Your holiday travel nurse assignment just got a little bit less lonely.
It’s about that time of year again; the holiday season is right around the corner, and many travel healthcare professionals are scheduling their holiday shifts. While permanent staff nurses plan out their holiday celebrations, their healthcare facilities often work with a top travel nurse agency like Barton, seeking travel nurses and allied health professionals to temporarily fill in their holiday staffing gaps.
It may not be for everyone, but many health professionals choose to work holiday travel nursing jobs because they can take advantage of the appealing pay rates and housing stipends. Compensation packages are often higher than average during the holidays, and also provide an opportunity to earn overtime.
Travel clinicians generally have short term and long term options to choose from, but the average registered nurse travel assignment is usually about 13 weeks long. Thus, depending on assignment start dates, travel nurses may only miss out on Thanksgiving Day, or they could end up working through other major holidays during the Fall and Winter months.
Though working the holidays can earn you quite the payout, being away from family and friends during any celebration can feel downright heart-wrenching. But if the Covid-19 pandemic taught us anything, it’s that physical distance doesn’t have to equal isolation, and the same fact is also true to your travel nurse assignment over the holidays!
Amusing Awards
What better way to connect than a contest among family and friends? Thanks to our cell phones and computers, running contests from a distance is a breeze, and when you add an award to the mix, you’re sure to add a lot of contenders to the roster!
Contests can be hosted in a variety of formats including text, email, and video call, and the options are endless. You can host an ugly sweater contest, cookie decorating contest, or a “guess the next line” holiday karaoke contest, just to name a few. Prizes can be whatever your heart desires, from gift cards to gift baskets. As for deciding on the winners, you can collect votes, or appoint your family elders to the judging panel to add some more fun to the mix!
Computer Cooking Class
Everybody has a grandma with a famous chocolate chip cookie recipe, an aunt with a signature casserole, or at least something along those lines. The point is, aside from the holiday classics of turkey, ham, or mashed potatoes, most families share unique and beloved recipes around the dinner table during the holidays, and you may feel like you’re missing out if you’re away on assignment.
That doesn’t mean you should just settle for takeout and sit in your fear of missing out. Turn this into an opportunity to learn something new by organizing a virtual cooking class! Invite your loved ones to a virtual event or meeting via Zoom, Facetime, or another online video platform, and have them share the preparation for their classic holiday recipes.
Not only is this a great way to share the same meal with your family from a distance, but it gives you, and every other participant, a chance you learn your family’s secret ingredients and techniques to be passed down to the next generation.
Mutual Music
Not everyone will have time to organize a whole virtual event, especially around work. Instead, invite your loved ones to each contribute their favorite tunes to a collaborative holiday playlist! Even if you’re sick of the holiday classics replayed on the radio year by year, for most families, music is a staple for holiday celebrations. It gets people in the mood for merriment, and triggers memories.
With a collaborative playlist, you can take your own, and your loved ones’ favorite holiday songs along with you. This way, you can listen and relive holiday memories during even the most mundane moments on your assignment, maybe to jam out in the car on the way to work, or to keep things lively during a travel nurse night shift.
Going on a travel nurse assignment over the holidays can feel downcast, but you can always find a way to connect regardless of space and time apart!
Ready to earn more on your first holiday travel nurse assignment? Fill out our contact form to get in touch with a recruiter today!
