Travel nurse staffing agencies have seen a dramatic rise in the need for qualified staff, due to widespread nursing shortage and a lack of healthcare workers to take on critical roles in many areas of the field. Because travel nurse agencies are so in need, there has never been a better time to look into travel nursing than right now. The future of the travel nursing industry is only expected to hold more and more employment opportunities for qualified nurses as time goes on.
No matter what type of healthcare system or settings you are familiar with, a travel nurse staffing agency can provide you with many benefits and offer employment opportunities that will help you build a vibrant career and a future that is full of potential. The future for qualified nurses is bright, and there are lots of developments in the field that will bring exciting changes over the next few years.
What Does the Future Hold for Nurses?
Healthcare facilities across the country are experiencing nursing shortages and a lack of registered nurses and other staff to fill open positions that require a nursing degree. If you’ve passed an accredited nursing program, you can put your degree to work and start building a career in the travel nursing industry that will provide you with a wide array of benefits.
The many changes in our society since 2020 have led to an increase in demand for medical care and many more travel nurse jobs than ever before. Let’s take a look at ten projected trends for the future that travel nurses can expect to see in the next few years.
Trend #1: Rising Demand for Nurses
A new nurse with a bachelor’s degree or other qualifications will always be able to find employment. The aging Baby Boomer demographic will increasingly need to find a healthcare facility that works for them, and so agencies will have to provide competitive pay rates to retain and keep employees. This rising demand for qualified nurses means that you will always be able to rely on your career and will be able to find employment easier than in most other fields.
Trend #2: Increased Use of Technology
Travel nurses choose to use technology in many ways that benefit them. Travel nursing companies and other agencies use online platforms in their onboarding process to recruit and hire, and every year more and more facilities bring their charting and medical records online. This makes it easier for healthcare professionals like travel nurses to get their jobs done quickly and effectively.
Increased technology brings benefits to patients, as well. As technology improves, caring for patients becomes less invasive, less painful, and easier to facilitate effectively. This means that patients will be able to access care more often, and the most vulnerable in our society will have greater and more equitable access to healthcare resources. This trend benefits our society in many ways, and will help travel nurses love their work even more.
Trend #3: Shorter Assignment Lengths
One trend that seems to be increasing in the nursing field is a shorter assignment duration for agency nurses. For a hospital, this allows them to fill nurse positions more easily and help the company recruit travelers as needed. Travel nurses will have more flexibility with their work and will be able to move around the country and find better pay more often.
This increased freedom to move is one of the best benefits of being a travel nurse. Rather than being inconvenient, a trend of shortening assignments will offer you more opportunities to grow, learn, and find the right spot for you.
Trend #4: Increased Benefits
Due to the increasing demands for staff nurses in the healthcare field, allied health professionals in mental health clinics, skilled nursing facilities, and other locations across the country will greatly need staff nurses.
This means that for the travel nurse who has passed the state boards, paid the licensure fees, and has great communication skills, a travel nurse agency will likely offer many incentives. They will often provide housing, offer referral bonuses, have great sick leave policies, provide a housing stipend if you want to find your own housing, and offer many other benefits depending on which agency and location the travel nurses are in.
Travel nurses usually love their jobs, and national council labor statistics show that working on the right team will greatly improve your quality of life. Housing experts can help you find the location and company that’s a good fit for you, and travel nurse agencies will always need more staff.
Trend #5: Increased Collaboration Between Staff
Trends in healthcare show that healthcare staffing agencies are helping to fill critical roles in hospitals, like cardiologists, radiologists, surgical assistants, dental specialists, mental health professionals, and more. As healthcare staffing needs grow and become more diversified, doctors will rely more and more on travel nurses and these other team members. A travel nursing staffing agency will increasingly be called on to fill these roles, and continuing education can help you become an integral part of the team.
Trend #6: Greater Access to Telehealth
One exciting way that the nursing field is developing to benefit travel nurses is the expansion of remote assignments using telehealth. Travel nursing jobs will increasingly be able to offer assignments in healthcare settings where you will perform your duties remotely using video call technology. This will make medical care more convenient and accessible for both patients and nurses.
Trend #7: Improved Salaries
A travel nurse salary is a comfortable way to make a living and is a good option to provide for a family. In order to keep up with inflation and rising costs of living, the travel nurse agency will meet standard base salaries and offer company match financial incentives. Depending on your assignment and facility, you can expect to see steady pay raises at your job that your company will provide to keep you on their travel nursing agency staff.
Trend #8: Increasing Cultural Diversity
Travelers at any company will likely find that travel nursing positions require an increasing amount of cultural competence and sensitivity. With an increasingly diverse population in the country, travel nurses will have to shift and adapt their traditional methods and styles in order to accommodate a wider range of patients. Travel nursing jobs are a great way to broaden your horizons and experience a variety of different cultures as a travel nurse.
Trend #9: Greater Emphasis on Self-Care
Travel nurses of all types know how difficult, but rewarding, the job can be. Travel nursing agencies are increasingly focusing on how to care for their employees better and increase retention and job satisfaction. Moving forward, nurses will have more opportunities from their hospital or agency to practice self-care and learn how to care for themselves along with receiving the benefits and pay from travel nursing agencies.
Trend #10: Higher Demand for Specialties
Hospitals, clinics, and even dental offices will often advertise for an assignment that can be difficult to fill, sometimes taking at least two years to fill at one point. This is difficult for the company and it takes a lot of resources to fill these assignments that require specialized skills. Looking forward to the future, it’s a smart idea to save time and reap many benefits by acquiring as many specialties and travel nurse positions as you can to help you reach a higher pay rate.
Travel Nursing: A Career That Will Last
These trends continue to become more prominent every year and show no sign of slowing down. Nurses can look forward to each one of these trends benefiting them in some way, whether it’s making their careers easier, helping facilitate greater care, or offering different ways to connect with the patients they love. At the end of the day, nurses do one thing better than almost anyone else – they care about those in need.
Many times, those in a hospital or skilled nursing facility are in one of the worst situations of their lives. It can be a desperate time, full of pain, anxiety, nervousness, and fear. Nurses step in when they are needed the most to offer a helping hand, a listening ear, and the medical attention that is needed to bring them back to health.
That’s why travelers, registered nurses, and all other types of healthcare workers know how critical a nurse can be to the overall patient care and atmosphere of a facility. Not only is being a nurse an important and fundamental way to help others, but nursing also offers great pay and a high degree of stability for the future.
Travel nurses will always be needed, and a staffing agency will always be a reliable way to attain a positive lifestyle and financial company match benefits to save for your future. Choosing to become a nurse is an excellent decision, and travel nurses especially can achieve a lot of great lifestyle benefits. If you’re a nurse or planning to become one, now is an excellent time to look into staffing agencies to find a career you will love with a lot of projected growth in the future!
