Five reasons to consider travel nursing

Travel nursing is becoming a popular choice as more nurses discover this always-interesting, non-traditional approach to their careers.

Instead of working as a full-time staff nurse at one hospital, travel nurses work for hospitals all around the country on a temporary, contract basis. Hospitals employ travel nurses to fill in for nurses who are on maternity leave, to add supplemental staff to a new unit or to a unit in the hospital that is expanding, or to temporarily deal with sudden turnover in a unit.

Travel nurses typically find work through staffing agencies that partner with hospitals around the country.

"Every day we are basically recruiting for our pipeline of nurses," says Alison Radcliffe, recruitment manager at Randstad Healthcare. "There are tons of jobs out there out there. One nurse could have five different options at once."

If you are a nurse looking for a challenging change of pace, here are five reasons to consider travel nursing:

1.   Travel. The first reason is obvious -- travel nurses get to explore and discover cities all over the country.

"Some people get bored, and want to keep things spicy," Radcliffe says. "With travel nursing they can be traveling to a different city every three months."

While travel nursing is a permanent career choice for many nurses, some nurses use it as a way to try out different cities and hospitals before settling on a more permanent place to live and work.

"Many times you get an assignment for 13 weeks, and there could be the opportunity to extend the contract, from six months to a year," Radcliffe says.

2.   Flexibility. Travel nurses can decide if and when they can take an assignment, and whether they would like to do assignments back-to-back or take breaks in between.

"They have that luxury of thinking 'I'm going to take two weeks off between the next two assignments.' You can plan when you do work and when you don't," Radcliffe says.

3.   Great pay. Travel nurses often enjoy higher rates than those of full-time staff nurses.

"The hospitals that we partner with typically offer some higher rates because it's a short-term contract and they're in a bind," Radcliffe says.

Some assignments can also include opportunities for overtime, and travel nurses also enjoy some tax benefits.

"If you maintain a home base, you could qualify for some tax benefits -- deductions for meals, incidentals," Radcliffe says. "With that, in addition to hourly wages, they can take home some great pay."

According to CBSalary.com, the U.S. national average salary for a travel nurse is $66,267.

4. Career growth. Travel nurses enjoy the opportunity to work for specific hospitals and in particular roles that they may not have access to back home, or that may otherwise take several years to cultivate in a traditional staff nurse position.

"As a travel nurse you can get into some of these well-known facilities and teaching facilities that you might not have a chance to be able to otherwise," Radcliffe says.

5. Professional development. Working in different hospitals all over the country can also provide a great learning experience.

"It just makes you a well-rounded nurse, and eventually your resume looks great," Radcliffe says. "You've been exposed to so many procedures, so many types of patients."

But, travel nurses do need to be experienced to get their foot in the door with an agency like Randstad, which typically requires at least one year of clinical experience.

"We want [nurses] to feel comfortable from a clinical standpoint, because when you're a travel nurse, your orientation is pretty minimal. If your contract is 13 weeks, orientation is usually one week," Radcliffe says. "They expect you to hit the ground running."