MDedge|Cardiology
Jodi Helmer
Ashly Doran has worked at seven hospitals in four states since she graduated from nursing school in 2020. No, she isn’t job-hopping. Her travel nursing assignments have ranged from level 1 trauma center emergency rooms in big cities to small medical-surgical units in the suburbs. After each 13-week assignment, Doran packs up her belongings and her cats and moves to a new post.
“Travel nursing is so flexible,” she said. “I decide where I want to go and how much I want to make and start looking for travel contracts in that area.”
Nationwide nursing shortages have forced hospitals to hire travel nurses to fill staffing gaps. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for travel nurses increased by 35%. While there is still a demand for nurses to fill short-term contracts, data show that demand has declined 42% between January and July 2022 and has continued the downward trend.
“What we’re seeing now is a shift…to a pre-pandemic market,” said Rachel Neill, RN, senior clinician advocate at Vivian Health. “Travel [nursing] is not going away — there will always be a need for hospital systems and facilities to fill gaps — but hospitals have shifted more into a traditional … operational environment.”
Traveling a Different Path
For some registered nurses (RNs), short-term assignments offer opportunities to gain experience in different facilities or explore new locations before settling into permanent positions. Even experienced RNs embrace travel nursing for the flexible schedules and opportunities to take longer breaks between contracts.
Burnout and turnover among nurses are high, and flexible schedules, including controlling when to work, are essential to sustaining a clinical nursing career. In fact, 34% of nurses called travel nursing an “ideal option” for their lifestyle, with 14% viewing it as an option for career progression.
Travel nursing is especially appealing to Millennials and Generation Z, according to Brian Weirich, RN, chief nurse innovation officer at Bon Secours Mercy Health in Cincinnati, Ohio. In fact, the average age of a travel nurse is 35 compared with an average age of 52 for all RNs.
These are generations that are more focused on reducing school loan debt and gaining experience, not 401(k) and health insurance, he said in an interview. Pay is also a factor. The average pay for travel nurses was $2588 per month, compared with $1375 for permanent staff nurses.
During the pandemic, Weirich recalls groups of nurses resigning to take travel assignments together. The RNs picked desirable locations, accepted short-term assignments, and moved together, “making top dollar in locations they wanted to explore with their best friends.”
It’s been more than a decade since Kelly Spurlock traded a permanent nursing role in Lake Placid, Florida, for short-term nursing contracts in intensive care units in 20 states.
Spurlock works with a recruiter at Ingenovis Health to secure new contracts and considers travel assignments “working vacations.” In the process of exploring new places and meeting new people, Spurlock believes that travel nursing allows her to prioritize patient care.
“I can be at the bedside and be an advocate for my patient but also keep out of the spotlight for the political part of what we do,” she explained.
The Road Ahead
The appeal of travel nursing is taking new nursing assignments in different cities and earning higher salaries, but there are downsides, too. Travel nurses often receive fewer benefits than staff nurses and end up with less favorable assignments; their levels of dissatisfaction and burnout are also higher, and their sense of work-life balance is lower than staff nurses.
Most travel contracts last between 4 and 13 weeks. Hospitals often put policies and practices in place that limit the number of back-to-back contracts that traveling nurses can accept, which means that RNs can either convert to core staff or move on to new assignments once their contract term is up.
Weirich noted that some hospitals devote considerable effort to recruiting traveling nurses to full-time roles, adding, “There are active initiatives … to make it such a good experience that they want to stay.”
On the flip side, contracts can be terminated without notice, leaving traveling nurses scrambling to find a new assignment and a new place to live on short notice.
“You’re there as long as the hospital needs you,” said Neill. “You could sign a 12- or 15-week contract, and their needs change a month in, and … there are budget cuts, and they can’t pay salaries anymore, so they are laying off their nurses.”
Declining demand for travel nurses has made it harder to line up back-to-back contracts. Despite being available for work, Doran once waited 6 weeks to secure a new assignment and had to live off her savings.
Spurlock believes increased competition and declining wages — pay for travel nurses declined more than 9% from January 2023 to January 2024 — have made travel nursing less attractive.
“There has been such an influx of travel nurses … because of COVID,” said Spurlock. “The rates have now come down [and] everybody’s fighting for jobs, and … it’s very difficult to get a job that’s paying decent money.”
Despite the challenges, Spurlock continues learning new things from each assignment and hopes to work as a travel nurse until retirement. Doran has worked at hospitals in Washington, Oregon, California, and Wisconsin and would like to add Montana, Utah, and Nevada to the list. The goal: Continue accepting assignments in different cities and states until she finds the place where she wants to put down roots.
“Nursing is a great job, but it’s a hard job [and] it can take its toll at times,” Neill said. It’s important that nurses know their goals and values to be able to find a good fitting position. “And the beauty of it is that travel can be a great way to explore and add some flexibility.”
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
