By: NurseGuides.com
Travel nursing is an exciting and rewarding career option for nurses and allied health care professionals. Your skills are in great demand across the country, which means you have an almost limitless number of choices when it comes to where and how you want to work. Whether you want to take an assignment a thousand miles away or in your own hometown, travel nursing can put you right where you want to be. If you are a nurse – but you have always wanted to have a job that gives you the ability to travel than it is time for you to look into the aspect of becoming a traveling nurse. With this career you will be given short term positions that are located all across the country. In some places there are hospitals that do not have enough nurses on their staff. Because of this they seek out aid from other cities and stated who are willing to come to work in their hospital or clinic. Many of these traveling nurses will get paid good money because they are only there for a short amount of time.
Most of these short term positions will last from three months to a whole year. Many hospitals will provide housing for those who are coming from out of state or who live in a city that is too far to make the trip every day.
One of the main questions that people have about travel nursing is whether or not this type of job is stable enough to support themselves or their family on. It can be a very stable and rewarding job. Travel nurses can be in very high demand and there are very many cities to choose from. There are some hospitals who will try to hire the travel nurse for full time (if they are pleased with the work they have done). This is great for those who eventually want to settle down.
In order to become a travel nurse you want to sign-up with a nursing recruiter. When you do that you will have a better chance of finding more of a variety of jobs in different cities and for different positions. You will also have a better chance of finding a hospital or clinic that will provide you with the necessary living arrangements. The only down size to this is that you will be giving the recruiter a fee for its service – which might be a bit high for some people. Others way of finding work is to search among the more popular and larger hospitals. They will usually make it easy for people to find their advertisements.
Depending on what your experience level is, what your specialty is, and the location of the hospital will determine what type of salary you are given. The average travel nurse will be paid $24-$35 per hour – plus any housing accommodations. Pay is usually higher in some of the larger cities like San Francisco and New York.
There is one very important thing that traveling nurses need to be aware of. Each state has different requirements for the license that a nurse should have. To make things easier and to safe the time from having to get a brand new one every time you move states you can get a temporary license. In most stated these licenses stay valid for a year.
Plus, as a traveling health care professional, you have the opportunity to work at the nation's most prestigious facilities, earn lucrative pay and generous bonuses, and enjoy living in free, quality housing provided by your travel nursing company. The top travel nursing companies offer excellent benefits including: comprehensive insurance coverage, 401(k) plans, continuing education, clinical support and incentive programs.
Travel nursing gives you the chance to expand your skill set and to further your career by learning new practices and proving yourself in a variety of clinical settings. It also gives you the freedom to set your own pace, to explore new cities and regions of the country and to enjoy new challenges and fulfilling experiences. Visit the links below for more info or to get started as a travel nurse.
Who can travel?
- Registered nurses in all specialties
- Nurse practitioners
- Advance practice nurses
- LPNs/LVNs
- Radiologic technologists
- Physical therapists
- Occupational therapists
- Speech language pathologists
- Other allied health care specialists.
