10 Tips for new travel nurses
Research your new location. Granted, you’ve likely picked out your destination based on all of its appealing and alluring aspects; now it’s time to get down to the practical. Map out convenience businesses near you and your assignment—laundry mats, grocery stores, take-out joints, maybe even dog parks/doggy daycare if you’re four-legged companion will be joining you.
Create a packing list. The best time to create a packing list is right after you’ve successfully packed for your first assignment! When you’re ready to go, make an inventory of everything you have packed. Then, make sure add to this master list all the things you forgot/neglected to pack that you’ll only realize once you’ve arrived and spent a week or so acclimating.
Most travelers—especially newbies—lean towards overpacking. If you can nail down what you truly use during your first couple of assignments, it will make this aspect of traveling so much less stressful for future you.
Test run your commute. You don’t know what you don’t know. A few days before you are to begin your assignment, it’s a good idea to make a commute test run. That happy little blue route may look easy peasy on your google map, but you won’t know local traffic patterns (or how to work around them) without making a test run or three.
Go as far as finding your parking lot/structure and seeing how long it takes to walk to your unit. It’s already nerve-wracking enough starting on day one; take “showing up late because you didn’t factor in xwz” off your list of possible stressors.
Ask for a hospital tour. Yes, you’ll go through orientation which comes with some directional assistance, but think of how often you leave your unit to grab obscure supplies, get food (hopefully), and transport patients when needed. If you don’t get a full-fledged tour of the hospital during your official orientation, make sure you get one during your first week there.
Focus on charting/learning computer system in orientation. This is probably the area that most new travelers worry about the most. Learning a new system can be both overwhelming and intimidating. To help mitigate some of the learning curve, take focused notes during orientation. Especially when it comes to entering assessments, orders, and accessing the MAR. These are the areas you will be using the most.
Each hospital/unit has specified requirements of what absolutely needs to be charted, and they definitely differ. For example, pay attention to frequency of charting (is it q 2 hours, or q4), and what needs to be included each time.
Find a few good (wo)men. Travel nurses tend to be an independent lot. While that personality trait serves us well in taking on unfamiliar territory, it can bite us in the ass when we find ourselves in over our head. The evolved traveler knows that more than asking for help when you need it is seeking out support from a few co-workers you vibe with.
Building relationships quickly takes skill, it’s true. But it’s worth pursuing; the payoff of having people around us who may be able to recognize our SOS giveaways before we do —and step in with much needed assistance—is invaluable.
Time management/focus. Being a new traveler means you’re forever the new kid on the block. This aspect you will acclimate to, we promise! But for each unit you work in, you’re going to be a person of interest to the staff. Naturally they will be curious about you, and in the friendly way that people like to welcome newbies, will ask you questions…
Where are you from? Why did you get into traveling? What’s been the best assignment? Is it hard? These are some examples of the standard line of inquiry. And while it’s great to feel welcomed, it can be hard to find time to chat AND work. The best way to keep distractions at bay is by charting in rooms as much as possible.
Ask questions/Protect your license. Never, never, never assume. We all know the adage, “Assuming makes an ass out of you and me.” Well, to assume in a travel nurse assignment is to risk your licensure. Just because something is done one way at one hospital, it may not be done similarly at another.
Another (concrete) way to think about this concept is to read your Policies and Procedures handbook! Anything that you have the slightest inkling of hesitation over deserves further inquiry.
Optimism carries the future; grace carries the present. Traveling—especially as a newbie—is hard. Plain and simple, it’s hard to leave your family, friends, and familiarity. While seeing new places is definitely exciting, the flip side of that is the anxiety of constantly being in new environments.
Two ways to approach beginning your travel journey (where the anxiety and excitement flip flop on a daily, even hourly, basis) is to maintain your sense of optimism for what’s possible and heap on piles of grace for when those expectations aren’t met.
There will be wildly amazing assignments and there will be excruciatingly painful and tedious ones…and everything in between. In order to make a career out of traveling, keep looking at the horizon to maintain your forward momentum while still remembering to soften the edges where you currently stand.
Keep your perspective. 13 weeks is not that long, even if it may feel that way at times. Know this: you will survive every single travel nursing assignment ever if you remember to breathe your way through it. Great nurses are made from challenging experiences. You can do it.
For more travel nurse resources, check out our other posts about traveling here, here, here, and here.