Why Travel Nursing?

I knew after graduating undergrad that I wanted to go to Nursing school. With a Bachelors Degree already, it took me 6 months after graduation to find and start a Master's Entry Program. I knew I wanted to work in Labor and Delivery and I knew I wanted to work near home. I knew about travel nursing and the rates, but wasn't too keen on being away from my family. So, I added travel nursing to my bucket list. But, within my first year I was burnt out, frustrated, exhausted all the time, and felt generally unhappy with my job. I needed a change.

6 months after graduation I got my first job as a Labor and Delivery nurse in downtown Chicago, which was not an hour commute, but the only hospital that offered me a job, so I was grateful. I worked night shift and we were required to pick up 2 on call shifts, 2 thursdays, and 2 sundays every 6 weeks. Which doesn't seem too difficult, but BELIEVE ME, it can be very restricting. No vacation days outside of your accrued PTO, which you might not even be able to plan for in the event that someone with seniority asked for those days as well. No time for a social life and it would take months for me to be eligible to switch to day shift. I'd have anywhere between 2-3 deliveries and recoveries a night. Due to our hospital status and census everyone had 2 patients about 85% of the time. I found myself dreading going to work every day. I even considered going back to school to get another degree because I started to hate bedside nursing. I needed a change. When I was approaching my one year mark I started looking into travel nursing. I read blogs from other travel nurses, followed travel nurse instagrams, podcasts, anything I could get my hands on to learn about travel nursing.

I started my first official travel assignment in March of 2022. One of the main problems I had with staff nursing was the lack of and uncertainty of PTO. Since March, I've been on 5 getaways/vacations. I was even able to travel to and from home to work Per Diem every 6 weeks. All without using my accrued PTO. As a travel nurse, I have to ability to get the days off that I want. This flexibility has been a game changer for me as a nurse. When I'm feeling burnt out or exhausted, I have my scheduled off days to rest and go on small getaways or vacations. I also have the option to work extra if I want, but I'm not required to like I was as a staff nurse. Additionally, my rate of pay is higher which is definitely a bonus. I'm able to pay off more of my student loans, save, travel, and not live paycheck to paycheck like I did as a staff nurse. Overall, travel nursing has made me a lot happier by allowing me more freedom financially and with my personal time. Definitely grateful I decided to go on this adventure and able to check this off my bucket list!