Many professionals face harsh physical and emotional demands in their jobs, but none more than the Registered Nurse. Constantly on their feet and making, literally, life and death decisions on a daily basis can take its toll.

The Registered Nurse, unlike other professionals, has available a unique opportunity to reduce stress and burnout–travel nursing.

You see, some 20 States participate in the Nurse Licensure Compact Agreement and that list is growing year by year. Participating states have reciprocal agreements with each other allowing nurses licensed and residing in one member state to practice in any other member state.

The nation’s permanent nursing shortage has reached one million. As a result, travel nurses are desperately needed to provide temporary relief in hospitals that are short-staffed. There are no viable solutions on the table for the nation’s nursing shortfall. Nothing contained in the Healthcare Reform bill seriously addresses the crisis. The problem of dwindling faculty qualified to teach our would-be nursing professionals has not been addressed! In short, demand for travel nurses will only continue to grow because our educational infrastructure cannot matriculate enough nurses to close the gap.

So why is travel nursing is one answer to RN’s on the verge of burnout? The answer is: control!

Travel nurses pick and choose where they want to work and when they want to work.

Travel nursing affords you the opportunity to enhance your financial situation by earning as much as 20% more than a permanent staff nurse. Your emotional well-being is enhanced by having the freedom of choice unavailable to nurses in permanent staff positions.

If this sounds good to you, read on for more details and suggestions about getting started in this exciting field.

Travel nursing jobs generally have a duration from 13 to 52 weeks. Under the right circumstances you may reasonably expect to be provided housing or at the very least, assistance with housing expenses.

Many hospitals will attempt to recruit travel nurses that perform well in their job. Knowing your services are wanted gives you, the travel nurse, greater control in converting this temporary position into a permanent position if you so choose.

Here are some tips about finding these opportunities. Many of the larger health care providers recruit their own travel nurses, but the simplest route to a travel nursing position is to sign up with an agency that specializes in recruiting travel nurses. The fees can take a bite out of your earnings but this is outweighed by several positives:

1. You are offered several job options that meet your selection criteria
2. You are assured decent housing or a fair housing subsidy
3. Your recruiter does all the grunt work of searching out available positions
4. Your recruiter arranges licensing if your assignment takes you from your home state
5. Your recruiter will assist you in resolving problems and any other concerns encountered

First timers should consider using the services of a nursing recruiter. Although it is exciting traveling to new places to live and to work, it can be intimidating! With a recruiter, you have a support system that can be of significant value.

Author Bio: Winston P. McDonald enjoys writing for Uniformhaven.com which sells scrubs free shipping and cheap landau scrubs as well as a host of additional products.

Category: Career
Keywords: travel nursing,registered nurse,travel nurse, travel nursing job