What Does a Travel Nurse Do?

Travel nursing responsibilities are not too different from those held by staff nurses in any given specialty. Since travel nurses take contracts focused on their primary specialty, the specialty-specific responsibilities remain fairly constant (unless changing from facility to facility or nursing care demographic). 

For example, a Pediatric Nurse that has worked in a local pediatric department for more than two years decides to become a travel nurse. This nurse would most likely select and apply for travel nursing positions at children’s hospitals or in pediatric units. The main difference between this nurse working as a travel nurse rather than a staff nurse is that the pediatric nursing jobs this nurse is considering will likely be outside of their current state.

As with most nursing roles, typical responsibilities and expectations may include:

• Acting as the first point of contact with a patient and thus tasked with examining them, taking their vitals, and discussing their current symptoms and health histories
• Responding to any immediate questions or concerns they may have about their current condition or their future health goals
• Maintaining responsibility for appropriate medication delivery and treatment
• Providing research or further investigation into treatment plans alongside or for the on-call physician
• Working with other staff and healthcare providers at your facility to provide the most impactful, equitable, and effective patient care possible

How Does Travel Nursing Work?

Traditionally, once a registered nurse has the required experience, licensure, and certifications, they will contact (or be contacted by) a travel nursing agency. Most agency models work through what is called a Managed Service Participant (MSP), an adjoining Vendor Management System (VMS), and are heavily reliant upon travel nursing recruiters.

Once making contact with a recruiter (or being sought out by one), nurses will then share their job preferences or be offered currently available positions in a variety of care settings around the country. This is the system that has been in place for the most part since the 1980s.

However, There Are Drawbacks To The Traditional Model

1. Dealing with a recruiter can make or break your travel nursing experience 

Sometimes the knowledge and support they can provide is hugely helpful, but other times, they become the bane of your existence, calling and texting you every other week to sell you on a new opportunity (think of them as salespeople looking to hit quarterly quotas). 

2. Working with a recruiter usually means less money for you

While the average travel nurse salary is higher than that of their staff nurse counterpart, given that the process to find you a travel assignment and get you hired is carried out by the recruiter (and their respective nursing agency), a large portion of your “bill rate,” or what the hospital is willing to pay for you, is eaten up by these middle men. This means you get paid less weekly than you could be making.

3. The logistical burden of working with multiple travel nursing agencies

If you work with one agency on one travel nursing contract and then another a few months later, you’ll have to reproduce all of the paperwork and legal material again for the second agency. Why would you switch agencies? 

Sometimes the job you want is only available through one agency or recruiter, and staying flexible is the name of the game if you want to find the best opportunity for you. Don’t get us wrong, this model still works, but having not changed much in the past four decades leaves a lot of room for improvement.

What Do We Recommend? A More Modern Approach

Rather than going through a traditional travel nursing agency and attached recruiters, find your next travel nursing job through a job marketplace, like Trusted. Job marketplaces give you the agency in finding your next opportunity.

For example, with Trusted you create your own profile, which houses all of your official information (resume, nurse licensure, certifications, etc.) in one place, so no matter which opportunity you apply for, you don’t have to collect all the paperwork and share it again and again. 

You can fine-tune your profile to your job preferences, which allows a matching algorithm to only show you the best nursing jobs for you—the ones that actually match all of your desired preferences (location, salary, length, shifts, etc.).

Your Trusted Care Team will walk you through the entire process without nagging you before, during, or after your travel nurse assignment. Your Trusted Care Team is composed of onboarding and compliance, travel nursing veterans, and Trusted specialists, who walk alongside your travel nursing journey with you. In addition to your Nurse Advocate, who’ll be your partner in your travel job search, you’ll also have dedicated guidance during onboarding, while you’re working, and all the moments in between. 

And the best part? No recruiters. Your Trusted team is not compensated based on any kind of quota; their only goal is ensure that you’re matched with the best job for you and receive proactive support along the way. 

We’re so excited to introduce this new improvement in the travel nursing industry, and we can’t wait to hear what you think after you try it out for yourself — whether you’re a first-time travel nurse or a veteran.

What Are You Waiting For?

If you’re interested in experiencing what traveling with a Care Team is like, sign up for a free Trusted profile and begin receiving personalized job matches today.