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As any nurse knows, no day is the same in the nursing world. However, nursing can also get monotonous — long hours, bureaucratic policies, and the same environment day in, day out can make it challenging for nurses who want to boost their nursing career. Fortunately, travel nursing offers an alternative that can reduce monotony and boost your nursing career. Here are six ways travel nursing can help you get to the next level in your career.
1. Avoid burnout
Many nurses say that burnout is affecting their happiness and energy, but burnout can also affect the future of your career, leading some nurses to consider leaving the profession altogether. Mary Stewart, a RNnetwork nurse, started nursing when she was 42, after she felt that it was time to change her career. She started travel nursing right after nursing school and hasn’t looked back. Read more about how travel nursing helped Mary Stewart avoid burnout.
2. Get out of your comfort zone
Another challenge of nursing is that it’s easy to fall into a routine. Routines can be good, but when you’re looking to boost your nursing career, you need to try things that will challenge you and help you broaden your experience. Travel nursing challenges you regularly by putting you into new settings with patients that often have different medical issues than the ones you commonly face when you work only in one location.
3. Gain clinical skills
Whether you work in a big hospital or a small-town clinic, each location has different technology, medical needs, and resources. As you learn to adjust to varying factors, you add more and more to your experience. Travel nursing is a great way to get exposure to a wide variety of clinical environments. Large city hospitals may have the latest technology, but a small rural clinic can help you develop your problem solving skills and learn new ways to treat patients when resources are limited.
4. Network professionally and personally
Career advancement is all about who you know, and nursing is no exception. As a travel nurse, you meet lots of other nurses and make new friends. Not only can other nurses teach you new skills, they can introduce you to new opportunities. Travel nursing is also about meeting new patients and people in the area you’re working. Of course, networking isn’t always about advancing a career! Sarah Weaver, a nurse for RNnetwork, met her fiancé on a travel nursing job! Learn how Sarah met her soon-to-be husband while on assignment.
5. Learn about new locations
Everyone says they want to travel, but travel nurses get paid to do it! There are lots of locations across the country with high demand for nurses. Because travel nurses have the flexibility to go to new locations, they gain important experience that lets them quickly advance their careers. It helps that getting your licensing in a new state has never been easier, with the Enhanced Nurse Licensure Compact, which is now available in 29 states (and counting!).
6. Develop interpersonal skills
Travel nurses meet people from different backgrounds and cultures. Interacting with people who are different from us helps develop interpersonal skills. Some people might worry that travel nurses won’t be able to make lasting connections with patients and coworkers, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth! Travel nurse Christine Harrison worked with a patient during a particularly traumatic injury, and that patient, his mom, and Christine are still close today. Learn more about Christine Harrison’s story.
If you’re feeling stuck in a rut at your current job, travel nursing is a great way to break the routine and boost your nursing career, even if it’s just for an assignment or two. Ready to try out travel nursing? Check out today’s opportunities or give us a call at 800.866.0407.
