Are You Ready to Be a Travel Nurse?

Transitioning from staff nursing to travel nursing can be daunting. How do you know if you are ready?

We will explore everything you need to be successful in landing your first travel nurse contract below!

Is Travel Nursing Right for You?

Before you go through the effort of preparing to be a travel nurse, figure out if it’s really what you want. Don’t get me wrong. I love travel nursing, but it’s not right for everyone. Take a look at some of the pros and cons below to get an idea if it is a good fit for your life. 

Downsides to travel nursing:

Here are some of the downsides in travel nursing that you should be aware of:

• Contracts can get cancelled without notice
• The constant change can be exhausting for someone who values stability
• Benefits such as health insurance, 401k plans, and PTO become more complicated
• You won’t have the same opportunities for career growth
• You won’t have seniority which impacts things like patient assignments and floating
• It can be lonely if you are leaving friends or family behind

Upsides to travel nursing:

Okay, enough of the downsides. I also want you to recognize why travel nursing could be perfect for you!

• Flexibility- want to take 2 months off to travel? No problem! You decide when you do and do not work.
• No more staff meetings or unit politics
• Exploration and adventure- you can choose to live anywhere in the country that you want. This means more chances to try new things. My favorite part of travel nursing is exploring on my days off!
• Make more money (usually)– this part isn’t a sure thing like it was during the pandemic. You have to run the calculations yourself to make sure you are financially making a good choice. Many travel nurse newbies don’t realize that they have to duplicate expenses in order to qualify for the stipends that agencies provide. This can significantly change your budget. 

How Much Experience Do You Need to Be a Travel Nurse?

Before you start working as a travel nurse, you need to gain experience in your specialty first. You don’t want to put yourself into a situation caring for patients that you are not skilled enough to care for. Also, most hospitals and agencies prefer at least 2 years of specialty specific experience. This isn’t a hard rule, and it will vary a little with a market (how much hospitals need travel nurses) and what other experience you have. I’ll give you 2 examples from my personal experience in an effort to paint a clearer picture.

Example 1:

My first travel contract was in ICU. At that time I only had 1 year of ICU experience, but I had been a nurse for over 5 years (the majority of my experience was in the emergency department). I did not have any difficulty landing my first contract. I also felt confident as a nurse even with only 1 year of experience in that specialty. 

There are a few reasons why I didn’t have difficulty finding my first contract:

1. The market at the time was in desperate need for ICU nurses.  -I started during the pandemic. It was an easy time to find a contract for everyone.
2. The 1 year of experience I had was heavy.  -The year I spent working as a staff nurse in ICU was also during the pandemic. There were no soft ICU assignments during that time. This meant that I got a lot of quality nursing experience with really sick patients. While you (hopefully) won’t have another pandemic to force feed you experience, working at a busier hospital that can provide a higher level of care will help. 
3. I had ample experience in a complementary specialty.  -While ER and ICU are very different specialties, experience in one improves your nursing knowledge for the other. I’m not sure how much hospitals take this into account when hiring travel nurses. It will, however, help your confidence when you start travel nursing.   

Example 2:

This next example is the reason I question whether or not hospitals actually consider experience in a separate specialty.

 When I started travel nursing, I originally planned to swap back and forth between ER and ICU contracts. I was able to get my second contract in the ER, but it was the same hospital as my first ICU contract (I had a manager to manager referral). I also wanted my 3rd contract to be in the ER. Here is where I ran into difficulty. I was turned down for a contract because I didn’t have a full year of “recent” ER experience. I did manage to land another ER contract, and I’ve been in the ER ever since. 

There are a couple of points I want to make from this example:

1. The market can make a big difference in how much picky hospitals are about experience. At the time that I was turned down for the ER contract, the pandemic was winding down. This meant hospital needs and funding for travel nurses were also winding down. 
2. Recent experience is the biggest factor that plays into whether or not a hospital will consider you as a travel nurse.

How to land your first travel nurse contract

• Get around 2 years of experience in the specialty you want to travel in.
• If you can, get your experience in a busy, high acuity setting. Magnet hospitals and teaching hospitals are great choices. 
• Get exposure to as much as you can within your specialty (if you can get proof of that exposure such as certifications, even better).
• Gather the following items:
  •  A few references from charge nurses or managers. 
  • Copies of all of your certifications (BLS plus whatever yout specialty requires)
  • Nursing license number and expiration date
  • Health records that hospitals typically require such as tb testing and proof of any vaccinations you have had (most hospitals will want proof of covid vaccination as well)

How does licensure work for travel nurses?

Nurses are licensed by their state board of nursing. If you are planning to travel nurse across state lines, you will need a nursing license to support that. 

If you are lucky enough to live and be licensed in a state that is part of the Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC), your nursing license is considered a compact license. This qualifies you to work in any other NLC state. Note that you only qualify for the compact license if you are both licensed in that state AND that state is your home state. 

If you don’t live in a NLC state, you will need to apply for licensure by endorsement for each state you want to work in. Similarly, if you have a compact license, but the state you want to work in is not an NLC state, you will need to apply for licensure by endorsement. 

Some states are quick and easy to get licensed by endorsement. Others take a long time or require more steps (like California- which also happens to be one of the best states to work in as a nurse). Typically license by endorsement does come with a fee. Don’t worry though, you won’t have to take the NCLEX again. 

Some agencies (usually the larger agencies) will pay for the license for you. I used Aya Healthcare to get my California license which made it free and fairly easy. 

There are more states that are part of the NLC than states that are not. Currently (as of 2024), the following are NOT NLC states (although many seem to be moving that direction): California, Nevada, Oregon, Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Alaska, Hawaii, Washington D.C., the US Virgin Islands, and the northern Mariana Island of Siapan. 

Are you financially prepared to start travel nursing?

So far, we have looked at determining if travel nursing is right for you on a personal/personality level. We talked about determining if you are ready from a clinical/qualification standpoint. The last part you need to consider to know if you are ready for travel nursing is finances. 

Yes, you can make good money travel nursing, but it also carries a lot of risk. There are a couple of situations that hurt travel nurses financially:

• Unexpected contract cancellations
• Difficulty finding a new contract 

In both of these situations, you can be left suddenly without income. This is why it is important to have between 3 and 6 months worth of expenses in savings BEFORE you start travel nursing. 

How you know you are ready to be a travel nurse:

1.  You have a clear picture of both the pros and the cons of travel nursing. 
2. You have enough experience and confidence in your specialty. 
3. You are licensed or have a plan for licensure by endorsement in the state you want to travel.
4. You have a healthy savings account to protect you if things go sideways.