If you love traveling but also want to make a career in the healthcare industry, you can become a travel nurse. A travel nurse is a registered nurse who takes on the role of nurse in a hospital or healthcare facility on a short-term contract. These temporary contracts allow them to move from one location to another. Travel nurses are in high demand in developing countries. Since these countries don’t have enough qualified and trained nurses, they are always looking to add professional staff to fill the gaps.
People with a passion for adventure and travel cannot restrict themselves to permanent nursing jobs. For such travel enthusiasts, this can be an ideal career choice. So, how can you become one? Well, let us explain the 10 important steps to becoming a travel nurse.
- Qualification
The first step towards becoming a travel nurse is getting the required education. Depending on your current location, the degree of nursing can differ. For example, ADN (Associate Degree in Nursing) or ASN (Associate of Science in Nursing) are the prerequisites to becoming a nurse in the US & Canada. In the UK, a BSc in Nursing is required to work as a nurse. So, before moving on to the next steps, you must first complete your basic education to qualify as a nurse.
- Examination
The next step in your travel nurse journey is to pass a standardized exam in your country. Again the requirements vary from country to country. In the US, the National Council Licensure Examination exam or NCLEX exam is the standard exam to become a registered nurse.
On the other hand, the NMC UK Exam is essential for nurses and midwives for license acquisition.
If you want to work in countries other than the US, UK, and Canada, you may have to pass the standard exam of the respective country.
- Experience
Although a general experience in nursing is enough to start your career as a travel nurse, it is always better to get specialised experience. This allows you to choose a specific field. Getting hands-on experience in a certain area is also recommended because as a travel nurse, you can put that in your resume.
There are many specialties from which you can choose. However, the most sought-after categories include ICU, ER, TELE, MS, CVICU, CathLab, PICU, PEDS & OR. So, it’s best to specialise and give your travel nursing career a boost.
- Get Tax Assurance
Most of the time, travel nurses are given tax-free salary packages to some extent. However, it’s best to check with your agency before securing a job in a different country. To avoid any future complications in taxes, it’s best to get assurance from your agency about tax compliance and maintaining your legitimate tax home. It is crucial to get a professional tax evaluation to qualify for tax-free compensation, otherwise, you might have to pay income tax on your earnings throughout the year.
- Evaluate Your Needs
Before choosing an agency or your next location, make sure you do all your research. It is important to put your needs above anything else. Before picking a location, you can compare pay packages from different agencies and choose the best package.
- Check The Benefits
When choosing packages, some of them may feel more extravagant or complicated to you. However, the best way to pick one is to see some essential benefits such as housing, rental cars, travel stipends, and other basic facilities.
- Pick The Best Agency
Once everything else is finalized, pick the perfect agency. How can you find one? Well, that’s easy. The agency that can get you what you need to make your travel nursing career successful, convenient, and beneficial is the one you should choose. Meet the people, talk to them, and make sure they have all the answers to your queries.
- Keep Your Profile Up To Date
Maintaining your profile is a tiring task. However, if you want to stay in the nursing business, you’ll have to ensure that all the boxes are check. When agencies submit the profiles of nurses to a hospital or a healthcare center, they are asked to fill out all the paperwork and you might have to go through this labour again and again.
However, you can also put the agency in charge and they can fill all the paperwork for you and keep your profile optimized for every new contract.
- Ensure Your Documentation Is Complete
You may lose an opportunity because of incomplete paperwork. To ensure that doesn’t happen, make sure you have compiled all your documents according to the requirements of the healthcare industry and hospitals. This will allow you to share your documents with your next employers without any delay.
- Start Applying For Your First Nursing Assignment
Start applying for the job you have been planning on doing. This may seem like the final step but practically, it’s your first step toward achieving your dream job. Once you start applying, you’ll also have to stay prepared for interviews, contract negotiations, sharing expectations and finally coming to an agreement.
You can also talk to people who are already working as travel nurses as their experience can help you with your upcoming career requirements.
We hope that the steps mentioned above will help you kickstart your career as a travel nurse. To learn more about the nursing trends, tips, and more, keep reading our blog.
