Becoming a travel nurse has always been your dream, but now you’re married with children — is that dream a thing of the past?
Although it comes with its challenges, travel nursing with a family is possible and offers many opportunities and benefits for those looking for an adventure.
Explore the pros and cons of travel nursing with a family, the benefits available to you, and some considerations to review before choosing an assignment and hitting the road.
Table of Contents
- Can You Be a Travel Nurse With a Family?
- Can Travel Nurses Bring Their Families?
- Travel Nursing With a Family: How Do Housing and Benefits Work?
- 3 Considerations for Travel Nursing With a Family
- Trusted Nurse Staffing: Offering Opportunities and Benefits for Travel Nursing With a Family
Can You Be a Travel Nurse With a Family?
A misconception about travel nursing might be that it’s for single nurses or those without any dependents. They’re not tied down at home and have the ability to go anywhere their job might take them.
While it may be easier for travel nurses without a spouse or children to choose an assignment, pack up, and go, you can still be a travel nurse with a family.
Will it be more complicated to navigate? Probably.
Will you and/or your family have to make more sacrifices? Maybe.
Is it possible? Absolutely.
Some travel nurses choose to take assignments during school breaks and bring their families along, some choose shorter contracts and leave families behind, and others have made a career out of travel nursing year-round with their families in tow.
Can You Be a Travel Nurse as a Single Parent?
Your family isn’t exactly traditional — you’re a single parent with only part-time care of your child. Can you still be a successful travel nurse?
Absolutely! Travel nursing offers many benefits to single parents, including:
- Free accommodations
- Flexible schedules
- Free travel
- New people to spend time with
- Exploring the country
- Customized benefits packages
Whether you’re looking to bring your family along, it’s just you and your child, or you want to consider shorter assignments to not leave your family as long, Trusted Nurse Staffing can help.
Use Pronto to search for travel nurse assignments that fit your family’s needs best. With contracts available from 6 to 52 weeks, it’s possible to plan for extended nursing assignments that require less moving or shorter assignments that work for your family.
Whatever you choose, the recruiters at Trusted Nurse Staffing are here to help. Contact us to learn how to effectively navigate travel nursing with a family.
Can Travel Nurses Bring Their Families?
Of course! As a travel nurse, you don’t have to worry about leaving your family behind.
With opinions and personalities to consider, schooling, extracurricular activities, and more, it might seem more difficult to find an assignment that fits everyone’s needs. But bringing your family along as a travel nurse is not only possible, it can be a rewarding experience, too.
Pros and Cons of Travel Nursing With a Family
Whether you’re a large family, a single parent, or newly married without kids, there are pros and cons to navigating travel nursing with a family.
Travel Nursing With a Spouse
Pros of Travel Nursing With a Spouse
- Experience new places together: Got the travel itch? Travel nursing with your spouse is the perfect way to experience new places together. Choose an assignment in Hawaii and explore the black sands or head to Alaska and visit the Crater of Diamonds — travel nursing assignments are available in every desired state.
- Visit out-of-town family: Does your extended family live out of town? Maybe you have a sibling in the military stationed in North Carolina or your spouse’s favorite aunt took her dream job in California. No matter where they are, travel nursing allows you to head their way on assignment.
- Save money: Travel nurses already make more money than staff nurses, but aside from the higher pay rates, travel nurses with Trusted Nurse Staffing receive many benefits that help financially, including:
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- Housing stipends
- Food and travel stipends
- Extended health care for the whole family
- Sign-on and completion bonuses
- Increased adaptability: With many new situations ahead, couples are forced to adapt together through meeting new people, learning new routines, navigating a new city, practicing flexibility, and more.
Cons of Travel Nursing With a Spouse
The grass isn’t always greener when you choose to bring your spouse on your travel nurse assignment.
Although it may be nice for you to have someone to come home to at night, your spouse might struggle with finding work or feeling lonely.
Trusted Nurse Staffing offers contracts between 6 and 52 weeks, but the average travel nurse assignment is 13 weeks. This can make it difficult for a spouse to find or maintain employment. If possible, finding a work-from-home job or starting a home-based business could be advantageous as a travel nursing family.
As a nurse, you’re automatically connected with coworkers at your facility, but your spouse might struggle to find a community. Having a hobby or activity to enjoy outside of the home could be beneficial here.
Travel Nursing With Children
Travel nursing with children might seem like a tough choice, but weighing the pros and cons can help you come to a decision.
If you’re still unsure, consider taking a short-term assignment first to see if travel nursing with children is right for you.
Pros of Travel Nursing With Children
- Learning opportunities: New places bring many opportunities for kids to learn, explore, and discover. Think of all the new museums, cultures, parks, monuments, and more your children could be exposed to on your assignments.
