As a registered nurse (RN), you can choose two different paths that can significantly shape your career: travel nursing and staff nursing. Travel nursing offers opportunities to work in various healthcare facilities across the country, while staff nursing allows nurses to take permanent positions at the same facility for an extended period.
Both options are rewarding career paths and there are benefits and drawbacks to both, depending on your preferences and lifestyle.
Travel nursing is a specialized field that emerged when the healthcare industry faced shortages of RNs across the country. To fill in short-term employment gaps in clinical areas, healthcare facilities turned to travel nurses who work for independent staffing agencies.
Healthcare agencies offer higher pay rates, housing, and relocation costs to bring travel nurses to these open positions. This has made travel nursing an attractive option for those seeking new adventures and experiences.
With the now-constant employment vacancies in healthcare and other medical facilities, travel nursing has become an essential part of the healthcare industry.
Staff nursing jobs are vital roles in healthcare facilities, as most staff nurses tend to the daily healthcare needs of patients. As nonsupervisory nurses, they provide routine care and often report to higher-ranking nurses or healthcare professionals such as nurse practitioners, advanced practice registered nurses, directors of nursing, or doctors. Staff nurses can work in hospitals, nursing homes, rehabilitation facilities, or psychiatric care facilities.
Staff nurses perform a wide range of duties such as assessing health conditions, measuring vital signs, administering medications, assisting with diagnostic testing, and providing aftercare or at-home care instructions for patients. With specialized training, hospital staff nurses can work in specific areas such as intensive care, emergency departments, childbirth and NICU units, medical-surgical units, and pediatrics departments.
Staff nurses have a lot of contact and communication with patients, making it a fulfilling hands-on career path or an entry point to different nursing jobs, including travel nursing.
Travel nursing jobs offer a wide range of benefits such as:
Earning higher pay
Choosing where you take assignments
Learning from experts across the country
Enjoying a work-life balance
One of the biggest perks of being a travel nurse is the higher weekly gross pay. The pay tends to be higher for travel nurses because high-volume hospitals have to fill short-term staff positions. As a travel nurse, you can also get travel reimbursements, relocation assistance, and tax-free stipends to cover the cost of housing and meals.
Travel nurses can choose where they go for assignments and most job search platforms like Marketplace will also show the length of an assignment so you'll always know how long you'll be there. If you've always wanted to explore and work in a specific area of the U.S., that's possible as a travel nurse. Travel nursing gives you the chance to visit new places and experience new cultures while working and earning a living.
Another benefit of being a travel nurse is working alongside experts in the best hospitals, giving you the chance to learn from them and explore other nurse specialties that you're interested in. Being a travel nurse can help you develop new skills and grow your professional network in more ways than one and experience paired with the right certifications can open up new doors for your career.
Travel nursing can allow you to enjoy a work-life balance. Like a staff nurse, you'll still be required to work longer shifts for a set number of weeks, but the advantage of travel nursing is you can take breaks in between assignments to visit family and friends back home, explore the new city you're living in, or just take some time for yourself.
A staff nursing job offers a lot of flexibility and opportunities for RNs. One of the biggest advantages is the ability to choose your specialty in a hospital you're comfortable working in.
A staff nurse can also choose the facility they want to work in, whether it's a hospital, clinic, nursing home, or other healthcare setting within driving distance of their home. Because of this, staff nurses know exactly what to expect in their work environment and their day-to-day schedule. For those that like consistency and predictability, being a staff nurse may be the right path for you.
The last and best benefit of staff nursing jobs is that RNs can stay in one location rather than traveling to different hospitals, making it a good option for those who want to settle down or stay close to family.
While a travel nursing job offers many benefits, there are potential downsides. As a travel nurse, you may be working in unfamiliar environments, which can be challenging for some people. However, you can use this as an opportunity to meet and learn from new people. Homesickness can also be challenging, but travel nurses can find ways to connect with friends and family back home while expanding their network of friends in new places.
One big part of being a travel nurse is handling logistics like getting a certain state license or credentials before an assignment starts. That's why most travel nurses opt for a compact license instead. Travel nurse taxes can also be complicated, but there are lots of resources out there to help you navigate the process.
Finding housing while job searching also feels hard to do, but if you use our Furnished Finder tool on Marketplace, it makes it easy to search for jobs and housing at the same time. Additionally, searching for healthcare traveler jobs can be time-consuming, but you can use Marketplace, a job search platform for travel nurses, to help streamline the process.
With any nursing career, there are challenges to overcome, but travel nursing jobs can give you so many opportunities for personal and professional growth.
While staff nursing jobs offer many benefits, there are potential downsides to consider. Staff nurses may need to work on holidays since patients require care 24/7, even when most other employees have time off work.
On the other hand, travel nurses can choose to take the holidays off if they time their assignments right. However, long weekends and paid vacation time can often balance out the long shifts for staff nurses.
Another downside is the potential for emotional burnout. Staff nurses can start to feel stagnant in a hospital, whereas travel nurses can feel refreshed because of the constant changes in their work environment. It's also harder to avoid possible toxic workplace politics as a perm staff nurse. Seeking mental health resources, such as counseling, and making time for hobbies outside of work may help staff nurses feel more balanced.
Staff nurses typically make less pay per hour than travel nurses. However, if you decide to become a travel nurse, you can make more money and have the flexibility to take a break in between assignments, which can be better for your mental health.
Overall, it's essential to weigh the pros and cons of both staff nursing positions and permanent positions to determine which job is the best fit for your nursing career.
Travel nurses and staff nurses are both registered nurses who have graduated from accredited nursing programs and passed the NCLEX-RN exam. They provide direct patient care, including assessing health conditions, administering medications, and assisting with diagnostic testing. Both travel nursing jobs and staff nursing jobs have flexible schedules, with 12-hour shifts being common for both.
While travel nurses work at different healthcare and medical facilities on a temporary basis, staff nurses work at the same facility for an extended period. Travel nurses tend to make more money than staff nurses and travel to new places when working.
While there are many similarities and differences between travel nursing vs staff nursing, they both share the same dedication, hard work, and selflessness to provide quality patient care.
With the ability to work at different healthcare facilities across the country, competitive pay rates, high demand, and the chance to gain new skills and experiences, a travel nursing job is an exciting and fulfilling option for registered nurses. So why not take the leap and explore the country as a travel nurse? Start your journey today and discover all that the field has to offer.