5 Reasons to Try Travel Nursing As A New Grad

Travel nursing jobs for new grads are an amazing way to gain valuable work AND life experience.

Agencies typically require six months of experience before travel assignments, but some are more lenient on this than others.

If you are considering the travel nursing lifestyle or another traveling healthcare job, these five reasons prove why you should try it.

1. Earn Higher Salary as a Travel Nurse

Travel nurses make more than nurses who work in one location. On top of earning a potential 6-figure salary, you can enjoy significant travel nurse tax deductions. You also get fully reimbursed for everything related to work, like:

Airfare
Train tickets
Ferry costs
Tolls
Taxis
Shuttles
Gas
Parking
Luggage costs
Food
Courseware and trade literature
Uniforms
…and so much more.

Plus, many travel nurses enjoy sign-on bonuses – some as high as $10,000 per assignment!

2. Easier Work/Life Balance

For travel nurses, finding the right balance is a goal that can easily be accomplished.

Travel nurses enjoy 13-week assignments with ample time off between them, allowing them to explore the locations they are visiting or reconnect with family and friends.

Time off between assignments can range from days to weeks depending on your preferred schedule and available assignments.

3. An Opportunity to Specialize

As a travel nurse, you can seek out assignments that help you further your career within a speciality, even as you move from location to location.

As you add each new assignment to your resume, you will be receiving invaluable experience. Traveling allows nurses to round out their experience quicker than nurses who work in a single setting because they:

Learn to become flexible
Are highly independent
Build great people skills
Work in top healthcare facilities

Remember, the more you travel, the more people with whom you work. As your career advances, your network will become more vast, which will help when getting referrals, recommendations, and interviews.

4. Practice Cultural Competency

Adaptability is another excellent skill that every nurse must have. When working in ever-changing professional cultures, you will quickly learn values, norms, and customs.

More than anything, this aids in building strong communications skills. Knowing how to communicate clearly with others is an incredibly important skill for nurses, especially when it comes to your patients.

Travel nursing for new grads is an especially effective way to get exposed to new cultures. Because your environment changes multiple times a year, you inevitably practice cultural competency.

5. Travel Anywhere in the Country

No matter your preference, you and your agency can find an assignment that fits your lifestyle. As your needs and preferences evolve, so can your work.

Travel nursing for new grads is an exciting way to see the country. It can also help you in a multitude of ways, like:

Helping you find/remember your purpose
Opening your mind to new ways of thinking
Learning how to make friends easily
Having a deeper understanding of humanity

When it comes down to it, being able to travel for your job is a perk that most only dream of. Not only do travel nurses enjoy this in spades, but they also get to help many people in the process.