- Quality time: Bringing your children on a 13-week assignment is 13 weeks you won’t have to spend away from them. Did you know that including your children can help with their emotional and mental development by reducing their feelings of separation and loneliness? It’s something to consider.
- Increased adaptability: Whether it be a long or short-term assignment, bringing your children helps expose them to different religions, languages, and cultures. Adaptability is a soft skill that not everyone possesses, but it can help set your children up to face decisions and experiences later on in life.
Cons of Travel Nursing With Children
Of course, bringing your children along on travel nursing assignments won’t always be rainbows and butterflies. They’ll face challenges that you should consider before packing their bags and bringing them on the road. These include:
- School: The process of switching schools can be overwhelming. It might be difficult to adjust to new teachers, make new friends, navigate a new school, and always be the “new kid.” As a travel nurse with children, considering virtual or homeschooling options might help maintain consistency and avoid bouncing from school to school.
- Leaving friends behind: Building lasting relationships is an important part of growth and development, so it’s important to consider your child’s social life. Leaving friends behind can be difficult, but it can also be rewarding to make new ones.
Travel Nursing With a Family: How Do Housing and Benefits Work?
The overarching obstacle of travel nursing with a family is ensuring that everyone is taken care of and has what they need to not only survive but thrive. As a travel nurse, many agencies offer housing stipends, agency-based housing, and great benefits.
But do these options extend to your family as well?
Housing
Many travel nursing agencies offer a housing stipend to help cover the cost of living accommodations on your assignment. Depending on your family size and situation, you might find that your housing stipend is enough to cover a temporary home that fits your family’s needs.
However, if you’re a larger family or need special accommodations, your housing stipend may only partially cover your housing costs.
If you choose agency-based housing, you’ll want to check with your travel nursing agency to accommodate the needs of your family. If it’s not possible to comfortably accommodate everyone, choosing the housing stipend might be your best bet.
Benefits
Travel nurses often receive great benefits through their agency, and sometimes those benefits extend to families. This is especially true when you work with Trusted Nurse Staffing.
- Competitive health and dental insurance plans
- Flexible hours
- Housing, meal, and travel stipends
- Wellness benefits
- Additional insurance benefits
- Work flexibility
- And more
3 Considerations for Travel Nursing With a Family
#1: Housing
We’ve mentioned that many travel nursing agencies provide agency-based housing for travel nurses, and that could include your family. It’s important to speak with your travel nurse agency to find out specific information regarding their policies.
In most cases, housing provided by the travel agency is typically set up to accommodate a single person or a couple. You might even get away with using agency-based housing as a single parent with a child or two.
However, you could choose to use the housing stipend, which you can put toward a rental that would better fit your family. Note: This option will likely cost you some money out of pocket, depending on your family size and needs.
Researching the area where you plan to work will give you insight into rental prices and what your stipend will cover/what you’ll cover out of pocket. If you’re willing to commute, finding housing in suburban areas may save money and provide a safe community for your family.
#2: Childcare, Schooling, and Activities
Finding childcare and babysitters in a new location can be challenging. Without the support of extended family and friends, you’re limited to the available spaces in a daycare facility or using a babysitting/nannying service — especially if you and your spouse both work days.
Not only will you need to ensure you have childcare in place for non-school-aged children, but you’ll also need to figure out schooling — whether that be virtual, homeschooling, or enrolling in the local district — for your school-aged kids, and consider the activities available to your child(ren) in the area to enhance their experience.
Look for things like:
- Community pools
- Libraries
- Playgrounds
- Sports teams
- Extracurriculars
- Community events
- And more
#3: Consider Travel Nursing Local
Before you jump into a travel nurse assignment across the country, you might want to consider what local travel nursing opportunities are available in your state or within a few hour’s drive.
Travel nurses don’t always have to be a flight away from home.
For example, if you’re a permanent resident of Buffalo, NY, and would prefer to stay close to home for the convenience of your family, you might look into opportunities in Rochester, NY, for an easy commute. Even better, you’ll still get to experience the higher travel nursing pay and extra benefits.
Trusted Nurse Staffing: Offering Opportunities and Benefits for Travel Nursing With a Family
We all know travel nursing can be a rewarding experience, but if you’re a travel nurse with a family, don’t count yourself out just yet.
At Trusted Nurse Staffing, we believe in rewarding our traveling families with the benefits and opportunities they deserve. That’s why we offer:
- The highest pay in the industry
- Medical benefits for the entire family
- Dental and vision benefits
- 401(k)
- Flexible full or part-time contracts
- Sign-on and completion bonuses
- Travel, housing, and food stipends
- Wellness benefits
- License, certifications, and CEU reimbursements
- Travel nurse assignments all across the country
We also offer 24/7 support while you’re on the road for you and your family. We appreciate what both our nurses and their families do, so we always have someone standing by to address any concerns or questions that might arise.
Are you a travel nurse with a family and ready to hit the road? Contact us today.
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