Travel Nursing 101 // Getting Started 

This was so inspiring! I’m just finishing my first year of nursing school and I’m located in very gloomy Buffalo, NY! I am DREAMING about the day I can start traveling! Hoping it’s after that first year of work! (2 years to go!) you answered questions that I didn’t even know I had (dating, finding community with other travelers!) My goal is to eventually wind up back in SoCal where I was raised to be near family. But-I have that wanderlust brewing inside first! Thank you so much for this awesome video.

Wow, 7 years of Traveling! Awesome! I've been in 7 states and have been and have signed 20 contracts over the last 4.5 years. I love summer in the North and Winter in South. Currently living in beautiful Alaska for 6 months of Spring, Summer and Fall. It a great way to live. Also, I was lucky enough to do a summer contract in Marquette, MI. Travel Nurse on!

This is great. You answered every possible question I have. I'm an IR/cath lab rad tech really considering the travel option. I agree with what you say about down time. How scared were you when you first left home? It's the only thing that has me really apprehensive. Thank you for this!!

I will start travelling on Tuesday, your video is very helpful!

Great video! I found your link on Reddit! I am a relatively new nurse from Toronto, and going through the process of applying to the states.

Thank you. I am thinking of being a travel nurse. I am a Nurse in Boston for 7years already.

I've been a nurse for more than 5 years, about 3.5 years (and counting) of those years were in a medical-surgical ICU w/ a rapid response team experience. I like to travel so a lot of my coworkers are recommending me to do travel nursing. At first, I didn't take it seriously but now I am really looking into it.

Thank you for touching basic important aspects of being a travel nurse. More power!!

I have over 1.5 years of ICU and am really thinking about traveling! Thanks for the video 💕

Awesome Content! 🎆 Questions: 1. How is the Atlas Agency fairing for traveling RNs in North California? I’m an insomniac, workaholic, New Yorker and want to be a Trauma Certified ICU Traveling ER Nurse (ENP/MSN) and I want to do as many college-hacking and college online as I can to get me there. The plan is, with me only needing 3-4 hours sleep😴, I would work any shift mainly in North California hospitals out of my Suburban vehicle and hit the local gym & Walmart for all of my other needs to exist. lol 🚿🛀🪥🛌 And I’m reaching for MSN as opposed to ASN or BSN so that I’m most-favored and marketable. 2. What are your thoughts? 3. I will work any shift at any location , so what specialty pays the most? 4. Can I do 11 months on a contract, 2 months home, then another 11 months on a contract a the same hospital without loosing all of my wonderful traveling benefits? Ex.: I consider December and January my “vacation” months, then come back to work. 5. Can you work multiple contracts if the commute works for you? 6. Since my home state is New York City, in your experienced opinion, what is the possibility of my get a traditional 13 month contract in New York City? 7. I have land property in about 7 states so far. In your experienced opinion, how plausible is it for me to work temporarily in the state that they are located? ✈🛫 (Arkansas, NC, SC, CA, NV, NM)🛬 8. How often do you witness Traveling RNs that have no savings?💸💸 9. How do you show proof for your travel expense reimbursements?💰 Thank you so much for your time. 🙏

Nice first video Cayla. Good information.

I like that schedule you got I would love to work for 3 months and then break for a month

Great video! Can you give more tips on what to do about insurance in your downtime? Have you had to find private insurance?

great video! 🙂 i’m looking to start my first travel contract in 2-3 weeks (if i get accepted), and it’s a crisis response. I have 2 years IMC experience but am still a bit nervous! … how does scheduling usually work? do you get to pick which days of the week you work or does the hospital tell you?

So helpful. Thank you so much!!!

Thank you so much for sharing this information! This has helped so much!

I’m from Michigan. I seen Ironwood it was hours away from me. Thanks for the video

I'm a little slow to the travel nurse thing I have been a nurse for over 5 year 4 of those in the ICU. I am looking into travel nursing and am looking to see if different specialities (ICU, ED, PACU) have better travel companies? There a lot of options how do you pick a travel company? How many different ones have you used? Thanks so much I watch a lot of travel video the last couple weeks and you gave a lot of great info.

