How to Become a Travel Nurse

How to Become a Travel Nurse

When you’ve decided to become a travel nurse, it’s important to know that it can take time and effort to get into the role. Below are the few steps you have to follow before you can begin applying for travel nurse assignments.

Earn a Degree in Nursing

The most reliable way into any medical field is by earning a degree. To become a travel nurse, is either you posess an associate’s degree in nursing (ADN) or a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN). If you don’t have a degree, you can enroll in an udergraduate degree program after completing an high school.

Take Part in an Apprenticeship Service for a Wide Experience

Another important element to becoming a travel nurse is experience. Most travel agencies and hospitals require the travel nurses to have a minimum of two years of nursing experience before applying for travel nursing contracts. Engaging in a clinical setting during your educational period will be the starting of your firsthand experience within the nursing field.

Obtaining an entry-level job within a doctor’s office or hospital will also give you a better experience you need to prepare for a travel nursing role gaining some real-world experience and good medical practice is highly valued in the nursing field.

Another way to gain a real-world experience is to make sure that you’re enrolled in an accredited nursing program and also get registered as a nurse.

Find an Agency

After considering that you have some experience as a nurse, you can start searching for a travel nurse staffing agency. You will need to fill out an  application and be paired with a recruiter if you can find a travel staffing  agency. This travel agent will get in touch with you to know about your skills, experiences, and talk about the expectations for the job, and your preference of cities. After that, you will be connected with the hospitals that are looking to hire travel nurses.

Prepare for an Interview

You won’t automatically be paired with a hospital; you’ll have to be interviewed for the job by phone call or video chat. This is your opportunity to show the hospital administrators that you are good at your work, and what you can bring to their hospital. Your recruiter may even volunteer to offer you some interview tips to be prepared.

Once you’re accepted into a facility, you will begin your journey of nursing across the world. Agencies can provide you with free housing or housing reimbursement or you may be able to
find housing on your own. You can find an indepth details on the salary structure of a travel nurse in this article. Travel nurses have the ability to move from state to state every few weeks and it is important to register for license requirements in each state. Some licenses can take days or weeks to receive, while others may require a face to face in-person appearance.

There are states that are considered walkthrough states meaning that a nurse can get a temporary nursing license from the board in a day. The licenses are valid for 30 days to 6 months depending on the state.

Who is a Travel Nurse?

A travel nurse is a registered nurse who is entitled to a wide range of roles and duties, working on short-term contracts that aids them to move from a location to another location. Due to the shorter nature of their contracts, travel nurses can travel to areas that need immediate medical supports, filling staffing gaps and offering high-quality medical care. There are always vacancies for traveling nurses, especially in developing countries that have fewer trained staff members.

The concept of a travel nurse means that you can  move into new city every few months. Travel nurses are often nurses with no family commitments, although nurses with grown up children can also take parts in travel nursing opportunities.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the Responsibilities and Tasks for Travel Nurses?

Travel nurses are much like standard nurses and some of the typical tasks that travel nurse are expected to complete includes:

• Providing basic first aid, such as; dressing and undressing wounds, administering drugs and injections and setting up drips for patients.
• Analysing the condition of your patients to establish the best source of care for their ongoing treatment.
• Working compassionately with the patients to convey information to them and keep them as comfortable as possible when attaining to their condition.
• Putting down patient information to their key vital signs such as their heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate and internal temperature.
• Giving necessary information to the patients and their relatives on the best way forward with their care.

There are other responsibilities when working in as a nurse, their responsibilities arise due to the patient the are treating or the department in which you’re working.

Requirements For a Travel Nurse job

For beginner’s, you will need to be a registered nurse (RN) with hospital experience. You need a bachelor’s degree, you can go on to achieve a graduate degree in nursing.

You could use an accelerated Bachelor’s in Nursing degree, which is an accelerated degree for people who already have a bachelor’s degree in another field.

What Skills Does a Travel Nurse need?

These are some of the skills for you to embrace to work effectively as a travel nurse.

Adaptability: it’s important for travel nurses to be able to adapt to living in a new location. And to be able to adjust to the different tasks on a daily basis.

Teamwork: Working closely with other nurses and medical professionals is at the core of ensuring best quality care for patients,

Compassion: You probably may find yourself in an uncomfortable situations, but ensuring your patient gets the quality care they need is the priority, requiring you to put your own concerns and dislikes aside. Here, your role revolves around your desire to help others.

Be able to Work under pressure: In situations which involve time sensitivity and emergency, you need to be able to meet on time with the situation no matter the stress. Respond calmly to stressful situations in which a patient’s life may be at risk.

Generally, nurses should also have the following characteristics before pursuing travel nursing,

• Strong clinical background
• Leadership skills
• Expertise in their field
• Flexibility
• Solid communication skills
• Problem solver
• Reliability
• Critical thinking
• Love of the unknown
• Organization

Advantages of Being a Travel Nurse

Travel nurses have many advantages which includes being eligible to work with people from all over the world and explore parts of the country that you may have never seen in your life. These agencies can also find you fully-furnished housing, which is often free for travel nurses and located close to the hospital.

Conclusion

As stressful as the job of a travel Nurse might be, the excitement of meeting new people, visiting different regions and taking care of people makes up for the trouble. Being a travel nurse is a great choice for nurses all round the world. This article have explained the processes of becoming a travel nurse and the requirements needed by hiring agencies.