to travel with. Do you want to take your spouse? Are your kids coming with you? Do you want to travel with another nurse? What about pets? Each of these options present their own challenges and questions that I will look at further down the list.

Travel nursing checklist item #5

Time to think about housing. Not all travel nursing companies offer private housing, so make sure you find out early on in the travel nursing process. What you want is fully furnished and paid and private housing. After a long day at the hospital the last thing you want to deal with is a roommate you don’t know. You also want to make sure that if you decide to pick something on your own or stay with friends or family that you are offered a housing stipend instead. Here are some questions you should ask regarding housing:

Does the travel nursing company pay for housing?
Who pays for moving into the new housing?
Are the utilities paid?
Can I bring my spouse?
Can I bring my pet?
What kind of housing options are there (apartment, duplex, house)?
Where will my housing be located?
Do I have to share the house with other travel nurses?
Will my housing be furnished?
What items are included in the furnishings (microwave, television, washer & dryer, etc.)?
What happens if I decide not to live in the provided housing, but what to find my own?

Travel nursing checklist item #6

The next thing you want to look at is what kind of relationship do you want with you recruiter. Many travel nurse agencies are split up based on regions or states, so if you decide to move to another location after your first assignment is over that is outside of your recruiters region then you are forced to work with a new recruiter. However, some companies are split up based on Recruiters and Client Managers, this type of set up lets you maintain and build a great relationship with your Recruiter who knows you and your needs. I would definitely look into this before you choose a travel nursing company.

Travel nursing checklist item #7

The next thing you want to look at is the travel nursing benefits that each company offers. Different companies offer different benefits but there are some basic ones, besides compensation, you should look for. These include:   Furnished Housing
401(K)
Health Insurance
Travel Reimbursement
Licensure Reimbursement
Direct Deposit
However, many companies offer a much broader range of benefits including:   Referral bonus
Completion bonus
Sign-on bonus
Extension bonus
Free continuing education credits
Private housing

Remember though that you are still paying for these benefits one way or the other if they come in cookie cutter standard packages.  However, if the travel nursing company lets you customize your compensation package and utilize per diem allowances, then your chances to maximize your pay are much greater. That’s because you have the room to negotiate and personalize your package based on what you need. You are not forced to take a benefit that frankly doesn’t benefit you. Just another area to keep in mind on your travel nursing journey.

Travel nursing checklist item #8

The next step in your travel nursing career is to research the travel nursing company you want to work with. There are companies of all different sizes and most have a website you can look at. If you have competed the first seven steps in the Ultimate Travel Nursing Checklist you will know exactly what you are looking for when you begin the company research process. To the find the company that is right for you take your time and spend some time on their website. You want a company that takes the time to provide you with the info you need and one that has an extensive FAQs section that  answers all your questions. You also should look for one that provides you with all the resources you need to begin working with them and makes it easy to contact them.

Travel nursing checklist item #9

OK, so you would think that the next step is to apply online, but slow down. Before you start applying for any position or contacting any travel nursing company, you will want to make sure you have all your paperwork lined up. The paperwork you will need includes, but is not limited to:

• An up to date Resume
• A copy of your Nursing Licenses (especially for the state you want to work in)
• The certifications needed for your specialty
• Your Driver’s License
• Your Social Security card (front and back)
• Your BCLS (front and back)
• Two references from your supervisory or charge nurse at your most recent clinical experiences
• And all your immunization records, include the following
  MMR & Rubeola Titers /Vaccinations (New rules state that MMR be no more than 10 yrs old.)
  Hepatitis B Titers/Vaccinations
  Varicella Titer or Varicella History
  PPD within the last 12 months or Chest X-ray
  Physician Statement or physical completed with the last 12 months

You can make paper copies of all of these, but even easier is having them all in a digital format. If you don’t have a scanner at home you can run to any FedEX/Kinkos, CopyMax or something similar and have them handle it for you. It may seem like an extra step, but it will make the process easier in the long run.

Travel nursing checklist item #10

OK, so you have all your paperwork lined up and organized. You have done your research and spent time online looking at all the different companies. You’ve compared what they offer to what you want out of a travel nursing job. The next step then is to actually apply online for the travel nursing job you want. You can also call the company right off the bat, but I will cover that later.

