Kathleen Murphy, RN is the type who easily gets bored and constantly seeks new ways to challenge herself. That’s what drew her to being a travel nurse in the first place. As a travel nurse for the past three years, she’s had assignments in Missouri, Tennessee, California, and Arizona.

In some cases, she’s accepted extended contracts, and even returned to the same hospitals after finishing an assignment in another state. From this, Kathleen has developed a network of people and places she can count on - mostly because she’s found a knack for keeping staff and administrators happy with her work.

While travel nurses quite often choose their assignments because of hourly rates, some travel nurses base their contract decisions on their desire to work at a small facility. In fact, the unit Kathleen was assigned to had only 14 beds and almost exclusively employed travel nurses and locum tenens physicians.

Travel nurses can also find themselves falling in love with a facility because of it’s location. In fact, some nurses are more ‘travel’ than ‘nurse’ at times. A new trend in travel nursing in to own an RV as your travel residence and use it to see the country in a way many travel nurses don’t get to.

Adventure and travel nursing can go hand-in-hand and the travel can be a relaxing and scenic way to unleash the stress that comes wit this profession.

As a travel nurse, you have an opportunity to learn and master new techniques and technologies as well as meet and learn from some amazing people in the healthcare industry, Your happiness and success as a travel nurse is hinged on your ability to fit in with your surroundings. In exchange, you’ll reap the advantage of schedule flexibility and the ability to earn an higher-than-average income.