I started a new travel assignment recently and it feels good. I have been a travel nurse two other times. Both times I went back to being a staff nurse after 26 weeks. I can appreciate both sides of the travel nurse scenario. As a staff nurse I was grateful to have the help from the travelers and as a travel nurse I am grateful to have the perks of not being involved in the politics of an employer and the higher pay. AND…quite frankly, I love change.

Travel nursing has been around forever. Covid really brought it into the forefront and was used and abused by all involved. So many nurses left nursing in general that the shortages created a need to hire quickly and spend no time training. Travel nurses are to be experienced nurses that can hit the ground running in their new environment.

As did so many things surrounding Covid, travel nursing became a heated topic. Staff nurses became bitter (rightfully so) over their hospitals paying ridiculously high wages for travelers while not giving them raises or anything for staying and continuing to work for their home hospital. During Covid it seemed that travelers didn’t have to have the two years experience that used to be required and that so many of them were just in it for the thrill and the money. (Which of course has no place in healthcare. It’s obvious the nurses that are only in it for the paycheck. What a shame!!)

Now that the rush and danger of Covid are seemingly behind us, Travel Nursing is still a thing but it has gone back to pre-Covid wages and opportunities. So why be a travel nurse? Why work somewhere new and different every 13 weeks?

For me travel nursing is about nursing at its core. I have to know how to take care of people, assessments, treatments, medications, use my brain and my hands. I get to open my heart up to patients and staff members and I do not have to be involved in the politics of an organization. I have known my whole career that I am idealistic and black and white in my approach. I am a huge boundary person. When I work for an organization for a while and I sense a shift in their values and what is required for patient care and the shift is away from what I hold to be true, I know it’s time to go.

I also love to travel. I have wanderlust in my veins. I am whatever the opposite of a homebody is. The only reason I don’t live in an RV is because I have a husband and family that are homebodies. So travel nursing meets that need for me. I go, work my shifts in a week and then go home, then do it all over again. I love a good drive. Roadtrips every week are becoming my jam.

No matter how you feel about the travel nursing thing, it’s here to stay. But that is the great thing about nursing. There are so many things we can do: hospital, long-term care, mental health, prison nurse, school nurse, clinic, surgery center, management, legal, hospice, home care, rehab, writing, teaching, care management, infusion, etc. Even if travel nursing didn’t exist, I would never have stayed in the same job my whole career. There are a lot of nurses/humans out there like me. Wonder, change, following your heart, following your knowing; whatever it is for us, we know when it’s time to move on and thankfully in the world of nursing and healthcare there will always be a place.

This is what is feeding my nurse’s soul. What is feeding yours? What is good for your nurse’s soul right now?