I watched all of it!! Very interesting and informative. Thanks. My question is 1. How did you find learning the varying systems/charting at the sites you were assigned. 2. How hard was it to actually function efficiently after 1to 3 days of orientation?

So I'm starting off as a new traveler, and have a trillion questions! But to spare you, I"ll limit myself to just two on here :-) 1) For my first travel gig, on the applications they asked for references, and since I'm employed as a staff RN here in Houston luckily I was able to do that. However, once I quit my job and go traveling full time, I don't know what I would put down for "current job references" in the future. When you're traveling and have to put down references, whom do you put? The manager of the hospitals you traveled to? The recruiters alone? 2) A lot of specialities in travel nursing say they want "recent experience" within that speciality. For instance, I used to work medical ICU as a new grad nurse, but that was four to five years back. Now, there's a lot of demand out there for ICU RNs specifically, but the travel companies say they want "recent experience" in ICU, meaning within the past two years. I get where they're coming from completely. And since I work in psych right now, I'm taking a psych travel gig. But does that mean I'm pigeonholed into the psych specialty as a traveler forever? Or can I change and do something else in traveling down the road, if I had wanted to?

Hello young lady. My name is Dan and afew months back I saw an ad looking for housing for traveling. Nurses. I live in Rochester New York and we ha very some great hospitals here. I have a huge 5 bedroom home with 3 full bathrooms. I have one master bedroom on the first floor and four more bedrooms and two more bathrooms on the second floor. The ad I saw pertained to housing for travelling nurse's. I am retired and live alone as my wife recently passed away. So I thought to myself wouldn't it be great to have a trzvelling nurse stay in the master suite on the first floor as she would have her own private bath .she would be great company and also provide me with a small income. Well I did list my home and I got one of the nicest nurse's I could ever want. She is a married grandmother who would be working at a hospital less that 2 miles from my home. This was a perfect fit for both of us. We have a great relationship and I will be very sorry when her contract is over. I could possibly do 2 nurse's as I have another bedroom on the second floor with a private bath. I have to think about that. When the nurse I have now kewvesi will definitely look for a replacements. I just enjoyed your v,og and look forward to more of them for my own personal knowledge Thank you. Dan

What happens of you don't have a bamk account? Do your checks get mailed to you?

I am a LPN for 4 years, do you think there are openings for LPN’s? I been doing hospice care, is there any work in that particular area? Thank you! ❤

Hello- thanks for sharing your experience and knowledge with us. I have 2 years ENT OR experience. Never done general. I scrub and circulate. I am very comfortable in the ENT OR. I also my have 17 years as an LD RN where I scrubbed as well on c sections, both scheduled and emergencies. I have traveled as LD RN before but now want to travel in the OR. Am I bitting off more than I chew here? Thanks!

Hi! Thank you for the video. Question though- you said you've transitioned to different fields of nursing (PACU, OR, etc), can you change specialties as a traveler? Or do you have to go back to staff to train in a new specialty for 1-2 years then travel in that specialty?

Have you ever done local travel? Is it referred to as agency work? Thanks!

Hi Kayla! Thanks for doing this. Coincidentally, my name’s Kayla too so 💁🏾‍♀️ I’m considering travel nursing myself but I’m worried that I won’t find an assignment with a med/surg background. I work in a pulmonary med/surg unit. Some of my patients have cardiac issues too so I have some patients that wear a telemonitor. Could I work on a tele floor or should I only assign myself to med/surg contracts? Thanks!

Which travel nursing agency can you recommend? I'm starting to be interested with travel nursing. A little hesitant still.

Hi Kayla, have you met a traveling nurse doing Case Management?

How do you start new specialities while doing travel nursing? Do you keep a permanent job somewhere?