Who said traveling and being a nurse can’t work together when there are a lot of job opportunities right now for those who experience in the market. Traveling nurses are given the choice to work closer or farther from their home. If they accept an assignment, they have a chance to work in some of the country’s most prestigious health facilities, earn decent pay with bonuses and enjoy free living expenses.
Nurses who want to be a part of this have to sign up with a travel nursing company. In fact, there are many around and aside from your base pay, you get to have comprehensive insurance, a 401k plan, clinical support, an incentive program and the opportunity to further enhance your education.
To qualify, you must be a graduate from an accredited health care institution in the US or Canada and have a license. You should also have served at least a minimum of 12 months in your specialty.
If you qualify to be a traveling nurse, the company you will be working for will present a number of openings that are currently available. You don’t get to sign any long term contract with them since everything is done on a per project basis so iIf you find something you like, you may begin work in less than a week.
You also shouldn’t worry about getting a license to work especially if this will be in another state because the company you will be working for normally takes care of that.
Traveling nurses work almost the same hours as a regular nurse. That is about 8 to 10 hours on each shift or 40 hours per week but there are some work 12 hours and work about 36 hours per week.
As for how much you make, this depends where you will be working and your specialty. Resident nurses for example are paid $40 per hour while licensed practical nurses earn a little bit lower. When you accept an assignment, you are usually given a sign on bonus that could reach up to $6,000 which isn’t that bad.
The money that you make as a traveling nurse is usually deposited in your current bank account so you don’t have to open a new one when you are working in another state. This will enable you to withdraw this at any time using your ATM card for shopping and other things.
It was mentioned earlier that housing as a traveling nurse is free. You will usually be housed in a two bedroom apartment or condo that is close to where you will be working. If you choose to live somewhere else other than what was given, you will get the housing allowance in the form of cash and you will be responsible taking care of the utilities.
If you want to succeed as a traveling nurse, you have to be optimistic, be open-minded and have the ability to learn things quickly. This is because your employer expects you to know what needs to be done since they assume you have already done this in the past.
You can stay as a traveling nurse for as long as you want and your experience will look good on your resume as this will probably make you stand out among other applicants when you want to find a permanent nursing job.
