If you've been wondering 'what is a travel nurse, exactly?', you're in the right place.
This guide will cover what travel nursing is, what travel nurses do, where travel nurses live and what makes travel nurses different than full-time staff nurses.
What is a Travel Nurse?
A travel nurse is a nurse that works a temporary assignment to supplement full-time staff, usually in a hospital or healthcare facility.
The main differences between travel nurses and staff nurses are:
| Differences | 🚗 Travel Nurses | 🏥 Staff Nurses |
|---|---|---|
| Who hires & pays? | Travel Nurse Agencies | Hospitals or facilities directly |
| Contract duration | Temporary – usually 13 weeks | Permanent, full-time |
| Orientation duration | Only a few days, up to a week | A few weeks to months |
Yes, you do need travel nurse agencies to find a travel nurse job.
Hospitals and facilities nationwide use travel nurse agencies to recruit, hire and pay travel nurses so they don't have to deal with the frequent turnover of temporary employees.
Think of travel nurse companies like a third-party Human Resources (HR) for multiple hospitals and facilities across the US.
How much Experience to be a Travel Nurse
You need at least 1 year of nursing experience to become a Travel Nurse - it's better if you have 2 years or more!
A travel nurse is hired to fill a nurse staffing shortage, so a travel nurse orientation is minimal to help staffing as soon as possible.
Due to the short orientation period, travel nurses are required to be highly skilled in their nurse specialty. 1-2+ years of recent nurse specialty experience is necessary.
How to Become a Travel Nurse
Here's 5 steps on How to Become a Travel Nurse - this is a quick overview to get you started.
If you want full details I highly recommend reading the full guide on How to Become a Travel Nurse here.
1. 🩺 Become an Experienced RN
- Earn your degree: RN Travel nurses can have a BSN or ADN. You can also travel nurse with your NP or APRN, your ADN or ASN or AAS, your LPN or LVN, or your CNA.
- Pass your Nurse licensing exam, get your state licenses.
- Gain 1-2 years nurse specialty experience & certifications: 1 year at minimum, 2+ years is better
2. 📂 Get your Travel Nurse Requirements organized
- Prepare your Travel Nurse Requirements to apply: Licenses, Certifications, Resume updated, 2+ References from past year (usually 1+ from RN Charge/Mgr)
- Get your burner phone number and your private email BEFORE you contact travel nursing agencies to avoid spam.
- Prepare your Emergency fund: you need 3-6 months living costs.
3. 💻 BEFORE talking to Agencies: Research the Travel Nursing Job Market
- Research travel nurse salary rates, taxes & application process BEFORE talking to agencies.
- Check current travel nurse pay trends & compare the best jobs from 500+ agencies
- Do your Math: Calculate your minimum pay to make travel nursing worth it
4. 🖐️ Choose 2-5 Travel Nurse Agencies to work with
- Contact agencies that have jobs you want using your burner phone number & private email to avoid spam.
- No single agency is best or has all the jobs - you need full profiles with 2-5 agencies for more job options & leverage for better pay.
- Your best travel RN companies need: great jobs, good pay & benefits, and responsive & transparent recruiters.
5. 🤝 Work with 2-5 Travel Nurse Agencies to land jobs & start work
- Have recruiters from 2-5 different agencies submit you to jobs that meet your pay & location goals
- Research locations before you sign: Before you sign contracts research your potential hospitals, housing availability, & travel plans.
- Read before you sign: Understand your travel nursing contract terms before committing.
- Begin your first assignment after close communication with your recruiter & facility leadership!
What is Travel Healthcare?
There are a large variety of travel healthcare work positions available nationwide, not just for nurses.
Allied health workers can take "travel nursing" jobs or travel healthcare work. Allied health specialties in high demand include:
- Respiratory Therapists
- Physical Therapists
- Occupational Therapists
- OR Techs
- X-ray Techs
All travel nurses and travel healthcare workers can research travel nurse salary trends and track current pay trends compared to historical pay insights going all the way back to 2019. You can also find the highest-paying travel nurse agencies and the top-paying locations.
Only travel RN positions are currently available here at StellarNurse.com, but we plan to open travel nurse job listings for all kinds of travel nurses & travel allied health workers in the future.
What do Travel Nurses do?
Travel nurses do all the same healthcare work that full-time permanent staff nurses do.
