Working in healthcare can be exhausting as you have to work long hours and you are often stuck in the same location. If you are someone who loves to travel and explore new places, working as a nurse can get boring pretty quickly. And if you get bored, you will also feel less satisfied with your job.
However, if you become a travel nurse, you can get rid of that boredom by exploring new places regularly. Since travel nursing isn’t very common, it makes sense for people to have questions and concerns about it. However, weighing the pros and cons of travel nursing can help you find the answers you are looking for.
Pros of Travel Nursing
Here are some of the benefits of becoming a travel nurse:
Biggest Advantage of Travel Nursing: High Pays & Benefits
When anyone considers a career path, the average salary is often the first thing they check. If you wish to become a travel nurse, you will be glad to know that it comes with high pay. The average annual salary of travel nurses in the UK is £39,049 as compared to the average annual salary of £35,982 for a nurse.
Travel nurses also get to enjoy a list of unique benefits including travel reimbursement, bonuses, free housing, and dental coverage. They also get assistance from their employers or agencies with obtaining visas. You can get higher salaries and more benefits as a travel nurse if you work with a good nursing agency or hiring platform like ESGO.
Explore New Locations
Travel nurses are often given the option to review open positions in different places and choose the location that is the most desirable to them. As a result, travel nurses not only get to explore new locations, they also get to decide where they want to go.
Working as a travel nurse will give you the opportunity to visit and explore your dream destinations. You will also get to experience different cultures if you decide to work in multiple countries as a travel nurse. You can also explore different places along the way when you travel to a job destination.
Work in a Variety of Settings
Where staff nurses work at the same job in the same location for most of their careers, travel nurses can experience different work environments. Travel nurses also get to work in a variety of settings ranging from small rural clinics to huge medical centres.
Travel nurses can figure out over time which kind of environment they want to work in. From then on, travel nurses can decide to work in locations that they prefer.
Learn from Unique Professional Experiences
Staff nurses mainly perform the same duties every day. They also work with the same staff on a regular basis. On the other hand, travel nurses are tasked with different duties depending on the medical facility they are working in.
Travel nurses also get to work with different healthcare professionals regularly. As a result, travel nurses are quick to learn new things. They gain this knowledge through practical work and by observing their seniors at every job location.
Cons of Travel Nursing
Although travel nursing has plenty of benefits, there are also certain drawbacks to choosing this profession.
Move Frequently
As a travel nurse, you will have to move several times a year. As soon as they get hired, travel nurses have to pack up and move without wasting any time. Although it is good to explore new places, it can be hard to feel at home when you are constantly moving.
Regularly moving from one place to the other means you will also have to take your belongings with you everywhere. Frequently moving can also cause your belongings to get damaged.
Lack of a Community
Staff nurses who work in one place develop a strong bond with their teammates. Over the years, this bond gets strengthened by facing challenges together. However, travel nurses, on the other hand, fail to form strong bonds with their teammates because they are frequently changing locations.
Travel nurses find it hard to form lifelong connections with staff members. The lack of a supportive community often takes a toll on their mental health. Although travel nurses can join online forums to feel connected to people in the same profession, it is not the same as bonding with the people you work with.
Travel nursing can be fun but it also comes with its challenges. If you are a travel nurse looking for good employment opportunities, look no further than ESGO. ESGO can help you find jobs that not only pay well but also flexible schedules.