Travel Nursing Basics

Though you might have heard of travel nursing, you could still be unclear as to what that term actually entails. There are many questions you may have about it. Your questions may be how you can get into travel nursing, what qualifications you need and if it is something you can see yourself doing in the future, and where should you find a nurse staffing agency.

Travel nursing jobs are generally for RN's or Registered Nurses, but there are travel nursing jobs for LPN's or Licensed Practical Nurses and LVN's or Licensed Vocational Nurses. They work in many different settings such as hospitals, outpatient clinics, nursing homes, emergency rooms, and other health care facilities. The work they do is helping people and the compensation they get for that is very good. If you have a nursing degree, you are on your way to a rewarding career.

Possible advantages for travel nurses over working in traditional nursing include higher pay, travel compensation, incentives, bonuses, and travel opportunities that one might not otherwise get. The different kinds of experiences and opportunities available in travel nursing jobs really fill out a young nurse's resume.

In order to make the change from working as a traditional nurse to a travel nurse you need to sign up with an agency that will act as an intermediary between you and the different health care facilities that are looking for skilled and professional staffing. After filling out the required paperwork involved in signing on with an agency, nurses then need at least one year of clinical experience in a particular area or specialty. After these preliminaries are completed, a nurse can start a career in travel nursing, easily finding and taking jobs in all different parts of the country.

The way the travel nursing agencies work is they send information about job openings for temporary positions in a variety of categories to nurses in their agencies. Interested nurses apply for positions, interview with the facility and, assuming the interview goes the way the facility likes, the agency will draw up a contract. The duration of travel nursing jobs can vary from a few weeks to a number of months or even as long as year. Going through a travel nursing agency is one of the best ways to ensure that you have work.

Travel nursing jobs, though normally temporary, sometimes can lead to permanent full-time employment at a hospital, nursing home, clinic or other health care facility. Some health care facilities like their travel nurses so much they have been known to hire them full-time, but, on the other hand, some travel nurses like an area so much they have chosen to stay in that particular area. With travel nursing you have open opportunities to work wherever there is an opening. For people looking for a nursing job, travel nursing is definitely worth your consideration.