Travel Nurse: Career, Training, & Certification

Travel Nurse

Travel nursing is a way for qualified nurses to get out of the rut of being rooted down to one clinic or facility and travel around the country, taking short-term positions that become available in different locations. Essentially, it’s like being a temporary nurse, but one gets to keep moving. Many times housing is offered as part of compensation, and the short term assignments can lead to long term permanent positions if the fit seems to work for the nurse and the institution. Travel nurses can have all sorts of different specialties or come from different backgrounds, as there is a high demand for nurses in general that has been difficult for many employers to fulfill. As a result, these travel nurse agencies have sprung up around the country to place nurses who have a hankering for a change of scene in other short-term assignments.

Salary Outlook

Nursing salaries vary depending on geographical location, experience, and educational specialty. Many times travel nursing salaries will be subsidized with free housing.
 
Average Annual Salary
$36,000
 
Salary Range
$28,000-$62,000
 
Work Environment

The work environments vary widely in the world of travel nursing. This is the whole nature of the field, which is served by a number of agencies that help place nurses in short term positions around the country or even abroad. The nurses could end up in an isolated town, or in a big city hospital. They may work for a private physician’s office, or for a busy community health clinic. The nurse is able to specify what sort of position they would prefer, and has the opportunity to turn down anything that doesn’t seem like it will be a good fit or what they have in mind exactly. This gives travel nurses a great deal of flexibility.
 
Requirements

There are different requirements for every state, although across the board most nurses will need to have an RN or registered nursing license. This holds true for travel nurses, who will be crossing state lines, and therefore need to have the credentials that hold up for the most states. A Bachelor’s degree in Nursing is highly recommended, as is a minimum of five years of steady clinical experience.
 
Career Outlook

The healthcare industry is expected to grow in leaps and bounds in the next decade, and the need for temporary or travel nurses will grow along with it, as more and more vacancies are created in busy hospitals and clinics across the country. Growth rates could increase as much as 20% in the next few years, according to some experts.
 
Professional Organizations
 
American Travel Health Nurses Association
411 E. 57th St. Apt. 15C
New York, NY 10022-3011
www.athna.org
 
American Association of Occupational Health Nurses
7794 Grow Drive
Pensacola, FL 32514
Phone: (850) 474-6963
Fax: (850) 484-8762
www.aaohn.org