Career growth thrives with varied experience
Travelers learn new techniques, technology and approaches

By Michelle Clark, R.N.

Meeting the next challenge in your career as a professional nurse means taking stock of your current situation. Think about your workplace today: Does it interest you? Are you learning new ways to take care of your patients? Are you providing healthcare to encompass all types of illnesses? Are you using the skills you want to use or honing new ones?

Answering "no" to any of these should prompt you to consider an option that will change your answer to “yes.” That option is travel nursing. Travel nursing offers you the opportunity to work with the latest technology and to be introduced to fresh ideas and approaches to nursing issues you face daily. You will experience new patient populations, coworkers who have different ways of doing things and health systems all seeking to provide excellent patient care but each doing it in a slightly different way.

Georgia Scott, RN, a traveling nurse with Onward Healthcare, had the same job for 20 years. As a staff nurse, Scott was in a rut and wanted to learn more about how different hospitals approach patient care. She wanted to learn about new techniques and technology. Therefore, she became a traveler.

Now, she says, she is really learning. Travel added that pump of fresh blood to Georgia's steady but stagnant career.

OH nurse, Betty Martin, says that one of the big reasons she chose to take her first travel assignment at age 52 was to revive a stagnant career. She was spending her days caring for geriatric patients and wanted to experience different clinical scenarios. Now, as a traveler, she is utilizing new technology to care for surgical patients – even those in a less stable environment, such as accident victims.

It's a myth that travelers travel more for the experience of traveling and not for their careers. In fact, throughout my experience in this industry since 1985, I have seen thousands of travelers capitalize on the opportunities of working at cutting-edge institutions and learning from renowned experts in their fields. Nurses who specialize in areas such as cardiology might expand their knowledge by taking travel assignments at top cardiac centers around the country.

Geoff Pridham, Manager of Nursing Administrative Services, Stanford Hospital and Clinics, Stanford, Calif., agrees that travel is an opportunity to learn about new aspects of medicine. He says that nurses can best jump on the opportunities by being open-minded.

“We have programs, like our bone marrow transplant program, in which we will take travelers and train them as long as they have oncology experience or have worked in the ICU and are willing to learn,” Pridham says.

Pridham encourages travelers who want to experience new technology, types of medicine and patient populations to be willing to float while on assignments. An oncology nurse, for example, who agrees to float, might go to orthopedics to experience a different patient population and learn new patient care skills. This expanded experience makes the nurse more valuable in future long-term or travel assignments, according to Pridham.

“Hospitals look for nurses who have expanded horizons,” he says.

Here are some other things to think about when taking stock of your career growth: Does your current work environment demoralize your spirit daily? Are you bored? To what extent do you find your work meaningful? Considering these questions should help you decide if it is time to take action. Be truthful with yourself.

Travel, I think, is a perfect opportunity to expand your horizons as a healthcare provider and broaden your knowledge base. Learning and growing should be your focus for each and every travel assignment.