What travel nursing looks like

As new friends hear about travel nursing some common questions are posed. Here's a glimpse into what it looks like to find and start a travel nurse contract... 

I know Caleb is the one doing all of the actual travel nurse work once we get to a location, but I am happy to be his travel agent and planner giving him less things to coordinate.  

How does he find a job? 

Caleb and I look for jobs listed with travel nurse companies. We are looking for states we would prefer to travel to and also looking at the pay rates/shifts and what start date the hospital needs. We typically take a week off work between contracts in order to have time to load up, travel to the next destination, settle in/unpack, grocery shop, check out the area, find the hospital.

Once some desirable jobs are posted that fit our timeline, Caleb tells the travel nurse companies which jobs to submit his applications to. The companies do all of the application paperwork which is very nice. But each time Caleb wants to work with a different company it involves filling out extensive nursing skills checklist and uploading his resume as well as filling out additional forms with his certifications and more and more information needed.

Does he get to pick where you go?

Sort of. We get to pick which states we want to apply for jobs, then Caleb waits for a phone call interview/job offer. Often a phone call ends with a job offer on the spot. 

Caleb can accept it verbally on the phone, ask for time to think about it, or decline it. If he verbally accepts, then the waiting begins. The hospital HR has to send the job offer to the travel nurse company who then writes up the details into a contract to email to Caleb to look over and sign. 

While waiting, I start on some of the time consuming work. Finding a place to live takes a lot of time. One contract, I spent ten hours over a couple days looking up options, calling, returning messages. This New Hampshire contract was the easiest yet because finding RV parks and campgrounds doesn't take as much time as researching options to find furnished short term housing. It was still time consuming as I had to find RV campgrounds within 40 minutes of the hospital. {Checking a few RV apps, looking at google maps, checking their websites for reviews and rates, checked the travel nurse facebook communities to see if anyone recommended ones they had stayed in} After locating some with availabilities, I wait for Caleb to receive the contract to sign in the next day or two.

Windmills of Nebraska farmlands

How long are you at a place? Where do you live?

Contracts are signed for 13 weeks. The last time we traveled for 2.5 years we always stayed in furnished places. This time it was a search for a place to hook up our RV to live in. I made calls to 8 RV campgrounds asking about availability for monthly sites with full hook ups. Some places were already booked full. Some never returned my call. And a couple were so friendly and excited to possibly have travel nurses come stay with them again. More to come about our RV campground once we get there. We are so excited about finding the last seasonal spot at one only 20 minutes from the hospital.

I start working on road trip plans, travel routes, overnight stays, how far to drive each day, coordinating with RV park our arrival date, but Caleb now has the most time consuming part before we travel. 

He has to set up a drug screen, TB test, sometimes an N-95 mask fit test (yes they did this even before covid), update vaccines, and annual physical updated. This usually takes a full day or sometimes a couple days to get all of the appointments in. Sometime there is coordinating taking a re-certification class for one of his trauma or nursing certifications. Then depending on the hospital, he has hours of online skills test he has to take to show he knows what he is doing. Sometimes there is also hours of hospital orientation slideshows to watch and then be quizzed over. 

Then after all these details are planned and happen we get to plan the actual travel part. Road trip time!!

Crossing the Mississippi River once again heading to New Hampshire from Colorado

Can you stay longer? Is it all worth it?

Yes!! We get paid to travel and to be at a new location every 3 months to explore. Some hospitals will offer an extension anywhere from 4-13 more weeks if we want to stay longer. We have extended at a couple locations. We love this nomadic adventuring, but this lifestyle also isn't for anyone. It takes a lot of flexibility, a lot of last minute planning of a ton of details, a lot of waiting and unknowns, a lot of change, and a lot of making new friends. We choose this and are so grateful for a career where Caleb has multiple job opportunities as we know that's not to be taken for granted. 

Previous travel nurse years, we would load up our Subaru with what we needed and drive long days to get to our place. This road trip looks much differently because we get to do it with our little guy and RV in tow. And it's our longest trip yet. 30 hours google maps drive time in 2000 miles (RV travel time is longer than 30 hours because we can't always drive top interstate speeds). My dad flew out to Colorado to help be a third driver on this road trip. We are so thankful to have an extra hand with entertaining our little guy and help driving. You'll hear from us again after we've arrived and set up our RV site for the summer!