Starting a career as a healthcare traveler is a leap worth taking. Ranging across many healthcare divisions, professional healthcare workers are indispensable to the industry because they fill staffing gaps and provide exceptional patient care.
What a healthcare travel job can mean for you
Professional healthcare travelers are everywhere—in large and small hospitals, outpatient clinics, long-term care facilities, and more. Healthcare travelers are skilled professionals who work for independent healthcare travel staffing agencies dedicated to providing healthcare facilities with short-term staffing support. These professionals bridge staffing gaps in healthcare facilities across the U.S. and cover a wide variety of clinical and non-clinical specialties.
There are many healthcare divisions for traveling professionals to choose from, and within each, more detailed specialties to master. Each division holds its each set of qualifications and requirements that healthcare workers must pass before practice. A few common divisions in the U.S include:
- Travel nursing. Travel nurses are registered nurses (RNs) with specialty training who travel across the country to offer diverse aid to healthcare facilities.
- Travel therapy. Travel therapists are professional physical therapists (PTs), occupational therapists (OTs), speech language pathologists (SLPs), certified occupational therapy assistants (COTAs), and physical therapy assistants (PTAs).
- Travel medical laboratory technicians (MLTs). MLTs perform a slew of tests on blood, tissue, and body fluids that are used to diagnose and treat patients, and more.
From traveling MLTs to travel nurses, these professionals vary across every aspect of the healthcare industry and provide valuable service to vulnerable communities in need.
Across the country, healthcare facilities continuously see a need for healthcare travelers. Many facilities utilize travelers for a myriad of reasons such as:
- Additional staffing to aid shortages
- Seasonal needs (for example, some states may see an uptick in injury during ski season)
- Providing skilled staff to rural areas in the U.S.
- Covering perm staff extended absences
Whether it’s filling in for the nurse on maternity leave or covering for the physical therapist who’s enjoying a sabbatical, traveling healthcare professionals are dedicated to helping patients, permanent healthcare staff, and healthcare facilities alike.
The sweet side of a travel lifestyle
It can be difficult to gain healthcare experience in one location. As a traveler, there’s a unique opportunity to expand your skillset and build your resume for future jobs in other destinations. Plus, professional healthcare travelers also reap the benefit of experiencing new places across the country. Since travel job assignments are 13 weeks long on average, traveling healthcare workers have the chance to visit many destinations in the span of one year.
“Our lifestyle is awesome,” Emily Cheng, travel RN and founder of the MedVenture app, said to the Washington Post, “We get to see parts of the country that are super beautiful and meet really incredible people and have once-in-a-lifetime experiences.”
Not only do healthcare travelers pick their assignments, they’re in control of their entire career. As a healthcare traveler, you choose:
- Where to go in the U.S.
- The type of healthcare facility to work in
- Whether or not to extend a contract, if applicable
- If you want to take time off between assignments
In addition to enhanced personal and professional flexibility, traveling healthcare workers also typically earn a higher salary than their permanently staffed counterparts due to higher demand and an increased risk of infection. For example, Devana Mills, traveling RN, used to work full-time in a nursing home and part-time at a hospital to make ends meet. Since July 2020, she’s been a contract nurse working no more than 40 hours a week, earning approximately the same salary as she did juggling two jobs.
“One week’s paycheck can sometimes be the equivalent of two weeks’ worth of work,” Mills told Modern Healthcare.
Further, ZipRecruiter reported a six-and-a-half percent average wage increase for healthcare travelers between 2019 and 2021. Where these professionals could previously expect to earn an average of $92,734 in 2019, traveling healthcare workers are now seeing an average annual salary of $99,202 in 2021. The exact annual wage differs based on location, healthcare division, what type of position, and length of contract.
Control your healthcare career with Fusion Marketplace
Make the unknowns known with Fusion Marketplace. This staffing recruitment platform offers healthcare travelers total control over their career, agency, recruiter, and lifestyle choices in one convenient location.
First thing’s first—you need a traveler profile to reap the rewards. A Fusion Marketplace traveler profile is a user-friendly resume builder, complete with your personal profile, employment experience, level of education, certificates earned, licenses obtained, and references. Once fully completed, you can download your resume as a PDF and increase your chances of matching with the in the U.S.
With professional healthcare travelers in mind, Fusion Marketplace allows you to effortlessly find your next job placement. Browse for jobs or agencies, then sort and filter search results to find the perfect travel assignment for you.
Regardless of your division or specialty, empowers you to spend less time on extensive paperwork and more time finding your dream job assignment. When you spot an opportunity of interest, simply use the “quick apply” feature to submit your profile resume to the healthcare facility and agency. After your application submits successfully, expect communication from an agency recruiter for next steps.
If you’re a healthcare professional with a yearning to get out of your normal, everyday routine, consider a lifestyle change and join the traveling side of the healthcare industry. As a traveling healthcare worker, you can gain access to knowledge from hospitals and health facilities around the country and make a positive impact in the lives of countless people. Get started today with a Fusion Marketplace traveler profile for ultimate transparency to pay, benefits package, type of facility, assignment length, and more.
