In the first installment of this two part podcast, two of Onward Healthcare’s travel nursing recruiters address some of the most common misconceptions about travel nursing and set the record straight on what’s fact and what’s fiction.
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Peter: Welcome to an all-new episode of Travel Nursing Insider. I’m your host, Peter Clayton.
While the travel nursing profession has flourished over the last 20 years, there are still many misconceptions about working as a travel nurse. Today, we’re going to be talking to Lindsay Francis and Suzanne Johnson, travel nursing recruiters from Onward Healthcare, who are going to help set the record straight and address some of the common misperceptions and myths that are associated with travel nursing.
So guys, let’s start off by talking about travel nursing. Is it a less stable career choice during the current economy?
Lindsay: The fact of the matter is that hospitals are having shortages. The baby-boomers are getting older and at the end of the day, these hospitals have shortages and they can’t fill them all with perm staff. So we’ve actually, in the last few months, seen our open position count actually triple. So quite frankly, we see the need there and especially during these economic times, a lot of these hospitals are willing to pay more money to bring these travelers onboard. So even though it’s not a perm job, you’re probably signing up for more of a 13-week assignment. We are definitely seeing the positions grow as well as the salary ranges increase as those needs are going up.
Peter: And Lindsay, are those across the country or are there specific geographic areas that you’re seeing a lot of need?
Lindsay: You know, that’s an interesting question. I mean, certainly where the population is more heavy and condensed, we certainly see more opportunity and more needs. However, as Suzanne will agree to, we get contracts in Montana, Kansas, Idaho, Wyoming – some areas where you wouldn’t even think there would be as great of a need. So not only the big metropolitan cities but also on the outskirts in smaller community hospitals as well.
Peter: And Suzanne, talk to us a little bit about a career as a travel nurse. What does it do to your resume?
Suzanne: Definitely as a nurse, it actually really increases your marketability. What travel nursing does especially at different locations, as Lindsay alluded to, we don’t only get the major metropolitan areas. We get small, 25-bed critical access facilities in Montana that are struggling for maybe one or two ER nurses. Different levels of facilities and different levels of patient care really do increase your chances of getting another job anywhere because now you’re showing your marketability in a small market where you might be the only nurse on a 12-hour shift in an ER with only techs or your CNEs to help you versus where you work in a 400-bed level on trauma teaching facility in New York City. It shows that your marketable in both of those areas. It just means so much to put on someone’s resume when I can say this person has worked in a rural Indian reservation hospital with the Navajo people but she’s also done all of this work in Baltimore in inner city added a huge teaching facility in Johns Hopkins.
Peter: And I’m sure the cost of living is a little bit different in Montana than it is in New York City?
Suzanne: Just slightly. And believe it or not, some of our good rates come from Montana. There’s a definitely a couple of places where you would find smaller areas, smaller facilities, less people, lower census where they still need nurses. Lindsay’s right. There’s always shortages everywhere and some of these hospitals know that it’s difficult to bring in a well-trained nurse into some of these rural areas and most of those are willing to pay at actually a higher premium than some of the metropolitan ones sometimes.
Peter: You know, another misperception out there, Lindsay, is that if you work as a travel nurse, every three months you’re going to have to take on a new assignment. Can you address that for us?
Lindsay: Absolutely. In this business, we – if a nurse gets to an assignment and she’s enjoying it and the hospital’s enjoying her and there’s still a need there, our first choice is always to see if they want to renew with the same facility meaning add-on additional weeks to their contract whether that be another 13-weeks or another 8-weeks depending on what their schedule is as well. A lot of times they do actually end up renewing their travel nursing assignment at the facility that they start at one more time before going to another hospital.
And in terms of just getting back to career stability as well with that is when you get into that assignment, the first four weeks, five weeks, you probably know – is it a good fit? Is there a good connection between you and the hospital? And at that point, we would already start asking if they’re looking to renew. So we might renew a nurse and she’s only been at the hospital for one month. So they already have that job stability now for an additional two months and an additional three months after that.
Suzanne: I have a great example for Lindsay. I have a gentleman who has been working with me on and off for about three or four years now and he found a great niche at a hospital in Oklahoma where he goes. Every couple months, he goes back and takes a three-month contract and they absolutely adore him. They welcome him back with open arms every single time. It now gives him the flexibility to go work in Oklahoma, make quite a bit of money, be away from his family for a little bit, and he takes summers off every single year to hang-out with his kids when they’re off from school. So travel nursing, when you put yourself in that kind of situation, can really be a huge benefit for family time and really tailoring it to your schedule where you can take those summer months off or you can go travel with your family on vacation time.
