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KIMBERLY T. GARINGO MAN-II

TRAVEL NURSING Travel nursing is a career option that transports nurses to other places to fill up temporary positions in units or facilities that are under staff. This type of career is becoming a mainstream choice among dynamic nurses. Mobile nurses are in demand anywhere. You simply have to find a reliable and credible agency that would provide you a list of assignments to choose from. An assignment typically lasts 13 weeks with an option to renew at the end. Depending on your personality and preferences, travelling may just be the perfect career path to take. HISTORY: The First Travel Nurse Florence Nightingale has a firm place in nursing history, but she also comes into play in the history of travel nursing. Nightingale is considered by some to be the first travel nurse. According to Spartacus Educational, Nightingale said she felt a call from God that she was to do something great. She then decided to be a nurse and moved to Germany to study. Once she became a nurse, Nightingale traveled around to a number of places to treat ill patients. When the Crimean War broke out between Russia and Turkey in 1853, Nightingale traveled around Turkey to help wounded and ill soldiers within military hospitals. She also pushed for reform of military hospitals so that they would be better suited to treat patients.
 
 Wartime Traveling The Travel Nurses Now website states that nurses were often resigned to working within hospitals, but were put in military hospitals during World War II. During this war, nurses treated wounded soldiers bedside. The nurses came from many different areas to help soldiers injured in battle. The Cadet Nurse Corps program began in 1943 as a means to train nurses for positions either in military hospitals or taking the places of nurses who were asked to treat soldiers. Over the course of three years, more than 100,000 nurses trained for positions that were similar to that of a modern-day travel nurse. The specialized training received by these nurses gave the nursing industry a boost in credibility. From this point, nurses began to be more directly involved in patient care and medical machinery operation.

DISADVANTAGES: • No job security. Although there is an option to renew your contract, there is no guarantee that you will be retained for the job. A good agency should be able to provide another assignment right before your assignment expires. However, an assignment after your initial assignment is not always guaranteed. • "First to float". Because mobile nurses are hired temporarily to fill up vacant positions, they are often the first to move to another floor. • Resentful Staff. As a travelling nurse you are paid more than regular employees. This situation leads to resentment, jealousy and at times animosity. It is but natural since you will be performing the same job at a higher rate. • Stress. Every 13 weeks or so you will be packing up your scrubs and be moving to another place. Unless you are adventurous, this set up may prove to be stressful in the long run. • Loneliness. This career option requires you to travel and be away from home for months. Even if you have someone to travel with chances are your schedule will differ and you may find yourself lonely. ADVANTAGES: • Opportunity to travel. As a mobile nurse you get to travel to different places within the country and sometimes abroad. Unlike business travels, mobile nursing gives you the chance to explore your area on your work off. This gives you the chance to fulfil your travel wish list. • Attractive compensation package. Mobile nurses are paid at least 20% higher than regular nurses. You also get to enjoy other benefits such as travel allowance, housing allowance, meal allowance and many more. • Career management. Travelling gives you total management over your career. You get to decide when and where to work and how much to earn. You also get to accept or reject assignments that are offered to you by your agency. • Build-up an attractive resume. Travelling exposes you to various cases that you won't usually experience in a regular setting. Your exposure to various facilities and units is an attractive resume builder. • Flexibility. After an assignment you may have the option to renew or move to another state. You may also decide to take a vacation in between assignments. Whatever it is you want, this career gives you the privilege of flexibility.

Your satisfaction with travelling highly depends on how your agency or recruiter provides service. A lot of nurses are not deterred by the drawbacks for the compensation substantially augments. Ask around, do your research, better yet try an initial assignment before switching to travelling career. QUALIFICATIONS: If the advantages of travel nursing outweigh the disadvantages for you, then you must next consider whether or not it’s the right option for you in terms of the qualifications and expectations. The first thing to consider is whether or not you have the qualifications necessary to land travel assignments on an ongoing basis. Before we discuss this, I feel it’s important to dispel with the myth that travel nursing companies are the ones setting the requirements. Hospitals set the requirements. Sure, travel nursing companies may set a requirement here and there, but even a company’s requirements are driven by the requirements of the hospitals they work with. For example, if 70% of the hospitals that a company works with require 2 years of experience, then the company may require a minimum of 2 years of experience just to ensure that they are spending time with travel nursing candidates that they have a higher likelihood of landing travel nursing jobs for. Now, on to the qualifications which hospitals require. As I’m sure you are aware, hospitals want to keep their costs down. As a result, when it comes to travel nurses they’re looking for individuals that will require limited resources to quickly become a functioning member of their organization. Essentially, hospitals would like to invest as little as possible into training and orienting. This means that they’re looking for experience. The level of experience that hospitals are looking for tends to fluctuate with employment conditions. If there is a dearth of potential travel nursing candidates, then hospitals may reduce their experience requirements. If there is an abundance of travel nursing candidates, then they will most likely increase their experience requirements. When hospitals are experiencing difficulty attracting the travel nurses they need, the standard requirement is 1 year of experience within the last 3 years in the specialty in question. When they’re getting a lot of candidates, the standard requirement is 2 years of experience within the past 3 years in the specialty in question. Again, these are minimum standards. Many hospitals maintain higher requirements. For example, some hospitals may require 3-5 years of recent experience in the specialty in question and/or previous experience as a travel nurse. Trauma and Teaching hospitals sometimes require recent experience in these settings. Some hospital units require experience in settings similar to theirs as well. For example, L&D units taking high risk patients often require that travel

