Cyprus Airlines - Travel Nurse - A Health Career Option For The Restless Spirit

Put together this wandering soul and a temporary position in a hospital and you have a travel nurse. A serious nursing shortage meets a qualified professional that just doesn't want to get tied down in one place for too long. It is like a perfect storm of opportunity.

Hospitals just don't have enough nurses to fill all of the positions, since there aren't enough nurses coming into the system to replace the nurses dropping out. There are not enough instructors in our nursing schools to teach all of those that want to enter the nursing profession, in addition. Retire or burn out there are not enough nurses to replace them, the average age of a registered nurse is around 49 and as they quit. There is a serious shortage of nurses in this country.

And more and more that "somebody" is a travel nurse. They need to hire somebody to fill in the gaps even if it is only on a temporary basis. So what is a desperate Human Resource Director of a major medical institution to do?

A solution was to recruit nurses to come on board for a fixed period of time until the part-time seasonal citizens returned to their permanent homes for the summer. Hospitals in these states saw a spike in activity during the winter months and they couldn't afford to staff up year round to be in a position to meet this temporary upswing in demand, consequently. Northern "snowbirds" migrated to warmer climates in states like Florida and Arizona, during the winter. Travel nursing started as a solution to seasonal population growth in Sunbelt states.

The pay was pretty darn good, plus. Nurses were essentially tourists, during days off or after hours. Even though the work is just as demanding, it was like getting paid to take a vacation. Nurses could travel to very attractive sunny states during the winter and enjoy themselves during the off hours. Hospitals could hire nurses for about 13 weeks to fill a temporary need without adding permanent staff. Mutually beneficial arrangement, it was a beautiful.

The competition among recruiters is fierce and the nurse willing to move away from home for anywhere from 13 to 26 weeks is a hot commodity. There are simply not enough nurses to fill all of the available positions and the travel nurse industry has exploded as a result. It is a year-round national crisis. The nursing shortage no longer runs from December through February. The seasonal aspect of the travel nurse industry has changed, but over the past couple of decades.

It is not unusual to qualify for a sizable bonus at the completion of an assignment. Free housing, in some cases, travel nurses can command from $25-$55 per hour along with significant benefits and. For the right pay, in the right institution, at the right time, it is possible for a nurse to identify a destination that he or she is interested in and search around until they find the right position. Travel nurse jobs are available in all 50 states.

The permanent staff recognizes that these temporary nurses fill a significant need and prevent the workload from becoming unmanageable, generally, but. May cause a bit of resentment, along with a perceived lack of commitment to the facility, this. Travel nurses and receive significantly more than the nurses on the permanent staff, even though most nurses are compensated very well.

Fill a need and have a great time will be available to nurses that want to hit the road for years to come, make a great income, work hard, the nursing shortage will not abate any time soon so the opportunity to travel.