T
here is Safety … in Numbers
TravelNurseReports is delighted to shed some light on a fairly new phenomenon that has arisen in the field of Travel Nursing: teaming up! With a continuous increase in the publicity being given to the higher rates of pay being offered for Travel Nurses by facilities with a great demand for help, more and more nurses are at least talking about accepting an assignment.
Typically this possibility is bandied about without a great deal of seriousness at the onset. Oh, sure, the extra pay would be nice, and seeing an exotic new locale could be a lot of fun, nurses say, but in many cases these positives aren’t sufficient to overcome the negatives: having to make friends, which is not always easy; being away from one’s family and well-established friends; and having to cope with unfamiliar procedures and requirements in all areas of a new life.
The solution, in a growing number of cases, is for a group of nurses in one area, or even a group that may be separated but which has a common bond (such as the same nursing school, or Travelers who have met on a previous assignment), to team up, and go Travel Nursing together. Not only does this alleviate much of the stress and loneliness a Travel Nurse can at times experience, but it forges new bonds of friendship.
Even two friends Travel-nursing together can make the experience much more enjoyable. And the more the merrier; having five or six travel mates can greatly reduce the strain, and turn the term of employment into the same kind of adventure as going to summer camp.
Even if a small group is not going to the exact same facility, departing together and staying in touch during the assignments can be a great help. Phone calls and emails can go back and forth, comparing how things are going, week by week. These friends aren’t physically together, but by sharing comparable experiences this way they have the next best thing.
From the comments we’ve received, it seems the usual way this phenomenon begins is for a nurse to decide to travel, and then for that nurse to talk a single friend into going along. But this ‘buddy system’ approach quickly broadened into a system in which a nurse who is thinking about traveling posts the location of a distant assignment, and the starting date, on a bulletin board, forum, or chat room connected to the ‘home facility,’ the city, county, or state, asking if anyone would like to depart at the same time for the same general destination. Staffing agencies are reporting that they are receiving this kind of query: “Four of us working in ‘city A’ would like to travel together to ‘state B.’ Do you have anything that would accommodate us?”
In some cases, keeping friends together has become the most important criteria for accepting an assignment. One staffing company informed us that it regularly receives this type of request: “Five of us Travel Nurses want to be assigned as a unit. Can you provide suitable employment options?”
One Travel Nurse wrote that she and her friends approached this the same way they would in planning a cruise. “Our only rule,” she said, “is that we have to stay together, because that makes it so much more fun. We aren’t that concerned with where we go—because there’s something new for us to see and learn in every nook and cranny of this great land. We make our decisions democratically. If we have to wait a month in order to get what we need, so be it; we’ll just stay at our present jobs until the right opportunity comes along for all of us to travel together.” There are eight Travel Nurses in this particular Midwestern group.
So if striking out on your own is an intimidating prospect, you should know that it doesn’t have to be that way. And if you’re not one who takes naturally to the degree of organization this might seem to require, don’t worry; we’ve been told that at least a few staffing agencies are considering making group Travel Nurse assignments their marquee offering.