nurses have experience with similar units. Sometimes hospitals require experience in hospitals with a similar number of licensed beds. Some hospitals require previous experience within the hospital system in question. For example, the Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) which is the largest private hospital corporation the country, regularly requires that travel nursing candidates have previous experience in an HCA facility. Hospitals may also require experience with particular computer charting systems, specific patient populations, and/or specific equipment and procedures. Hospitals also regularly require various certifications. The certification requirements tend to vary by specialty. As a travel nurse, it is highly recommended that you have all certifications that may be required for your specialty. Doing so maximizes the opportunities available to you. Some common certifications that often prevented travel nurses that I worked with from landing travel nursing assignments they desired included: ACLS for MedSurg and TELE, PALS and TNCC for ER, AWHONN Advanced Fetal Heart Certification for L&D, and PALS for PACU. While we’re on the subject, certain specialties tend to be more highly sought than others for travel nurses. Below is a list of specialties that are popular in travel nursing. ICU, ER, MS, MS/TELE, TELE, OR, L&D, PACU, CVICU, Cath Lab, PEDS, PICU, NICU, Case Management, SDU, PCU, CVOR, PostPartum, Mother Baby, Home Health JOB EXPECTATIONS: In addition to experience, you must also consider if you have the desire to perform in the capacity that travel nurses are often asked to perform. This manifests itself on several levels. First, hospitals are seeking self starters. You’ll be walking in to entirely new units that will most likely operate quite differently from the one you’re used to and you’ll be doing so with a really limited orientation. Travel nursing orientations tend to last 1 week, and much of them are spent with paperwork and class room training. It’s very common for travel nurses to get 1 shift of orientation directly on the unit and sometimes less. In addition, there are often delays in getting travel nurses the access they need for medications and/or computer charting. This isn’t because the hospital is a horrible place, but rather that they’re trying to “onboard” a new nurse in a third of the time that they usually do. The point is that the travel nurse will have to roll with the punches in a productive way in order to be successful. Second, hospitals are looking for candidates who are open to new methods, processes, and procedures. No two hospitals operate exactly the same way. There are multiple ways of accomplishing many of the tasks at hand. Hospitals typically have very good reasons for utilizing their processes and procedures and they’ve

typically been in place for years without incident. That doesn’t mean that there is no room for improvement. There often is. However, your role as a travel nurse requires adaptability. I regularly had travel nurses say to me, “Once I got the hang of it.” I say this to point out that things may seem horrific at first, but if you give yourself some time to adjust, everything may fall in to place. Third, travel nurses should be comfortable avoiding office politics. Every hospital has its internal strife, cliques, and enduring debates. Staying out of these matters is always best for the travel nurse. In fact, not having to deal with office politics was one of the most often cited reasons that I heard people give for being a travel nurse. Either way, you have to remember that you’re a temporary employee. You can be easily dismissed for crossing the wrong person. I know this sounds harsh, but it is unfortunately true. Some might view this as a disadvantage, and others will view it as a huge advantage. The opportunity to not really care about anything other than your patients can be refreshing. Fourth, travel nurses should be prepared to be flexible. Hospitals are typically beholden to some level of guaranteed hours for their travel nurses. In order to meet these guarantees, floating to units in which you are qualified to work is often a requirement. Hospitals will sometimes make it a requirement for landing the travel nursing job in the first place. How much and where you’ll float will depend on several factors. First, some specialties float more often than others. ICU and MS/TELE tend to be the ones that float most often. OR tends to float the least. Second, some hospitals work their travel nurses and permanent staff on different schedules. For example, the permanent staff may be working 8 hour shifts while the travel nurses are scheduled for 12 hour shifts. This results in an overlap for the travel nurse at some point during the 12 hour shift at which time floating is often the only option. Third, sometimes census drops in one unit and hospitals simply need to float their staff to units with higher need in order to keep their guarantee. While it’s true that you may find travel nursing contracts that will guarantee that you never have to float, counting on them will be very difficult especially if you have limited to average experience and are new to travel nursing. Flexibility is a virtue that is also helpful with some of the other aspects of travel nursing. For example, it’s not always possible to get exactly what you want out of a travel nursing contract. Sometimes there are not any travel nursing jobs for your specialty in the area you’re most interested in going. Sometimes the only travel nursing jobs that are available in your desired areas are at hospitals that might not be exactly what you’re looking for. Sometimes the compensation package might be a little less than you were anticipating in a given location. Sometimes the housing options aren’t quite what you’re looking for. And very often, the compliance process can be burdensome and unorganized. Those that can function well under these circumstances tend to have a better travel nursing experience.