How To Ease Anxiety for First-Time Travel Nurses

Travel nursing is a great opportunity for increased pay, adventure, and professional development, but it’s also a big lifestyle change.

Here’s why it’s totally normal to feel a little nervous about your first travel nursing experience — and some tips to make the transition to travel nursing a little bit easier.

 

Tips to Prepare for Your First Travel Nursing Assignment

These tips for first-time travel nurses can help make for a smoother transition as you embark on an exciting new career path. It’s impossible to be completely prepared, especially in a field like nursing, but the unexpected is even more common for travel nurses. Despite having several years of bedside experience, it can still be scary going into the unknown and unpredictable — especially for a first-time traveler. 

Here are the top tips for first-time travel nurses that will help make the transition from staff nurse to your first travel assignment easier.

1. Triple-check your contract
2. Verify the take-home pay
3. Find the right recruiter. If the vibe isn’t right, switch recruiters and/or travel nursing agencies.
4. Embrace the unknown and experience the new adventure
5. Get organized
6. Make copies of ALL of your licenses and certifications
7. Open a checking and savings account at a national bank (ex. Wells Fargo, Chase, Bank of America, PNC)
8. Ensure the time off is written into the contract
9. Determine if you are interested in company-provided housing or taking a housing stipend and finding your own accommodations
10. Downsize your belongings, especially clothes and shoes
11. Join local Facebook groups for an easier transition to a new location
12. Don’t be afraid to take your first assignment closer to family and friends
13. Don’t accept a position if the pay seems off
14. Arrive at your new location ahead of the start date so you can get settled before your first day and orientation
15. Make friends with co-workers at your assignment
16. If you have a pet, prepare to take them with you by setting up dog walking services, doggie daycare options, and a new veterinary practice
17. Make sure your vaccinations and health screenings are up to date
18. If you own a home, prepare to rent or sell — depending on your situation
19. Go in with an open mind!
20. Don’t be afraid to explore on your own
21. Be patient with your coworkers and new work environment
22. Have an open mind with patient assignments

It’s important to remember that travel assignments are short-term, and if the location, hospital, and situation are not a good fit, you can always try somewhere new for the next assignment. If the assignment is everything you hoped for, speak with your recruiter early to see if an extension is possible. If not, keep the location on your radar for future possibilities.

 

How To Make Your First Travel Nursing Experience Easier

Our first experience and many contracts later, we have some tips to help ease your mind if you're just starting out in your travel nursing career. These tips will help you with any first-time travel nursing jitters, and hopefully, they’ll help you avoid the panic we felt.

What are Some Universal Experiences all First-Time Travelers Go Through?

I believe everybody’s experience is unique to their situation and background. But I would imagine that most first-time travelers experience some sort of anxiety on a level similar to us. It’s just a new experience, and there are a lot of unknowns until you are actually there and living it. Do your homework beforehand, try to go into it open-mindedly, and enjoy the incredible opportunity.

What are Some Common Fears of First-Time Travelers?

A common source of anxiety for rookie travelers (or veterans for that matter) is the new hospital and its staff. Are they traveler-friendly? Will I catch on and fit in fast? How much training will I receive? Will I be good at this? Will I like being a travel nurse?

When you’re doing your job search, it’s good to ask plenty of questions during the interview process, including:

• Does the hospital have travel nurses often?
• How have staff nurses responded to travelers in the past?
• What will orientation be like?

Asking these questions can help you get a sense of what the new assignment might be like before you commit to it — and ease any anxiety about your travel nursing job.

What are Some Tips for Fitting in at a New Hospital?

Even when you’re still interviewing, it pays to be friendly.

Once you start your job, it helps to be flexible and a team player. You can’t walk into a hospital and say “Well at so-and-so hospital we did it this way.” That’s a sure-fire way to annoy the staff. Embrace new ways of doing things at different hospitals. Make it clear that you are there to help and learn, and staffing nurses will usually embrace that and be very welcoming.

