We get this question all the time, “Is travel nursing hard?” Who better than travel nurses to answer that question! Meet Sam & Annette, two oncology travel nurses embarking on a journey across America one contract at a time. Sam and Annette took a minute out of their busy lives to give us a glimpse into the greatest challenges and achievements they’ve had thus far.
Is travel nursing hard?
“The biggest challenge is the healthcare companies and their pay packages. We do not like talking to more than one recruiter, but we started because of all the forums you read! It is such a mess and they make you fill out all paperwork and in the end we don’t even take the job because they don’t have the hospital we want to go back to.
We wanted to go to Hawaii, but couldn’t find Oncology jobs, and figured we can settle for a medsurg position. Frustrating part is both recruiters say, the pay is so low! What is low? $1350 a week. What! In NYC, we are getting the same and the cost of living isn’t cheap! Recently we found out our insurance is $380 a month that we didn’t know about. They told us insurance comes with being an employee! Everything is so challenging, but we go with the flow! We love the whole concept of wanderly!”
What has been your greatest achievement as a travel nurse?
“Usually this is a very hard question to answer for both nurses! Sam and I, caught a near miss together on assignment and we were recognized as Patient Safety Leaders. We got medals and certificates and that probably has been the highlight of our year!”
Thank you for joining this week’s nurse talk, Sam & Annette! We appreciate you sharing and we hope to make your life a little easier when looking for your next contract. Is Travel Nursing hard or do recruiting agencies not do enough to enable nurses? With Wanderly you can rest assured that we are empowering nurses every day! Good luck out there and happy travels!
Follow Sam & Annette’s journey on Instagram @travelnursebabes
If you’re curious and want to learn more about travel nurse best practices, we have a few additional blog posts you might be interested to read: