Travel Nurse Housing Scenarios
Different Living Arrangements That Travel Nurses Choose While On Assignment
A travel nursing lifestyle is one that calls for continual relocation as the professional moves from one assignment to the next. As a result, it’s an occupation that is sometimes defined by its pick-up-and-leave, improvisational nature.
Travel nurses pursue this lifestyle for may reasons, some which lead them to unique living situations, such as the ones listed below:
Staying With Far-Away Relatives & Friends
Many nurses will accept travel positions to visit family and friends throughout the country, enjoying long stays with relatives that they would otherwise rarely see. When not visiting loved ones, they can be enjoying the area where they’re stationed, making new friends and taking in the local sights.
Some nurses will take on a one-time travel position, requesting a sabbatical from their current position to be stationed with an ill loved one for a period of time. Because nurses are in such demand, the hospital will often cooperate, keeping their position open for their return.
Living in an RV
Increasingly, travel nurses who are committed to the career for the long term will avoid the hassle and disruption of moving every three months. Instead, they will forgo their free housing for a stipend instead — and will put this stipend towards the purchase of an RV.
Traveling by RV allows the travel nurse to pick up and go wherever they want — not only when relocating to a new assignment, but also when taking a weekend getaway in their new area. With an RV, there’s the benefit of a more consistent lifestyle. a lower cost of living, and no necessary “home” waiting several states away for your assignment to end. You’ll have no need to compromise on pets for each living situation, and you enjoy a way of living that is unavailable to most.
Extended Hotel Stays
Instead of living in a rented house or apartment, some travel nurses will opt for an extended stay in a hotel room during their assignment. While the living in this situation is decidedly simple, these professionals enjoy no-maintenance living, including paid utilities, cleaning, and possibly other perks such as a swimming pool, workout room, or other amenities.
However, the lack of complete privacy and very small living conditions are not for everyone, and a traveling nurse that’s with children and a spouse may find this arrangement inadequate.
A “Working Vacation”
Some travel nurses will take advantage of their relocation opportunity to station themselves in Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, or even overseas in a highly desirable vacation destination. When they’re not fulfilling the duties of their job, they’re enjoying a stay at a place that others might pay thousands of dollars to visit for a week.
Some travel healthcare professionals work solely for hotels — caring for ill patients. In fact, some agencies work with nothing but hotel assignments. If you’ve been at a hotel and have met with a physician during your stay, there’s a very good chance the physician was a locum tenens — the MD equivalent of a travel nurse.
Those travel nurses who choose to be stationed at a vacation resort are working in a highly competitive area within their industry. Because of this, they may not be able to negotiate the higher salaries of urgent-need areas. However, they do get a one-in-a-lifetime chance at an extended stay at location where they’ve always wanted to visit.
Content provided by Onward Healthcare — your source for travel nursing jobs anywhere in the United States, as well as positions in rehab therapy including occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech-language pathology. To search for locum tenens jobs as a hospitalist, nurse practitioner, physician assistant, or other opening, visit their sister company Onward MD!
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