8 Things About Travel Nursing You Won’t Find In Any Other Profession
I could probably go on forever about the reasons I love travel nursing, but I’ll narrow it down to my favorites. Here are my top 8 favorite things about living this lifestyle.
Explore the country while getting paid!
1. Exploring the Country
In my opinion, the best part about travel nursing is the opportunity to see the country while getting paid. You get to experience everything from small, one-stoplight towns to sprawling, congested cities.
So many people never get a chance to explore much outside of their home-state but in five years my husband and I have seen 46 of the 50 states – most we would have never thought of going to if it weren’t for travel nursing.
2. Living a Life of Excitement & Adventure
Traveling and seeing the country creates the coolest life of excitement and adventure. There definitely isn’t anything routine or mundane about this lifestyle. It is unpredictable and loads of fun!
We all have those moments where it feels like we are just waiting for time to pass with not much excitement in our day-to-day lives. As a traveler, there isn’t time for boredom.
One of the best parts of being a travel nurse is there is no such thing as a typical day. It is an ever-changing, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of life.
Discover new travel assignments here.
3. Increased Pay
This one is pretty self-explanatory, but usually, travel nurses make more than staff nurses. How much more depends on location and contract. The tax-free benefits and free housing are awesome perks too!
4. Gaining Experience
The experience you can gain as a travel nurse is priceless. My husband, Skyler feels like he is a much better nurse now than what he would be if we hadn’t started traveling five years ago.
He has worked with some of the top doctors and nurses in the country at some of the top hospitals in the country. He has seen how to perform the same tasks multiple different ways. He has learned new procedures/methods/ways of doing things/etc.
Being a travel nurse has provided him with invaluable experience and made him a very confident, flexible, and competent nurse.
Travel to your favorite city while getting paid!
5. Friends Across the Country
My husband and I have made friends all around the country since we started traveling. There is a special bond between nurses so it is always exciting to connect with other travelers!
Thanks to social media, it is easy to stay connected with all of our new friends from everywhere.
6. Experiencing Various Living Situations
One of our goals when we started traveling was to experience living situations and locations that we probably wouldn’t have been able to experience had we not traveled and probably won’t get to experience once we are done traveling.
We have always wanted to experience living ocean front, so for one assignment we lived on The Strand in Hermosa Beach, CA, which was incredible. Similarly, we wanted to experience the true downtown lifestyle, so we lived in the Gaslamp District in San Diego, CA.
We know that in real life, once we are done traveling, we want to live in a farm house in the country, but we both still had the desire to experience other living arrangements and travel nursing is one of the only ways I can think of to test drive so many with no long-term commitment. Plus, it has helped us to feel confident in knowing what we do and do not want when we buy or build our next home.
Find available travel assignments in your specialty here.
7. Beating the Weather
This might not sound like a big deal, but just think of how cool it is to live in whatever climate you choose to live in year-round. We tend to fancy a nice and mild 60-80 degree range so a lot of our travels have taken this into consideration.
We have spent winters in Arizona and Florida and summers in Seattle. When we started missing the snow we decided to take a winter assignment in Boston.
It is truly awesome to enjoy your favorite season all year round!
8. Independence
Travel nursing can be hard because you are away from friends, family and places that you are familiar with. But the beauty in that is that it forces you to become truly independent and self-sufficient. It builds confidence and can strengthen your relationship(s) if you are traveling with a partner or family.
There are so many wonderful things about travel nursing, far too many to list. Traveling in itself is an amazing experience, but traveling the country while doing what you love…that is unbeatable.
