Tips for Travel Nursing with a Friend or Partner

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| posted by Charity Crawford

Travel nursing with a partner in crime (or three, four, etc.) can have many advantages! Having someone to share the journey with you can help make the transition into traveling that much easier. Here, I’ve outlined the advantages of traveling with a friend, partner, or significant other. I’ve also included a couple of strategies to have the most success with finding placements together.

Let’s get two it! (See what I did there?)

A Few Advantages of Traveling in Pairs or Groups

Being Able to Split Housing Costs

This one is a huge benefit, especially as lodging expenses continue to increase throughout the country. Be sure to check out our other blogs about finding housing as a travel nurse for more advice!

Being able to share child or pet care

Splitting up the child care schedule may help reduce the stress and worry of vetting someone new in each place you travel to. Besides, that one-on-one time means seeing a new location through the wonderment of a child’s perspective. It could give you the warm and fuzzies for this new city! For the pawrents (man, I’m so clever), sharing the responsibility of running home on lunch to let out and feed the furry ones, helps to save costs for pet boarding and adds additional peace of mind.

Having a road trip co-pilot

Many travelers drive to their assignments, and it’s a lot easier to manage when you have someone who can swap the wheel with you every so often! It’s a bonus if they feed you fries after you’ve hit up the drive-thru.

Having an extra photographer

We all love to take pictures of the cool new places we visit on our travels. Having someone else there who can capture us (at all the right angles, of course) enjoying these moments can make things even more fun and memorable! And, it doesn’t hurt to have some sweet new pics for the ‘Gram.

What Are the Chances of Placing Two or More Travelers Together?

Many factors will determine your success level with being placed on multiple contracts, including market conditions, supply and demand, and what preferences or requirements you have for your assignments.

A couple of suggestions to help your chances:

Be as flexible as you can with your schedules.

Hospitals and facilities can sometimes be wary of hiring traveling pairs because they need travelers to help fill in the gaps with staffing. If two (or more) travelers insist on working the exact schedules, it can complicate things. If you’re willing to be flexible with scheduling, it’s easier for the hospitals or facilities to manage along with their other staffing needs.

Be flexible with locations you’re willing to travel to.

Being placed at the exact location simultaneously means that the hospital or facility will need to have at least two openings. It’s more likely that larger hospitals or more metropolitan-type areas will have more needs. Smaller cities or hospitals may only have one need here and there, so being flexible with locations will help your cause. Flexibility with location is especially critical if you and your traveling buddy are different specialties, an ER nurse and a PACU nurse, for example.

With the right approach and the right plan, it’s absolutely possible to start travel nursing with a friend or partner! Be sure to communicate your plans to travel with someone with your recruiter, who can help give you additional guidance and suggest areas that might have needs for both (or all) of you. I’m sure a wise person has said at some point, “Traveling is better when you can travel together!” (That wise person may or may not have been me.) Cheers to all of your adventures together!

Ready to start traveling with your friend or partner? Apply today!

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Charity Crawford
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