JENNIFER GILL

Nurses who enjoy traveling and diversified work experiences have the option of becoming a travel nurse.

In an era of staffing shortages at hospitals, travel nurses help fill any voids created by shortages or vacations.

To become a travel nurse, a nurse contacts a travel nurse company, which finds out what type of job she or he wants and locations that are of interest. The travel nurse company sets the nurse up with a job, and provides housing and insurance.

"We get them a job where they want to get a job," said Jon Perry, vice president of sales and marketing for Little Rock-based Travel Nurse Across America. "We send nurses all over the country. (Travel nursing) allows nurses to be employed and experience an area that they may not want to go to permanently."

Registered nurse Karen Teatum of Alexander, a Little Rock suburb, has been a travel nurse for the past four years of her eight year nursing career. Some of the locations at which she's worked include San Francisco, New York, Alaska, southern California and Washington, DC.

She was in Oklahoma City in March, at the only hospital to which she's returned, she said, noting the proximity to family in Arkansas.

"When I first decided to do it, I didn't even really know (travel nursing) existed," Teatum said. "I'd only heard about it vaguely. ... It kept sounding more and more interesting."

Teatum said travel nursing is good for her, both personally and professionally. "I like to go places ... if I stay in one spot too long, I get bored," she said. "For me, it keeps my job interesting. … I learn new things everywhere I go, and that works well for me. A lot of people couldn't do that because they don't accept change well ... I like the change."

Perry also pointed to a nurse's ability to continue his or her education, in a sense, by travel nursing.

"They get more experience at different hospitals and different fields," he said. "It exposes them to multiple healthcare institutions. … From a career standpoint, it gives them a broader knowledge."

Travel nursing assignments generally are at least 13 weeks long.

Perry said, for a first-time traveler, the process from initial contact with his agency to being on the ground at the nurse's first assignment takes about four weeks.

"They have to exit their job well because references are an important part of getting a new job, and we'll help them find the right job and the right location," he said. The nurse also has to interview with a hospital and determine where he or she wants to go, then undergo a background check and drug test. The time also allows the nurse to take care of utility bill forwarding and similar details at his or her home base.

"We tend to be a fairly independent bunch," Teatum said. "Due to that attitude, one of the things we all love best about (travel nursing) is the knowledge that no matter whether we dislike the hospital, or the sightseeing is not as much fun as we were expecting, or you always get dumped on by the core staff, there is always a light at the end of the tunnel for us. We've only signed up for 39 shifts."

Teatum's Oklahoma City assignment was through Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.-based InteliStaf, but she said she is listed with several travel nursing companies, "like most travel nurses."

"Which I use depends on who offers me the best money, where I want to go or gets me closest to where I want to go, or better housing with all else the same, etc.," she said. "Most travel nurses negotiate every contract with their main goal for that contract in mind."

Teatum said she also stays up to date on issues other travelers have faced through Internet messages boards, such as a travel nurse/therapists board at delphiforums.com and a travel nurse board at allnurse.com. Along with discussion about working conditions, salaries and recruiting companies, the boards also offer thoughts from other travelers about the best restaurants in certain cities and sightseeing opportunities.

Teatum said she plans to continue as a travel nurse for the foreseeable future.
"When I was in Eureka, Calif., everyone in my orientation was a traveler. We had group parties and picnics and went sightseeing," she said. "I'm actually still in touch with everyone in the group; e-mail and cell phones make life easy.
"I've met a lot of new people. ... It's just a great way to open up your horizons."


May 2007