When it comes to applying online you actually have a few options. You can apply individually to each site or go to anyone of the several available job boards that allow you to apply to more than one company at a time. Each of these options have advantages and disadvantages.

If you apply to just one company at a time it will obviously take you longer, depending on how many you apply to. Also if you limit yourself to few companies you may need to expand your search if none of them meet your needs.

If you apply to a job board, like RNVip.com or Absloutley Healthcare, you can be prepared to be contacted by all the companies that pay for access to that site. Often these sites can also take you longer than the individual websites do because they are trying to pass on only the best candidates to the affiliate companies.

No matter which path you choose or combination of both be prepared to be contacted quickly.

Oh and one last piece of advice to make this easier for you, make sure you use your “AutoFill” tool on your Google toolbar. It will help you fill out a lot of the basic info on online apps with the click of a button.

Travel nursing checklist item #11

Once you have submitted your application online you can literally sit back and wait for a recruiter to call you. Thanks to the nursing shortage, qualified nurses looking to travel are in high demand. That’s why I’m going to break this post up, for now I will just cover what makes a good recruiter and in the next post I will tell you how to go about making sure that is what you get.

The relationship you have with your Recruiter, or Placement Specialist, or whatever the company you are working with calls them, will be one of the most, if not the most important relationship you will have during your travel nursing career. That’s why it is important that you find one that you not only get along with, but can also trust. Your recruiter will be your source of information throughout your assignment. They should work with you, you should not feel like you work for them (even though technically you do), it should feel more like a partnership where the two of you work together to achieve your career goals.

You may have decided to be a travel nurse for a variety of reasons, but whatever your reason is make sure you let your recruiter know, that is the only way they will be able to truly help you. Whether it is to get out of a stressful situation, expand your horizons by exploring a new specialty or just to get out and have an adventure the more your recruiter knows about your situation the better.

Ultimately, because the Recruiter plays such a large part in your travel nursing life you want to feel like they are more than just a business associate, they should feel like a friend. Someone who checks in on you to see how you are you doing, someone you can call when you need someone to talk to, someone who can offer some advice and once in awhile make you smile after a long day on your feet. If there are issues you want a Recruiter who will go to bat for you.

Remember, in the next post I will tell you some tips for landing that perfect recruiter.

Travel nursing checklist item #12

In the last section of the Ultimate Travel Nursing Checklist I talked about what makes a great travel nurse Recruiter, now I am going to give you some tips to help you find a one. For starters ask around. Being referred to a good Recruiter by a travel nurse who believes in them is by far the easiest way to end up with a great Recruiter yourself.

However, if you are in a situation where you are working with a new company, it is a little more difficult to guarantee which Recruiter you end up with. Often when you call in you will be forwarded to a Recruiter who you have never met before. She will try to strike up a relationship with you. It is important that you feel comfortable. Often a Recruiter is the face of the company to travel nurses like you so one bad experience may turn you off to a particular company. That is why in this situation it is best to do some research. Spend some time online in nursing forums and nurse social networking sites asking for the names of good Recruiters and good travel nursing companies. Ask around at the hospital too. Most likely your hospital has travelers in it who can fill you in on rn travel companies and nurse recruiters for the good or bad.

Another thing to keep in mind is to find out, when you first start talking to a company, whether or not you will have the same Recruiter for your entire career with that company or if they will move you from Recruiter to Recruiter depending on where you are working. This is defintely a situation you want to avoid, otherwise you will have to build a new relationship with each travel nursing assignment and in travel nursing the nurse/recruiter relationship is too valuable to need to be rebuilt with every change of region.

Once you are finally on the phone with the Recruiter, this is your chance to interview them. Pull out your checklist of items that you have pre-written (see Travel nursing checklist items #3,4 and 5). Ask a lot of questions. Ask them until you feel comfortable. Find out how much they know about your specialty because your needs may be completely different than someone who has a different nursing specialty. Try to spend some extra time trying to get to know them on a personal level. It will help if any tough situations arise knowing you have a friend on your side.

Remember this is probably the most important part of the travel nursing process so take the time to make sure it is done right.

Travel nursing checklist item #13