What to Know Before Taking Your First Travel Nursing Assignment

May 2024 · 4 minute read
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Travel nursing is an excellent way to meet new people, see new places, experience new adventures, and make a lot of money while you’re doing it. With that being said, there are also quite a few things that you’ll need to know before just jumping into it.

You always want to make sure that you’re getting everything in writing. Travel nursing is an excellent way to meet new people, see new places, experience new adventures, and make a lot of money while you’re doing it.

With that being said, there are also quite a few things that you’ll need to know before just jumping into it.

Some nurses end up leaping at the chance to travel and earn a fantastic income without really understanding what they’re signing up for.

And the truth is that this can hurt your experience and leave you frustrated.

So in this article, you’re going to learn about the basic stuff you really need to know before taking your first nursing assignment.

These tips will help you to make the most of the experience and actually prepare yourself to have the best travel-nursing stint possible (regardless of whether you’re going to do it for the long-term or the short term).

Alright. Let’s dive into it.

1. Get Some Experience

A lot of travel nurses tell horror stories about young ‘green’ nurses who try to travel—only to get thrown into situations that, theoretically, they should be able to manage based on their schooling–but that they have no real-world experience in.

To quote one particular travel nurse on this issue:

“When you’re traveling, they expect you to land and get right to work. They shouldn’t have to hold your hand while you learn the job from scratch.”

It’s a much better idea to only take travel nursing assignments that you’re actually experienced with and qualified for.

Just because you’re a nurse doesn’t mean that you’re going to be able to handle each and every possible job that could come your way.

2. You’ll Make A Lot Of Money—But Not Forever

A lot of travel nurses start out being pumped about traveling, mostly due to the lifestyle and the money.

However, a certain percentage of nurses also realize that they won’t want to do this type of work forever—and they eventually end up jumping off of the ‘traveling nurse’ train to do something different.

With that being said, the sudden loss of that ‘traveler’s income’ can sometimes really throw them for a loop.

Imagine going from earning $130,000 per year as a traveling nurse, to earning $42,000 per year at a local clinic.

That drop in income can be hard on nurses who don’t plan on it.

The moral of the story here is to always set money aside to prepare for the next step—and to make sure that you keep your expenses low so that if you ever want to stop traveling, you’re not ‘trapped’ by increased debt or lifestyle costs.

3. Vet Your Travel Nursing Agency Well

Finding an awesome travel nursing agency can open massive doors for you as a nurse.

But it’s also true that signing up with the wrong agency can actually take away from your opportunities.

Make sure to vet the agency by doing some research about them. Look into:

Finding a great travel nursing agency can mean the difference between ‘decent’ assignments and ‘awesome’ assignments.

So vet your travel nursing agency well, and don’t neglect the ‘due diligence’ part of the process.

4. Get Everything In Writing

As a travel nurse, you need to make sure that everything you’re supposed to get with a particular assignment is in writing before you accept the gig.

This includes:

The more in-depth you get with all of this, the better off you’ll be in the long run.

This is especially true with housing and lodging needs.

Hotel Engine describes this really well:

“For a traveling nurse, being happy with your housing situation is crucial when you’re away from home for an assignment.”

The thing you don’t want to do is rely on word of mouth or verbal promises to make your decisions.

Conclusion

Hopefully, this post has helped to prepare you to have the best travel-nursing experience possible.

Of course, at the end of the day, it really all comes down to this…

You want to feel great about what you do, and you want to make plenty of money doing it.

And following these steps should give you a great start to a fantastic stint as a travel nurse.

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