Landing Travel Nursing Positions

Travel nursing positions are a good opportunity for nurses who want to help people while seeing the country.

Getting Started

Before nurses leave nursing school, they're bombarded with employment options. Though this can be overwhelming, nurses should count themselves lucky. Nursing is one of very few professions that has more jobs than professionals. One option open to graduating or experienced nurses is travel nursing positions.

Travel nursing positions are just what they sound like. They're nursing positions that take the nurse all over the country and sometimes the world. Rather than working in one hospital in one city, the nurse visits different sites. For example, a Florida nurse looking to get out of town might get an assignment working for a hospital in Wyoming. Travel nurses have to have some sense of adventure because they're not always sent to their top destination. Take the Florida nurse. Let's say she requested Wyoming thinking she might be sent to Jackson Hole, which is a very beautiful touristy part of Wyoming. But, the only opening is in Cheyenne so she gets sent there. Cheyenne is very different than Jackson Hole. Though the nursing agencies try to match the nurses with their top destinations, you never know where you're going to end up so you have to be ready to go with the flow.

Travel nursing positions usually pay very well because they're in high demand. Most travel nursing staffing agencies will pay signing bonuses for their nurses. They also offer great benefits and salary. Some of them offer free housing. Free housing tends to be offered to nurses that are staying on a somewhat temporary basis. For example, a nurse who stays in a location for four to 24 weeks will probably get free housing. This time allotment doesn't give the nurse time to find a house or sign a lease.

Many travel nurses go overseas. Though some positions in Canada pay well, overseas positions tend to be more charity oriented. Working in a foreign country can be difficult because of work laws. Many nurses get around this by volunteering their services instead. Unlike in-country travel nursing positions, these positions do not pay well. However, they are very gratifying for many nurses.

Staying Close to Home

Nurses can sign up for nursing positions that allow them to travel while remaining in their home city. To do this, the nurse has to go through a nurse staffing agencies. These agencies match nurses up with hospitals. They're different than traveling nursing agencies because they can keep the nurses within a 25 mile radius of their home.

These are good travel nursing positions for nurses who want a change of scenery, but don't want to permanently leave their home.