Becoming a nurse opens up tremendous opportunities for an interesting and challenging professional path that will rarely leave you short on excitement. Nobody understands and appreciates this more than travel nurses.
Travel nursing allows you to pursue new experiences in your career, and offers the chance for excitement and adventure away from the bedside. For many travel nurses (depending on their specialty), the option to choose from numerous states across the country can foster a whole new sense of freedom and adventure.
Travel nursing can also be quite lucrative, and when all is said and done, the possibility of being well compensated for seeing the country makes travel nursing an irresistible career path for adventurous professionals.
Have we gotten your attention? Are you wondering how to become a travel nurse? Well, we have great news: getting into the field requires nothing more than a little convenient multi-state licensing hack, and a passionate love of the open road. Here is our ultimate guide on how to make your travel nursing dream a reality!
Residency and Tax Requirements
Demand for Travel Nurses
Travel nursing has been giving nurses an opportunity to see new places, gain incredible experience, and enjoy a healthy work-life balance since the 80s. Some nurses have spent their entire careers bouncing from coast to coast and making friends all over the United States. With reasonable compensation and retirement savings options combined with the freedom to bring family along, it was the perfect fit for an enthusiastic niche of dedicated professionals.
Without a doubt, the COVID pandemic brought travel nursing to the forefront of the healthcare industry for supplementing staffing challenges experienced by health institutions across the country. From the perspective of those looking for staff, travel nursing was a priceless resource in a time of crisis. And for nurses, these high-paying assignments had them barnstorming across the country for contracts lasting anywhere from 4-13 weeks.
For many, the intensity of an urgent national health crisis and the fast-paced excitement it created was everything they had dreamed about when they went into nursing school in the first place.
Getting into the Field
Becoming a travel nurse starts the same way every other nursing job starts: by getting that nursing degree. Next, you pass your nursing boards and establish licensure so you can start gaining experience.
Experience in travel nursing is imperative. While different nursing subspecialties and organizations may define it differently, they all need their nurses to be able to hit the ground running. When a hospital hires a travel nurse, they expect them to be working independently, and quickly. Being able to adapt to new environments, policies, procedures, and equipment isn’t easy, and requires a firm foundation in clinical nursing experience.
Preparing Your Resume
Your one-page resume is the tool a travel nurse agency will use to find you employment, so you’ll want to get it right. There are many templates you can easily find online, and all resumes should include the following:
- Basic contact and personal information
- A brief profile of your career and experience.
- A detailed employment and experience history. Include job titles, length of employment, and key duties.
- Outline any specialties and certifications you may have.
- Include your education and training, such as institutions you graduated from.
Job Search
After you’ve got some experience under your belt, reach out to a few travel nurse staffing agencies like AMN Healthcare or Aya Healthcare and see what they have to offer. Consider the following:
- Benefits
- How much assistance they’ll provide to help find a job
- Housing stipends
- Relocation money
Once you sign on with an agency, interviews will undoubtedly follow, because let’s face it: the market is hot right now. Keep your phone handy and your inbox open!
Interviewing
Interviews for travel nursing often occur over the phone or via video conferencing. During this time, the hiring manager will try and get a feel for your experience, and it’s important to be honest. It can be tempting to embellish—especially if you really want that job in a place you’re dying to see—but the last thing you want (and especially the last thing your patients will want) is to end up in over your head.
Here are some sample questions to consider to help you prepare:
- Tell us about yourself.
- Describe your work ethic.
- What challenges do you foresee as a travel nurse?
- Why do you want to become a travel nurse?
- Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Living the Career
A guide for how to become a travel nurse would be incomplete without letting you know what to expect once you become a travel nurse. You can stay on the path for the short term or long term, but either way, you should know the pros and cons and how to make the best of your decision.
Work-Life Balance
Having an incredible work-life balance is really where travel nursing shines, since you get to experience a range of amazing new places to live. Whether you’re into big city life or need some place rural to get your fix in the great outdoors, your options will be plentiful. Also, keep your personal goals in mind when contracts are being created. Time flies when you’re busy, so take note of things like weekend requirements, block scheduling, and the ability to take time off during your assignment so you can get out and enjoy life.
Malpractice Insurance
You worked hard for your license, and it’s your responsibility to protect it. You can’t rely on any agency or hospital to save your bacon if something unexpected happens. Malpractice insurance is affordable—somewhere around $100 a year for most nurses. It’s also non-negotiable, so keep it current. Visit CM&F or NSO for more information.
Licensure
You need to make sure you remain up-to-date with licensure requirements. Travel nurses often end up with licenses in different states, and outside the convenience of compact licensure, each state may have unique continuing education requirements. Work smarter, not harder, and get yourself an Unlimited Nursing CEU Subscription through Premiere. With one subscription, you will have unlimited access to CEUs that meet state licensure requirements across the U.S.
Residency and Tax Requirements
Continuously moving around the country can complicate things like residency and income taxes pretty quickly. If you intend on maintaining a permanent residence somewhere you need to know how often—and for how long—to stop by home.
Spending too much time away means you run the risk of being considered a resident in another state. This can result in changes to your housing stipend, and even manipulate your tax obligation if you’re not careful!
Get Started in Your Travel Nursing Career
If you’re looking for adventure, travel nursing will definitely help you find it. Traveling the country and working in all the places you’ve dreamed of is a great way to live life to the fullest while making an excellent living and caring for a wide range of patients who desperately need your expertise.
Exploring how to become a travel nurse does present some new responsibilities, and one of the most important is keeping yourself current and informed. Continuing education like the courses included in Premiere’s Unlimited Nursing CEU Subscription will help cover all your bases no matter where the job takes you.
Premiere is redefining continuing education by making it easy to stay current and compliant from the convenience of any screen, with content created by industry-leading experts in their fields.
