Since starting travel nursing a year and a half ago, I’ve built up a six-figure investment portfolio, funded an emergency fund to cover a year’s worth of expenses, and taken over 5 months off to travel to over a dozen new countries. Let’s talk about this.

What Is Travel Nursing?

When speaking to people about my occupation, 95% of the time I am met with one of two responses. The first being, “So you make big money,” and the second being, “What is travel nursing?” Those who know anything about travel nursing know we earn a much higher salary than nurses who work as regular staff at hospitals, but many don’t understand why, or what it even means to be a travel nurse. Let me explain to you the basics of travel nursing, as well as how it transformed my life at the age of 21 into a life of prosperity and adventure. 

What is Travel Nursing?

Travel nursing is a way for hospitals to temporarily fill in holes in their staffing needs while they search for full-time staff. Nurses typically use travel nursing agencies to sign 13-week contracts with their desired hospital. 

Do Travel Nurses Get To Pick Where They Work?

One misconception that I’ve come across is that the travel nursing agency picks the location for the nurse, but this is simply not true. Nurses are needed everywhere across the globe, so we are able to choose exactly where we want to travel to. While pay packages may vary between locations, the final decision is up to us.

Why Do Travel Nurses Earn A Higher Salary Than Staff Nurses?

Staff nurses are typically paid an hourly rate, period. Maybe a 401k contribution as well. Travel nurses, however, have multiple components to their paycheck. They are paid an hourly rate, but they are also paid for their housing, meal, and incidentals– called stipends. These stipends are tax-free, and contribute to the large weekly paycheck travel nurses receive. Oftentimes, travel nurses are also paid reimbursements for their travel costs, scrubs, certification/licensing fees, etc. Many agencies now offer retirement benefits as well, such as a 401k account. Even more, agencies usually offer sign-on bonuses, completion bonuses, referral bonuses, and extension bonuses which add hundreds of dollars to the contract. Because hospitals have urgent staffing needs, and they know these travel nurses are a temporary solution, a higher pay rate is offered to ensure faster recruitment. 

What Qualifications Are Required to Become A Travel Nurse?

Most agencies require 1-2 years experience in your specialty to apply to hospitals. Personally, I worked about 16 months in my specialty prior to signing my first travel contract. Additionally, you need to be licensed in the state in which you work. For all of my assignments, my agencies have helped arrange licensing and I have been reimbursed for all of the application fees and other related fees. 

How Long Are Typical Travel Nursing Assignments?

The most common length for a travel contract is 13 weeks, although I have signed a couple of 8-week contracts, and I’ve seen 16-week contracts available as well. I have also extended a couple of my contracts, as nurses are able to extend their location for up to a year as a traveler. 

What Are the Benefits of Being a Travel Nurse?

I could write for hours about the benefits of travel nursing. It offers tax advantages, exposure to new hospitals and units which contribute to a more well-rounded nursing experience, development of flexibility and resilience due to minimal orientation at each hospital, and an unmatched work life balance due to the three-day work week. 

However, the top two benefits I have enjoyed as a travel nurse are high weekly salary and incredible flexibility. These two in combination have given me, now a 22-year-old, the life of my dreams. I will tell you how.

How I Got Into Travel Nursing at Age 21

My ambitions of becoming a travel nurse started in high school. Starting my Junior year, right after I got my driver’s license at age 16, I started taking a full-time load of college courses at my local community college through a program in Washington called Running Start. I took extra courses and summer courses to complete my prerequisites and start in the nursing program my Senior year of high school. Starting this young (as well as taking extra courses, summer courses, and an online RN to BSN program) allowed me to graduate with my Bachelors Degree in Nursing at the age of 19. 

I started on a Med/Surg unit at a local hospital and sixteen months later I applied to my first travel assignment through a travel nursing agency. I signed the contract, put in my two-weeks at my staff job, and moved to Portland for my first assignment. 

When I started my first travel assignment, I immediately quadrupled (yes, quadrupled) my salary. This was working the same, three-day/36 hour work week. 

My first assignment was 8 weeks long. The day after my contract ended, I was on a plane to Europe. I spent a month with my best friend traveling to several European countries and spent less than a weeks wage. In three shifts, I had earned enough to travel Europe for a month, visiting major cities such as London, Paris, Venice, Amsterdam, and Barcelona, just to name a few. On a private balcony in Greece, I signed my next contract at a hospital in the San Francisco Bay Area that would start a few days after we returned. 

Between my last contract, I took off two months to visit family and travel to Japan and South Korea with a friend. On my current contract, I used one of my weekly four-days-off stretches to take a quick trip to Bermuda. Similarly, I have been able to take quick trips to Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, New York, and Vegas thanks to those lovely four days off every week.

Over-abundant weekly salary and insane flexibility. This is what has allowed me to live the life of my dreams. And I’m just getting started.

I’m Planning the Next Chapters – Join Me

As I continue this journey of travel nursing, I plan to continually improve my personal finances as well as pursue a wide range of travel adventures. I’d love to share insights, tips, and personal experiences with you. I’d be honored for you to join me in this journey of personal fulfillment and financial prosperity. Whether you’re already a travel nurse, an aspiring travel nurse, a nursing student, or just curious about the world of travel nursing and what it has to offer, I’d like to invite you to this community. Welcome!