Working as an infusion nurse has been rewarding and gratifying. Not only do you get to put your specialized skills to use, but you thrive in your work, knowing that you are helping to make someone’s life better.
Perhaps you’ve been working in a hospital setting and are now ready to use your skills in the home health scene. But you’d also like to add travel nursing to your career. Is it possible to do them both by becoming a travel home infusion care nurse?
The answer is yes!
Before you make the switch to home infusion travel nursing, let us fill you in on what your career looks like on the road, what requirements you must meet, and some advantages and drawbacks you’ll want to be aware of.
Table of Contents
- What Is a Home Infusion Travel Nurse?
- What Are the Characteristics of an Infusion Nurse?
- What Are the Duties of a Travel Home Infusion Nurse?
- Requirements To Become a Travel Home Infusion Nurse
- Infusion Nursing FAQs
- The Pros and Cons of Being a Travel Home Infusion Nurse
- Find Your Career as a Travel Home Infusion Nurse With Help From Trusted Nurse Staffing
What Is a Home Infusion Travel Nurse?
Working with home health care agencies, a home infusion travel nurse is a registered nurse who administers medications and provides other services to patients in their homes.
Home infusion nurses make it possible for patients to get the services and treatments they need in the comfort of their own homes. They may treat patients with medical conditions like cancer, immune disorders, infections, and more.
Some of the services a home infusion nurse may provide include administering:
- IV medications
- Nutrients
- Fluids
In addition to these direct medical treatments, travel home infusion nurses may also:
- Assess patient needs
- Help create care plans
- Monitor patient progress
- Respond to complications
What Are the Characteristics of an Infusion Nurse?
If you’re a nurse who enjoys working directly with patients and appreciates the personal connection you can have with them, you may be well suited to be a travel home infusion nurse.
Home infusion nurses also thrive in their profession when they possess these additional attributes:
- Work independently
- Structured
- Enjoy variety
- Pharmacology skills
- Proficiency with laboratory tests
- Telemetry experience
- Steady hand
- Patience
- Attentiveness
What Are the Duties of a Travel Home Infusion Nurse?
The duties of a travel home infusion nurse are varied, including responsibilities with education, infusions, assessment, and treatment.
Specific duties that travel home infusion nurses perform include:
- Patient assessments (watching for infection around the insertion site)
- Caregiver education
- Reviewing lab data
- Administering fluid therapy and medications
- Monitor IVs and medication
- Create care plans
- Infusions (blood, antibiotic, steroid, vitamin, electrolyte infusions, and more)
Requirements To Become a Travel Home Infusion Nurse
A Certified Registered Nurse Infusion (CRNI) is a registered nurse with expert and specialized skills in infusion procedures and treatment. To become a travel home infusion nurse, you’ll need to receive the proper nursing degree along with other licensure, certification, and experience qualifications.
Education
The first step is to get a nursing education by either earning an Associate’s Degree in Nursing (ADN) or a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN).
The ADN is a degree that prepares nurses to work as RNs in two years. After earning an ADN and working in the nursing field, any nurse who wants to advance their career can go on to earn their BSN by applying their earned credits and experience toward a four-year degree.
A BSN is an undergraduate degree that typically takes four years. Having a BSN may open up more doors in your nursing career, like becoming a supervisor or nurse educator.
Licensure
Home infusion travel nurses will need to pass the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN) after they’ve completed either the ADN or BSN degree.
The NCLEX-RN is used to assess a nurse’s ability to begin work as an entry-level nurse.
By answering questions based on different nursing scenarios, the NCLEX-RN gives nurses the opportunity to display their knowledge in different nursing areas, such as:
- Surgical
- Medical
- Obstetric
- Pediatric
- Psychiatric
There are many tips and tools online to help nurses prepare for the exam. Nurses can schedule to take the exam after they’ve been given the authorization to test. The test can be taken up to eight times a year with a wait time of 45 days in between each attempt.
Certifications
Travel home infusion nurses may consider earning certification through the Certified Registered Nurse Infusion (CRNI) program. Having this specialized certification will allow nurses to display their skills and competence as infusion nurses to employers, both current and future.
To receive and maintain CRNI certification, nurses must meet the following requirements:
- Possess an active RN license
- Obtain 1,600 hours of experience with infusion therapy in the last two years
- Renew certification every three years
- Complete 40 hours of continuing education to renew certification
The certification exam is available through the Infusion Nurses Society (INS).
Experience and Necessary Skills
Like any other type of nursing, it’s important and valuable to gain experience in the home infusion nursing field after earning a degree and becoming licensed. Some employers may require a certain number of hours or one year of clinical experience.
Home infusion travel nurses can gain this experience working in the following areas:
- Intensive care
- Oncology
- Geriatrics
- Pediatrics
- Pre- and post-operative surgical units
In these settings, infusion nurses can gain essential experience with IVs and other types of infusion therapies. As mentioned above, 1,600 hours of experience is necessary if a nurse is planning on obtaining CRNI certification.
In addition to nursing experience, home infusion travel nurses should also focus on possessing the following skills:
- Therapeutic IV treatment and infusion
- Communication
- Empathy
- Attention to detail
- Interpersonal
- Assessment and monitoring
- Reading and reviewing lab reports and drug information
Infusion Nursing FAQs
Where Do Infusion Nurses Work?
