Travel nursing is one of the most exciting career paths, but at the same time, it is also challenging. Sometimes it becomes difficult to manage the personal life and professional life at the same time. Having family support as a travel nurse makes many things easy, especially when you have kids.
If you are connecting with a good staffing agency, it already makes it easy to travel nursing with family. Today in this blog, we will explore Can travel nurses bring their families and the best tips for travel nursing with a family.
What is a Travel Nurse?
A travel nurse is a highly skilled person hired by healthcare staffing agencies in the medical sector. They work temporarily on a contract basis for hospitals and other healthcare providers at various locations. The travel nurse gets amazing benefits and services like housing assistance, complete travel management, and healthcare benefits. They mainly work for 13 weeks to one year in various locations.
Moreover, travel nursing is the best way to get experience in various healthcare settings like clinics, hospitals, and other healthcare sectors. It also allows them to work with new medical technology and equipment and gain understanding by working with highly experienced doctors in other hospitals. Travel nurses have the flexibility to choose the location where they want to work, which helps them handle their personal lives with their careers.
Travel nurses must be able to adjust quickly to different environments and work with their colleagues. It is a must to have excellent communication and critical thinking skills. Being a part of healthcare, they need to understand the different healthcare facilities and treat several patients with different needs.
The salary of travel nurses is better than that of permanent nurses. Their salary package completely depends upon location, specialty, and experience. Travel nurses don’t have the benefits of health insurance, retirement plans, and paid time off that other permanent nurses enjoy. They also enjoy travel reimbursement, housing stipend, and bonuses.
Can travel nurses bring their families?
Can travel nurses bring their families? The answer is yes !! They can bring their families with them on their projects. The decision will be taken under the same factor considering the family size, age of the kids, etc. Travel nursing staffing agencies help them find the best house for their family or look for other accommodations. Under this apartments with multi bedrooms, full-furnished houses, etc. will come.
Moreover, travel nursing with kids will be easy because agencies can help them arrange childcare services for their kids. Agencies also recommend the local schools, their resources, and other essential places for the children to help families adjust to a new location.
Travel nurses can also go as single moms, which can be a rewarding experience for them. One of the benefits of traveling nursing as a single mother is that she receives free accommodations, flexible schedules, free travel, and the opportunity to meet new people and see the country.
Tips for travel nursing with a family
Travel Nurses get the chance and the flexibility to explore the country while earning with their families. But, sometimes, it becomes challenging to manage all the things. We have brought some amazing tips for travel nursing with a family. Let’s learn about these:
Become a Master in Packing
It is one of the main tips for travel nurses; you should become a pro at packing things. If you have young kids, it is tough to get everything packed. First, you need to make a list to make this thing easy. You must pack only the things that you need and try to minimize the amount of luggage. It will help you to manage them. Make sure you pack all the things remembered, or you can just name the luggage so that at the time of unboxing, it will sort out your things easily.
Involve your Family in Decision Making
It is important for a travel nurse to always involve your family in decision-making. Your work and their thoughts are both equally important, just don’t dominate them and ask for travel. Sit and have long discussions with them and understand their thoughts and feelings.
Build a Travel Plan
Once you get to know the location of your travel, just make a rough plan. What are the best places at that location, and if you have young kids, what is best for them? You can consult an agency whether they are offering a home or not. So you can be mentally prepared for what you must do after reaching your location. One important thing while planning is to make your family part of it because it is also a new change in their life. Then create a schedule, and make your plans, including your trips to explore the new location if possible.
Plan your effective days off
Day offs are one of every working person’s most important parts, especially when you have young kids. If you are a travel nurse with the kids, your day off is very important. Remember, don’t spoil your day off washing laundry or grocery shopping. Explore the city you are living in with your family so they also feel happy and you enjoy quality time with your family. You also need a break to spend a day with yourself.
Work as a Teammate
One of the most important tips for a travel nurse is always working as a teammate in your shift, but when you travel with family, it also fits in the family part. You can split the responsibility of your home, like when you are on your assignment and your husband is taking care of the children. It will also help you in balancing your work and personal life. Great teamwork is only achieved through proper communication, trust, and sharing your responsibilities equally.
Therefore, these tips help travel nursing do their work with ease. Working with a staffing agency will make things easy for travel nurses, especially when traveling with their families. They offer amazing benefits like housing, schooling, and other local needs.