Second Military Careers - Military Times

Travel, make big bucks in health care

Carol Pennington’s sense of adventure led her to the Army Reserve and Army Nurse Corps.

During her 13 years in uniform, the registered nurse tended to wounded warriors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., while Operation Desert Storm was in progress and also at William Beaumont Army Medical Center at Fort Bliss, Texas.

Pennington, 59, left the military in 2003 at the rank of captain but never lost that sense of adventure. She’s now one of an estimated 20,000 traveling nurses called “travel nurses” or “travelers” in the industry.

Pennington packs up her clothes and her dog every few months, and they’re on their way to a furnished, all-expenses-paid apartment in a city or town of Pennington’s choosing. She’ll work at a medical facility that desperately needs experienced nurses to fill staffing holes.

The pay is good, and the work is fulfilling, she said. In the two years that Pennington has been a traveler, she’s worked and lived in Lancaster, Pa.; Stowe, Vt.; Washington, D.C.; Madison, Wis.; and Eden, Md.

“And I’m not disappointed in it at all,” said Pennington, who calls Kill Devil Kills, N.C., home. “It’s been great.”

Shortage fuels demand

The demand for registered nurses is high, and it’s expected to climb even higher. For experienced nurses seeking adventure and flexibility — not to mention a healthy paycheck — travel nursing could be a great career choice.

Charlene Douglas, associate professor and coordinator for community health nursing at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., said service members are accustomed to moving from one place to another and pitching in to get the job done — qualities that make them ideal for travel nursing.

Clinical One is a Wakefield, Mass.-based medical staffing agency that helps health care facilities find workers including travel nurses — from 250 to 400 at a time.

A nurse must establish expertise in a specialty area in order to qualify to become a traveler, said Melissa Knybel, Clinical One’s director of operations.

The industry standard for a travel assignment is 13 weeks, but Knybel said about half of Clinical One’s travelers extend their contracts.

Travel nursing is a win for hospitals, too.

“It is terribly expensive ... to hire a travel nurse,” Douglas said. “But [hospitals] can be certain of the experience and the competence. They can back fill or forward fill for a designated period of time.”

How to find an agency

The travel-nursing Web site HighwayHypodermics.com ranks medical-staffing firms based on answers to a survey about hourly rate, availability and cost of insurance plans, amenities included with housing, availability of direct deposit and stipends for traveling between assignments.

“As a nurse, what I would look for is, ‘How long have you been in business?’” Douglas said. “Travel can be rough and tumble — you get stranded somewhere, you need to be put up [because of bad weather], that type of thing.”

Douglas also recommends finding out how much support is available to the nurse from the staffing firm. “With some agencies, you can get 24/7 support — and that’s what you want,” Douglas said. “Is this a place you can get in touch with? Do they have e-mail? Do they have someone answering the phone? You want to have that lifeline.”

Prospective travel nurses should also look into the geographic areas agencies serve.

“You may have ideas of going to California and beach communities, but they only service the Northeast,” Douglas said. “And you may want to branch out into Canada and Mexico. Do they do international?”

Knybel recommends that nurses interview several agencies before choosing one. She says a good staffing firm will find housing for you, help you relocate and assist with obtaining a nursing license in another state or country.

And if a traveler encounters the unexpected, “a good travel company is going to help you through that,” Knybel said.

Weighing the benefits

Since becoming a traveler, Pennington has gotten caught in a blizzard and had her car stolen. She misses her children and grandchildren and said it can become tedious to “pack, then unpack, then pack again.”

But she believes that for her, the positives outweigh the negative aspects of the job.

“I get to meet very interesting people and do different kinds of jobs,” Pennington said. “I get to learn different styles, which has made me a better nurse.”

She plans to keep working as a traveler until she retires.