Infusion travel nurses may work in a variety of environments and facilities, including:
- Hospitals
- Bedside nurse
- Resource nurse
- Peripherally Inserted Central Line (PICC) nurse
- Infusion centers
- Long-term care centers
- Nursing homes
- Home health
- Oncology
What Are Home Infusion Nurses Responsible For?
Home infusions are a safe and convenient way for patients — many of whom need long-term therapy — to receive infusion therapy treatments in the comfort of their own homes.
Home infusion nurses are those specialized nurses who perform these therapies in patients’ homes. Home infusion nurses usually work through home health agencies.
These professional nurses can perform a variety of infusion services, from standard IV administration to pain management and many services in between, including:
- Medication therapy via IV, catheter, or PICC line
- Antibiotic therapy
- Chemotherapy
- Enteral or intravenous nutrition
- Antibody therapy
- Hydration therapy
- Enzyme replacement therapy
- And more
Depending on the patient and their condition, a travel home infusion nurse may give daily infusions. Other patients may only require infusions every other week or month.
What Type of Patients Do Travel Home Infusion Nurses Work With?
Infusion nurses work with patients who need regular IV medications or therapies for many different conditions and diseases.
The most common reason a patient may need infusion therapy is because of serious infections that require regular antibiotics.
Other patient conditions that may call for infusions include:
- Cancer
- Pain management
- Dehydration
- Gastrointestinal diseases and disorders
- Immune system diseases
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Crohn’s Disease
- Multiple sclerosis
- Antibiotic therapy
- Pneumonia
- Sepsis
- UTIs
- Cellulitis
How Much Do Travel Home Infusion Nurses Get Paid?
Because of the specialization and expert skills needed by home infusion travel nurses, it’s not surprising that they earn lucrative salaries. On top of that, infusion nurses may be in high demand, which further increases their earning potential.
According to salary.com, the median annual salary for an infusion nurse is $90,263.
Travel home infusion nurses may make more per week, depending on location, certifications, and experience. Home infusion travel nurse hourly salaries on ZipRecruiter, on average, are $46 per hour or anywhere from $2,000 to $3,000 per week.
Use Pronto today to search for travel home infusion nursing assignments in your desired location.
The Pros and Cons of Being a Travel Home Infusion Nurse
Any job comes with advantages and drawbacks, and it’s no different with home infusion travel nursing.
Providing infusion therapy to patients in their own homes can be extremely rewarding and challenging at the same time. Consider the following potential pros and cons to help you decide if this would be a positive career move for you.
Potential Pros of Travel Home Infusion Nursing
Working as a travel home infusion nurse can mean experiencing many of these positive outcomes:
- Job fulfillment: Home infusion nurses are able to directly impact their patients and find it rewarding to help them have better outcomes. Nothing compares to seeing a patient improve and get stronger because of your involvement in their medical treatment.
- Personal bonds: As a home infusion nurse, you may be able to form closer relationships with patients than you would in a medical facility like a hospital or clinic. You may also get the opportunity to engage family members as you offer education and instruction.
- Regular hours: Those that may change from patient to patient, home infusion travel nurses may be able to expect to have a regular schedule during their assignment.
- Specialized training: Because of the particular skills and specializations needed to become a certified infusion RN, they may be considered experts. With this status often comes better pay and advancement opportunities.
- Continuous learning: Home infusion nurses work to stay up to date with the most recent advancements and medical practices. With this knowledge, not only will they be able to provide the best care to their patients, but they are also opening the door to advancement opportunities and standing out above others in the hiring process.
Potential Cons of Travel Home Infusion Nursing
Some of the drawbacks of home infusion travel nursing may include:
- Environmental control: Infusion nurses follow strict protocols when it comes to cleanliness and sterility. Keeping contaminant exposure to a minimum is a high priority. However, in a patient’s home, there is less environmental control than there would be in a clinic or hospital. To meet these potential obstacles, home infusion travel nurses should assess hazards at each visit and make thorough patient and family education a high priority.
- Limited resources: If a patient has an adverse reaction or needs emergency intervention, the patient’s home doesn’t provide for other medical personnel or resources readily available. In the case of an emergency, the home infusion nurse must call 911 and wait for help to arrive.
- Potential for high-stress: Home infusion procedures may also be coupled with complex therapies, assessing for complications, and responding to emergencies — all situations that can raise a nurse’s stress level.
- Physical demands: Lifting patients, setting up equipment, and other physical challenges can be demanding tasks for home infusion travel nurses.
- Emotional challenges: Seeing the same patients on a regular basis may lead to close relationships — relationships that may become emotionally challenging, especially if the patient has a serious or terminal illness. Interacting with patients’ family members can also be emotionally taxing.
Find Your Career as a Travel Home Infusion Nurse With Help From Trusted Nurse Staffing
Seeing the world and working as a home infusion nurse is possible when you work as a travel nurse with Trusted Nurse Staffing.
We prioritize you by working hard to make sure you find the assignments you’re looking for, with support whenever you need it.
Since 2008, we’ve been a leader in the travel nurse industry, and we understand the challenges of travel healthcare. That’s why we make sure you are fully informed during the hiring process, being transparent and providing dependable guidance.
In addition to helping you find your dream assignment, we follow that up with a comprehensive benefits package that includes:
- Competitive pay
- Sign-on bonuses
- Completion bonuses
- Referral bonuses
- License, certification, and CEU reimbursement
- Insurance and retirement plans
- Healthcare benefits
Start your home infusion travel nursing career today by searching for assignments in your preferred location on Pronto.