What Does a Travel Nurse Do?

Thinking about taking on travel nursing? You’re in luck—travel nurses are in high demand, especially as more healthcare facilities are facing a higher need for skilled nurses. In fact, a 2022 health workforce analysis by the United States Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) projected a shortage of 78,610 full time nurses in 2025, meaning registered nurses (RNs) who travel for work will have more opportunities to help short-staffed facilities across the country. But what does a travel nurse do exactly? Read on to learn more about becoming one of these crucial healthcare professionals. 

What is a travel nurse?

A travel nurse is a licensed RN who travels around the country to fill short-term staffing needs in a variety of healthcare facilities. Travel nurses typically fill in for RNs who are going on maternity or paternity leave, for facilities dealing with nursing shortages, or for other situations that lead to gaps in staffing.

Travel nurses partner with agencies like Barton Healthcare Staffing to find jobs rather than directly with facilities themselves. Travel can range from locally at the nearest hospital, to working in a different state, to working in other countries, depending on the agency. Travel nurses can spend days to several months working in one location before moving on to another assignment. 

You don’t need to have a special certification, but travel nurses typically stay within one specialty, such as the intensive care unit (ICU), neonatal, or telemetry.

What do travel nurses do?

Travel nurses do all of the same things that permanent RNs do, just on a temporary basis. When it comes to a travel nurse’s day to day work, it all depends on where they’re working and who they’re filling in for.

A travel nurse is licensed to practice just like a permanent nurse is, and facilities rely on these temporary clinicians to enhance their own patient services. When permanent nurses are hard to come by, or if one of them leaves, that could lead to a patient not getting the care they desperately need. Travel nurses bring their unique skill sets and experience working in many different practice settings to help maintain continuity of care and enhance it for patients.

What are typical daily travel nurse duties?

On a typical day, your job duties as a travel nurse will vary widely depending on the type of facility, specialty, and what that state has dictated for your scope of practice.

In general, your responsibilities are the same as nurses who are employed by that healthcare facility, including:

• Performing patient examinations
• Administering medications and treatments
• Providing support and education to patients on their health condition and plan of care
• Communicating with providers and other healthcare staff

Due to the nomadic nature of their work, travel nurses are exposed to a wide variety of different nursing protocols and processes. As a travel nurse, you may be among the first to float to other units as needed and may be assigned frequent evening, weekend, and overnight shifts. Travel nurses typically work holidays without much flexibility for desired shifts and time off, however, the trade-off is the ability to be able to take as much vacation time as you want in between assignments.

Travel nurses can take crisis assignments where you can pick up and relocate to a place experiencing a natural disaster, severe staffing needs, a spike in patient census, or nursing strikes. These assignments tend to pay the most.

What kind of travel nurses are there?

Travel nursing offers a diverse range of opportunities across various specialties. Here are some of the types of travel nurses that BHS recruits and staffs:

• Emergency Room (ER)
• Intensive Care Unit (ICU)
• MedSurg
• Catheterization Lab
• Critical Care
• Telemetry
• Labor & Delivery
• Neonatal ICU (NICU)
• Oncology
• Operating Room (OR)
• Post-Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU)
• Primary Care
• Detox
• Case Management
• Psychiatry
• COVID Testing/Vaccination
• Camp and School Nursing

What are the benefits of becoming a travel nurse?

Nurses become traveling healthcare professionals because they want to work in a variety of locations and explore new places. Add new skills to your resume working in diverse environments and have a chance to see different practices and protocols. There tends to be higher pay in travel nursing, along with sign-on bonuses, especially in locations experiencing higher staffing shortages.

The ability to travel also means you don’t need to deal with the management and facility politics that can plague regular employees. You can avoid the drama of working with the same coworkers as your assignments typically last about 13 weeks. Traveling to new locations can also help avoid burnout in working in the same location and unit for too long.

Travel nurses can request certain assignments, especially after gaining experience. You can request assignments with other travel nurses and save on costs by sharing housing. It also gives you the opportunity to travel with someone you know to an unfamiliar place.

What are the requirements for becoming a travel nurse?

To become a travel nurse, you need to fulfill certain requirements and have specific documentation, such as:

• An active nursing license in the state you wish to practice in
• 1 to 2 years of prior nursing experience
• A driver’s license
• Vaccination records
• Certification records (such as Basic Life Support certification) 

Travel nurses need to be skilled at adapting quickly to new environments. You need to feel confident about diving into assignments with shorter orientations and be an independent learner.

You have to be willing in the beginning to take assignments that may not be ideal for you, knowing that with experience, you’ll be able to choose better future assignments.

Find Travel Nurse Jobs with BHS

Travel nursing is a lucrative career choice that allows you to see new places, meet new people, and enhance your nursing abilities. If you’re thinking about making the move, contact one of our Barton Healthcare Staffing specialists today, or check out our job board and apply online!

Editor’s Note: This article was originally written by Risa Kerslake, RN, in October 2021. It was updated by Mike Connors in July 2024 to reflect new information.