Facilities use travel RN's to fill critical staff nurse shortages in facilities nationwide due to reasons including:
- Parental leave
- Vacation
- Staff injury/illness
- Nurse retention gaps
Where do Travel Nurses work?
Traveling nurses work in a multitude of different environments, such as:
- Hospitals - the most common setting for travel nurses
- Outpatient clinics
- Long term care facilities
- Home health
- Schools
- Rehab centers
- Vaccine clinics
The main job of a travel nurse is to temporarily fill a critical hole in nurse staffing.
Because travel nurses are hired to supplement full-time nursing staff, a travel RN is expected to hit the ground running with minimal hospital orientation.
Travel Nurse Responsibilities
A travel nurse has the same responsibilities as the full-time nurse staff on whatever unit they're hired to.
A typical travel nurse schedule on assignment is:
- 12 hour shifts - Days or Nights
- 3 shifts per week
- 36 hour work week
- 13 weeks is a standard travel nurse assignment
The catch is that traveling nurses are expected to supplement nurse staff by taking a full patient assignment after only a few days of orientation, usually 2-3 days orientation - much less time than staff nurses receive upon hiring.
Due to the nature of filling critical staffing needs with minimal orientation, nurses who become travel nurses should be VERY experienced in their travel nurse specialty.
Ideally nurses that travel have 2 years of experience in their nurse specialty but minimum travel nurse requirements are 1 year experience.
Hospital units that need Travel RN's are often:
- short-staffed
- high patient census
- high-acuity patient loads
These are high stakes work environment for an inexperienced nurse. That's why it's recommended to have 2+ years nursing experience in your specialty before traveling.
Travel Nurse Requirements
Travel Nurse requirements for all specialties include:
- ✅ Degree - Earn your Nursing degree, ie. BSN or ADN
- ✅ Exams - Pass your professional exams, ie. NCLEX-RN
- ✅ Experience - 1-2+ years of recent experience in your travel nurse specialty
- ✅ Resume - updated highlighting recent 1-2+ years in specialty
- ✅ References - 3-5 recent references, at least 1-2 from your charge RN, manager or supervisor
- ✅ Certifications - current & relevant to your nurse specialty - ie. BLS or ACLS
- ✅ Professional Licenses - your current professional license, ie. RN
- ✅ State Licenses - for locations where you currently or plan to work
I'll add 2 more you won't find on job descriptions but are must-haves!
- ✅ Burner phone number & email - block spam calls & emails before they start
- ✅ Emergency Fund - 3-6 months living costs
Check out a full guide on travel nurse requirements here.
Is it Hard to get a Travel Nurse Job?
Once you have your 1-2 years of nurse specialty experience it's not hard to get a travel nurse job, as long as you meet the travel nurse requirements.
One of the best aspects of travel nursing are the many job opportunities available and different employers who want to help you get into a job.
Where do Travel Nurses Stay?
Travel nurses often work far enough from home that they need temporary accommodation for the duration of their travel nurse assignment.
There's several options for where Travel Nurses can stay:
- Agency-provided Housing - cost covered by travel nurse agency.
- Housing you book yourself - you get a tax-free stipend to cover cost.
- Your own home as a "Local Travel Nurse"
If traveling nurses simultaneously pay for accommodation back home along with their temporary accommodation, this is called "duplicating living expenses".
"Duplicating living expenses" allows travel nurses to be eligible for tax-free living stipends included in their compensation package through the travel nurse company.
Tax-free income is one of the biggest benefits of travel nursing.
What is a Local Travel Nurse?
Travel nursing is so flexible you don't even need to "travel".
You can become a "local travel nurse" while returning to your own home every night. No hassle to lock down adequate temporary housing for your assignment.
The catch with "local travel nursing" is that you won't be eligible for tax-free living stipends since you're not "duplicating your living expenses", so all your travel nurse income will be taxed.
Even though "local travel nursing" compensation packages are fully taxed, these temporary positions often pay higher and offer more flexibility than staff nurse jobs.
Thanks for reading 🤗
Thanks for reading my intro guide to travel nursing!
Hopefully you have a good overview of what a travel nurse is, what travel nurses do, where travel nurses live and what travel nurse requirements are.
Reach out to me ➡️ Veronica - I'm a travel nurse too and I love to chat about all things travel nursing. 💕
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