Peter: And listen up, baby-boomers, you are not too old to work as a travel nurse. Am I right, Lindsay?
Lindsay: You’re absolutely right. In fact, I have a travel nurse and I kid you not, she’s still working with me now. She’s been with me for seven years. Her husband is a retired vet and she’s in her late 60’s. She retired from her permanent position. She takes about two or three travel contracts a year so she’s probably off about three months total out of the year. And they just travel up and down the coast in the summertime. They go up to New England or they travel to the Dakotas. And in the wintertime, they come down to Florida and they spend the wintertime there. Every year, they take December off so they can enjoy it with their grandkids and their family and be back home and they have a great experience and a great time.
And the great thing about her too is she is retired so a lot of the jobs she picks are really based on the location. It’s not based on any other factor other than going on a working vacation, not having to dip into that savings account or whatever 401K retirement you have if you’re not ready to do that yet. And at the end of the day too, people are living longer and having better lives so she does want to work a little bit longer while she still feels young enough and good enough to do it and then when she’s done, she hasn’t dipped into five, six, seven years of what she’s already saved away for retirement. So it’s actually a great idea.
I also have people that do it because they want to visit their families and visit their grandkids and same reasons – still want to be able to work. They still feel good. They’re not ready to yet close the chapter on the working experience but they also don’t want to work a perm position and deal with that all the times. So it really does give them the opportunity and the flexibility to continue working but continue working at their own rate. If they want to work six months out of the year, they’re able to do that. If they want to work one assignment out of the year, they’re able to do that. As long as their gap, their history gap, doesn’t go more than a year, they’re able to continue working.
Suzanne: One of the keywords that Lindsay and I get from the nurses that call in is empty nest or “Hi, I’m an empty nester. I don’t have anyone at home anymore. Where are we going today?” So we get that a lot. We have a lot of nurses whose spouses are retired, as Lindsay said, and they travel with them and it’s a great adventure for everyone. My nurse from Virginia traveled out to California with us. They had an RV. Her husband was still working part-time off his laptop and they just had a great time. And they have stayed with us for two or three years. She still calls in and checks in. She went home to take care of her grandkids but she checks in all the time and still talks very fondly about the trips that they made out to Arizona and where they stopped and they drove on route 66 and all these other things that they can now say they did which they never thought they’d be able to do.
Peter: It sounds like a really great lifestyle and what a great option for people who are semi-retired, still want to work but want to have flexibility to take the summer off or to take a couple of months off or take December off.
Lindsay: Absolutely. And not necessarily work the crazy hours that they would at a perm or have the same responsibilities as working a perm. They can really choose when they want to work and where they want to work.
Peter: How are travel nurses treated by permanent staff?
Lindsay: You know, on an honest answer to that is going to be every hospital has – is individual and different. And a lot of times, even within the hospital, a certain floor can be different. It is true there are a lot of facilities that are very traveler-friendly. Obviously, they’re short-staffed and they don’t want to be working five, six days a week if they don’t have to unless it’s their choice. So bringing on people to help and make the schedule easier for them, great.
Also a lot of travelers end up working the holidays which allows the permanent staff to have time off for the holidays and enjoy it with their families. So again, another positive reason to bring them in. Now, like any facility in any place you work, there’s always going to be certain hospitals, maybe certain floors, that have a reputation for being a little bit harsher on travelers. They know they’re coming in, they don’t have to deal with the hospital politics in the same regard. They may be getting paid a little bit more than some of the perm staff which, again, can certainly bring on a slight bit of negativity.
What our job as recruiters to do is kind of listen to our nurses, find out what their needs are, what they’re looking for and what kind of person they are, and just to be honest with them. There are a few facilities that do have that reputation for being tough on travelers and it’s our responsibility to let them know, “This is just an FYI. We’ve noticed that this facility has gotten a little bit of a bad reputation.”
Maybe a great question to ask during the travel nursing phone interview process with that nurse manager, find out a little bit more about the floor and exactly what it’s like. But in most cases, I will say on a 80-20, 80 being positive, most facilities are welcoming those travelers coming on assignment.
Peter: And you guys do have a 24/7 hotline here.
Lindsay: We absolutely do.
Peter: Lindsay and Suzanne, thank you very much for taking time to speak with us today on Travel Nursing Insider. I think this has been a great show.
Lindsay: Thank you.
Suzanne: Thank you.
Stay tuned for part 2 of Fact vs Fiction coming soon. Lindsay and Suzanne will tell us about resume myths, agency myths, and career paths available to travel nurses.
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