---

Logistics To Consider As a First-Time Travel Nurse

If you're anything like me, I can minimize my stress by planning for things ahead of time. Consider these common travel nursing to do's beforehand to help check them off your list early to stay less stressed.

• Travel nursing jobs will generally require that you have at least two years of experience.
• Make sure you have your licensing and any required paperwork completed before you leave for your assignment. Double and triple-check with your travel nursing agency that your file is squared away, your licensure is up to date, and you are ready to begin your assignment.
• Have in writing the date, time, and location you are supposed to show up to work. Oftentimes, the first day isn’t at the hospital, so make sure you know where you’re supposed to be, when you’re supposed to be there — and what the dress code is.
• Be aware of how long it should take you to get from your hometown to your assignment, and allow extra time for possible mishaps along the way (including wrong turns, bad weather, or a flat tire). Scouting the commute beforehand will reduce day-of stress and help get you there on time. You want to make a good first impression!
• If you are taking company-provided housing, make sure you know when you can move in and when you have to be out (typically 2 days on each end).
• Working with a travel nursing agency will give you the opportunity to evaluate several different travel nursing assignments. Different assignments will mean different housing stipends, compensation packages, and types of healthcare facilities, so a recruiter can help you compare plenty of choices at once.

---

Our Travel Nursing Story

Longtime Dream

My husband Skylar and I have both always had a passion for travel. As our relationship developed, travel nursing was always our goal. People sometimes ask us: “Why do you have to travel?” But the truth is we don’t have to, we want to! We love the excitement!

We worked toward this nursing career goal very hard in the early years of our relationship. So when the time finally came to take the leap, we were ecstatic! No hesitation whatsoever. We couldn’t wait to pack our bags and hit the ground running.

Panic Sets In

When we arrived in Los Angeles for our first travel nursing assignment, we both had a moment of panic. We arrived in the city, checked in to our apartment, and went to grab a bite to eat at nearby Universal CityWalk. While sitting at dinner, we both called our moms to let them know we had made it and all of a sudden, we both broke down crying.

It’s funny to consider that now. But we had been so excited to finally be living our dream that we never once stopped to think about the fact that we were moving from a small rural town in Missouri to the second-largest city in the US.

We panicked — though in hindsight, that seems like a normal part of the process.

We had visited L.A. a couple of times on vacations, but all of a sudden, the thought of living there on our own was terrifying. We didn’t know where the grocery store was (or Target!) — or which neighborhoods were safe and which ones we should avoid.

At that moment, our excitement turned to terror. What had we done?! What were we thinking?! Why didn’t we just take an assignment in Kansas City or even Dallas before we ventured halfway across the country on our own?!

We cried through most of our dinner, but by the end of it, we had decided to stop worrying. We would go to our new home, make the bed, and get some rest. We vowed that we would wake up in the morning with new attitudes and start exploring our new city so that everything wouldn’t be so scary or unknown anymore.

New Day, New Outlook

In truth, we were exhausted. We’d been traveling for a week, and before that, we had been packing, sorting our belongings, and saying goodbye to friends and family. We were physically and emotionally drained, and all of that was compounded by the realization that we were (for the first time ever) truly on our own and far away from home. But after a good night’s sleep, we both woke up excited again and ready to venture out and do some exploring.

We got very lucky on that first travel assignment and made new friends quickly. It was great to connect with nursing co-workers who shared our interest in adventure.

We literally spent nearly every single non-working day of that four-month contract doing some sort of new activity. We stayed busy, and we had a blast. That first assignment was all we had dreamed travel nursing would be and we were officially hooked! It took some time to adjust but once we got over the shock, we realized it was a lifestyle we love!

Don’t Forget to Enjoy the Adventure

Travel nursing is a lot of fun. That first assignment can feel like a leap of faith. But if you prepare yourself ahead of time as best as you possibly can, you’ll be better able to enjoy the adventure. Before you know it, travel nursing will feel like second nature — and you’ll be enjoying the adventure!