What if I go to an Assignment and I Just Don’t Fit in?

It’s always scary going to a new place and to adjust to a new work environment where you’re surrounded by people you don’t know. However, from my experience as a travel nurse, it usually didn’t take long to find people that I felt comfortable with who helped me get up to speed quickly.

However, if you continue to feel that the assignment is not a good fit for you, it isn’t that bad because you know that you will only be there for three months. Knowing that you can leave after three months is a lot more tolerable than being miserable at a place where you are a permanent employee. I know many nurses that are unhappy at their workplace and continue to work there anyway. It’s not a good feeling because it seems that it will never end. As a travel nurse, it is easy to tolerate just about anything because you know that it is temporary.

From my experiences, I found that most places were pretty nice. If you are really worried about fitting in and being part of the team, you might want to ask during your hospital interview how often the facility uses travelers. If the hospital frequently uses travel nurses, the permanent staff will be much more accustomed to accepting new staff members and helping you to fit in.

Feel Like You're in a Rut? Travel Nursing Could be the Answer

Travel nursing is definitely a great way to get out of a rut. As a travel nurse, you will be on the road to a world of new adventures and opportunities, and will get to see places you never imagined . With travel nursing, everything changes. Your work place, technology, culture, living space, colleagues, daily routine, activities—even your drive to work— all change at the same time. It’s exhilarating and definitely a good way to open yourself up to new experiences, if that’s what you want.

If you’re ready for a change and want to experience something new, travel nursing might be just what you need. Personally, I love the challenge of adapting to new situations. When you work as a travel nurse, your days off are never boring as there is so much waiting for you to explore. Every area offers different things to do. For example, some areas are really good for camping and hiking, while other places, especially the larger cities, offer an unlimited number of excellent restaurants and cultural attractions. It’s up to you to decide what interests you and where you want to go. Most people experience a newfound sense of freedom and adventure when traveling that you just can’t get in a “normal” profession. Nursing offers so many wonderful and unique opportunities and, at times, it’s easy to forget that we have so many options available to us when we get stuck in a rut.

Is Travel Nursing Best Suited to Any Specialty?

Nurses are in demand across the country and that includes travel nurses in practicalluy every specialty, including areas such as the ICU, ER, OR, telemetry, labor and delivery, progressive or step-down care, the neonatal unit, pediatrics, post-anesthesia care, med-surg and oncology. Dialysis is also a specialty that has seemed to flourish over the last few years. The nurses that sometimes have more of a challenge finding assignments are psychiatric nurses and LPNs. Most travel nursing companies do not travel CNAs.

Every specialty has its own specific nuances that are performed slightly differently at each facility you go to. I don’t think one specialty is really better suited or easier to travel in than the other.

It is important for any nurse who is considering working as a traveler to have thorough knowledge of their specialty. A year’s experience is the absolute minimum, although many travel nursing agencies prefer that you have 18 months to two year’s experience in your specialty before you take your career on the road. Your most recent experience needs to be in an acute-care hospital, so if you have been away from patient care for a while, it is important that you spend a year working in a hospital before you consider travel nursing.

While working as a travel nurse, you usually need to work within your specialty. However, depending on how well your skills cross into other specialties, you may be asked to float within the facility you are assigned to.

Is Travel Nursing a Stable Career Option?

I am glad this question has been asked. Since travel nursing is basically a temporary job assignment within a facility, travel nursing itself has also been viewed as temporary. However, a strange dichotomy exists here.

Although the assignments are temporary, the number of travel nursing assignments in the United States is constantly growing. Why? The nursing shortage that is predicted to be ongoing for years to come is what keeps driving the need for traveling nurses, along with typical census fluctuations, new hospitals and wings opening, leaves of absence, maternity leave, etc.

Travel nursing began more than 25 years ago when companies first provided hospitals with short-term solutions to their staffing shortages and seasonal fluctuations. Since then, health care facilities have recognized that travel nurses offer an ongoing solution to many of their staffing needs. The travel nursing industry has grown in leaps and bounds, and is now recognized as a highly effective staffing tool.

Once you complete a nursing assignment in one place, you can count on having many more assignments to choose from. Four key elements to staying employed as a traveling nurse include:

Maintaining a good reputation

Once you accept an assignment, you want to stick to it to show that you are a person of your word and can be counted on. You want to be a dependable employee at the hospital with a good attitude.

Signing up with large companies or several smaller companies

If you travel with large travel nursing companies, you will have more of a selection of assignments to choose from. You can also sign up with several companies and have a wide selection that way. If you sign up with several companies, take time to find out about their reputation. You don’t want to sign up with just any company. They become your lifeline once you are out on the road. You want them to be dependable and knowledgeable, with a solid reputation.

Being in a high-demand specialty

Most nursing specialties are in high demand in the travel nursing industry. However, some pysch nurses and LPNs may be somewhat limited in finding ongoing assignments.

Be flexible

The more flexible you are, the more likely you will be to always have a variety of assignment choices. As a traveling nurse, you get to make many choices about what kind of experience you want to have and can rest assured that you have chosen a very stable and secure line of work.

Make Sure Your Licensure is Current Before Traveling

I get a lot of questions regarding licensure and traveling. It is vital that your licensure is current before taking an assignment.

Currently, I don’t know of any companies that will send you on a travel assignment with elapsed time on your resume. I know it seems like those five years of experience should count for more. Granted, they do help your resume look better when being considered for a travel contract. However, the rule that everyone follows is that a nurse must have at least one year recent experience in the specialty he or she wishes to travel in.

The hospitals are actually the one that make this requirement to assure that the nurses submitted to them are highly skilled and up to date. A traveling nurse must be experienced and flexible at the same time. They must know when to do it “their way” or do it the way it needs to be done. Travelers must draw on recent knowledge to make decisions and work with ever changing technology.

It can be hard to wait on your travels when you know you want to go now. Yet, it is the best thing for everyone in the long run. A year will go by in no time. Meanwhile, you can spend time deciding where you would like to go and what company you would like to work for. You will also need to get several pages of documentation together in order to travel such as your immunizations and more. You can also spend a good deal of time researching the companies out there you would like to work for.

Travel Nursing to Help You Get Organized

Travel nursing is an excellent way to improve one’s organization. Someone who starts a traveling career often gets better over time and more organized naturally. A traveler learns the best agencies to work for, what to negotiate for and how to negotiate, more and more tax advantages and how to pack for their next trip. As you travel, you get better and better and therefore, most of the time, your travel experience gets better and better too.

I guess the maintenance in a travel career is continuing to travel and learn from your experiences. While you may still struggle with the never-ending relationship or finance issues, your traveling experience should flourish unless you burn your bridges along the way. With all the tax advantages and better pay, your bank account may get better too. You do have to maintain your relationships with the travel companies by being reliable, good for your word and flexible. Otherwise, traveling could, over time, go toward a state of entropy, that’s true.

Don’t let your travel experience go toward a state of disorder. You should be enjoying this unique experience that not many get the opportunity to have in life. Be reliable and keep traveling and you should enjoy your career as a traveling professional.