To become a travel nurse, you will need to graduate with a nursing degree, take the NCLEX-RN and begin working as a licensed registered nurse. After gaining enough experience as a licensed practicing RN, you can begin exploring opportunities through travel nursing agencies and organizations.
Nurses across all practice areas are united by their drive to help others. If you love experiencing new places and don’t feel tied down to a specific location, travel nursing could be a great way to give back and live out your dreams. To enter this role, though, you will need to first become a nurse and gain clinical experience before pursuing opportunities.
Marquette University’s Direct Entry Master of Science in Nursing (DE-MSN) program can serve as an accelerated bridge into many nursing practice areas including travel nursing. As a Marquette DE-MSN student, you will gain a top-quality nursing education with the foundation to excel across many nursing roles. Let’s examine what a travel nurse is, review what a career in travel nursing looks like, and go over the steps you will need to follow to become a travel nurse.
What a Travel Nurse Is
When a facility experiences staffing shortages, travel nurses are often contracted to ensure that patients still receive much-needed care. Contracts are agreed upon between a nurse (or their agency) and the organization they will be working within. The most common travel nursing assignments are around 13 to 14 weeks long. Once an assignment is over, travel nurses might move onto a new location, or the contract could be renewed.
While all kinds of travel nurses are needed, there is a higher demand for certain specialty areas. For example, hospitals often seek travel nurses with experience in high-demand areas including:
- Emergency room
- Intensive care
- Labor and delivery
- Medical-surgical
- Oncology
- Telemetry
The demanding nature of these roles and the need to rapidly adapt to a new work environment explain why travel nurses typically need to gain experience as a licensed registered nurse before entering the field. Travel nurses must be skilled, experienced, and adaptable professionals.
What a Travel Nursing Career Looks Like
The fact that you will work in different cities and states is the most obvious distinguishing factor of travel nursing. Travel nurses complete short-term assignments at health care facilities, ranging from small rural facilities to large urban trauma centers. As a result, you will be exposed to a much broader set of working conditions than you would if you worked at one facility for a long period of time.
Many speak about traveling nurse pay as being competitive in the industry, which it is. The role can be more difficult in some ways than traditional nursing, however, and with less long-term stability. Ultimately the attractiveness of this career path largely comes down to personality type.
You will work with different electronic medical record systems and gain experience with different types of equipment. It’s also possible that you’ll work with different patient populations. You’ll go through an orientation period at each new facility you work. You may work at Magnet hospitals, teaching hospitals, or trauma hospitals. Each new experience will allow you to observe and learn about different administrative approaches.
You’ll meet both permanent staff and fellow travelers at the hospitals you are assigned to. You’ll also meet many recruiters and build your professional network as you navigate the industry. If you are offered a contract extension at a particular location, you can choose to continue for an additional period. No two days are alike for travel nurses.
Steps To Become a Travel Nurse
Travel nursing isn’t a role you can leap into right after licensure. It requires gaining independent experience without immediate placements. The path to become a travel nurse starts with earning a nursing education and extends beyond licensure. If the prospect of working as a traveling nurse is enticing to you, these steps can see you entering the nursing field faster than you might think.
1. Research Nursing Programs and Enroll
Before anything else, you will need to complete a nursing education. You can qualify to become a licensed registered nurse through an associate degree or diploma program, but employers increasingly require a bachelor’s degree or higher. To become a travel nurse, you will need to look into a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program or a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) program.
Marquette’s DE-MSN program could be a great value proposition if you are investing in your future nursing career. An MSN degree can help you access opportunities like leadership positions or certificate programs on the pathway to an advanced practice role.
Traditional BSN programs can take up to four years, with accelerated BSN programs commonly lasting 16 to 18 months. Our DE-MSN curriculum is designed to be completed in five or eight semesters, depending on whether you choose a predominantly hybrid format at our Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, program site or a predominantly campus-based format on our main campus in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
An admissions adviser can help you work through the application process, including submitting materials and completing prerequisites. After enrolling in one of three annual start dates, depending on program format, you can begin working toward your MSN.
See what you can do to prepare for a MSN program.
2. Earn a Nursing Degree and Take The NCLEX-RN
After enrolling in a nursing program, your ultimate goal is graduation and then licensure after passing the NCLEX-RN. Marquette’s DE-MSN program is administrated by experienced faculty educating to the highest nursing standards and consists of:
- Online or on-campus coursework where you will learn key nursing concepts and theory.
- Nursing skills labs and clinical simulation where you will work with fellow cohort members under faculty supervision to hone your nursing skills and instincts.
- Clinical courses, completed at top area health care facilities by caring for patients under experienced guidance.
This curriculum is intensive, and we often encourage students not to work during the program if it is financially feasible. After working hard and graduating, you can take on the NCLEX-RN and pursue nursing licensure.
3. Gain Experience as a Practicing RN
Since travel nurses are experienced professionals able to adapt to a range of situations, you need to gain experience as an RN before pursuing travel nursing. Clinical courses will see you gaining experience in multiple practice areas as a student, but when working in the field you can continue to expose yourself to new practice areas.
Try to stay on top of continuing education courses and watch for ways to continue building your skills and standing apart.
See how professional nursing organizations can benefit you as a student and as a practicing RN.
4. Explore Travel Nursing Opportunities
Once you have gained experience and feel confident traveling to different facilities and caring for patients, you can begin looking for travel nursing opportunities.
If you’re looking to move to a new location, but aren’t sure where, travel nursing can help you decide. You can use travel nursing to visit new locations for extended periods. This can help you determine whether you want to live somewhere without a long-term commitment.
Draw on the contacts you have built as a student and nurse and keep your eyes open for professional opportunities to connect with recruiters or those who might be hiring a travel nurse. You can then enter this field and begin making a difference for patients across the nation.
Explore a Nursing Career With Marquette’s Direct Entry MSN Program
Whether you’re ready to start your journey toward a travel nursing career or want to explore nursing’s many other practice areas, Marquette University can help you get there. Our Direct Entry MSN program can be completed in five or eight semesters and prepare you to become a licensed registered nurse. Contact us to speak with an admissions adviser and take the next step.