You’re excited about your upcoming travel nursing assignment, but you wish you had a friendly face you knew at your new location.
Your best friend is heading out to an exciting travel nursing assignment in a beach town. You’re happy for her — but wish you could be there together.
Intimidated by the unknown of your upcoming travel nursing assignment? Wish you and your best friend could have a blast working together? Consider pairing up on assignments.
Getting the same assignment with a friend is a great way to bring a little familiarity with you. It’s always nice to have a friend nearby who is going through the same thing as you.
This article will discuss the pros and cons of travel nursing with a friend and much more!
Table of Contents
- Can You Do Travel Nursing With a Friend?
- 3 Benefits of Travel Nursing With a Friend
- 3 Challenges of Travel Nursing With a Friend
- 4 Tips for Making the Most of Your Travel Nursing Experience With a Friend
- Trusted Nurse Staffing: Helping You Find the Right Travel Nursing Assignment for You and Your Friend
Can You Do Travel Nursing With a Friend?
This will vary from person to person, but it’s important to remember that a travel nurse who chooses to travel with a friend may spend 13+ weeks together.
Living together is likely, and working together may be possible if you work in the same unit. However, just because you are traveling with a friend doesn’t mean you’ll always be hanging out.
There’s a chance you’ll get a different shift, and you may have opposite schedules and work opposite weekends. Of course, there is also a chance that the stars will align perfectly, and everything will work out!
What’s the best way of finding a location and facility that works for you and your friend? Work with a top-rated staffing agency.
By working with Trusted Nurse Staffing, you can design the life you want.
With employment opportunities in all 50 states, you and your bestie will have plenty of options.
3 Benefits of Travel Nursing With a Friend
Travel nursing with a friend can be a fantastic experience — especially if this is your first assignment.
Let’s look at three benefits of travel nursing with a friend.
Better Support System
You’re new in a facility in a completely different city. You’re away from home for weeks at a time. The places feel strange, and the people are new.
This is not an experience everyone can relate to.
When you have a friend with you on an assignment who is also experiencing the same changes, you can lean on each other for support and advice.
Additionally, you’ll have someone to vent to if things get tough at work or if staff and patients are rude to you.
More Fun
You can feel lonely in a new city. When you travel with a friend, you’ll have someone to make memories and have fun with.
Whether …
- Sightseeing
- Eating out; or
- Just walking about your new city
… you can always be with a familiar face. .
Don’t forget about your trip to your new job! Road-tripping or caravanning to your assignment can be an exciting start to your journey.
More Affordable
It’s common for nurses who travel together to share a lot of expenses, such as travel expenses. If you’re flying, you’ll both need tickets. You can, however, share gas and travel costs if you’re driving to your assignment.
Shared housing is another reason you might want to travel with another nurse.
Renting a one-bedroom or studio apartment can often be more expensive than splitting a two-bedroom apartment. You may even be able to save some of your travel nurse housing stipend!
3 Challenges of Travel Nursing With a Friend
Traveling with another travel nurse has some potential downsides as well. Consider these points before finding a travel nursing job with a friend.
Choosing the Right Assignment
The first step toward traveling with a friend is to land a job in the same location.
Although hospitals aren’t always looking for teams of nurses, if you tell your recruiter you’d like to find an assignment together, they will likely be able to suggest hospitals with multiple openings.
Another tip is to avoid overlapping assignments, even if they are at the same location. For instance, try to avoid competing in the same specialty. This could make you both more challenging to place.
When looking for assignments in the same location, it’s essential to be flexible with your schedule and don’t necessarily expect to work at the same time as your friend.
Whenever you add criteria to which assignments you take, you limit the pool of locations and facilities.
At Trusted Nurse Staffing, we can help you and your best friend develop your careers and match you with the right hospital that meets both of your needs.
Our services range from long-term assignments at hospitals with plenty of advancement opportunities to short-term assignments at medical facilities near the beach.
Would you like to learn more? Contact us today.
Adjusting To Different Schedules
You love working day shifts, but your friend is a night owl. Are you wondering if a daytime nurse can live with a night shift nurse? It’s essential to be honest with yourself about this highly possible fact.
If you both work different shifts, such as night shifts and one-day shifts, will you still be able to get along?
It’s no secret that nursing offers many different types of shifts to find the best fit for you. But you and your friend will need to discuss the possibility of competing shifts and living together.
A Lack of Privacy
When you live and work with a friend, you might not get much privacy.
Will this be too close for comfort for you? This should be decided before accepting assignments together.
Someone who likes their alone time might find it challenging to live with someone who is a Chatty Cathy or a social butterfly.
4 Tips for Making the Most of Your Travel Nursing Experience With a Friend
You and your friend have decided to travel together, so now it’s time to make the most of your upcoming adventure!
You can make your assignment together easier by following these suggestions.
Tip #1: Get on the Same Page
It sounds ideal to travel with another nurse unless you realize your personalities don’t mesh.
When traveling with another travel nurse, it’s essential to have transparent conversations about your expectations. In addition to being an absolute blast, this type of travel can also be downright miserable if you have different expectations.
When one person wants to spend every waking minute together, but the other wants a roommate relationship, this can be problematic.
To ensure this arrangement will work for you and your travel buddy, don’t assume anything and lay everything on the table. Don’t be afraid to express what you need and what you expect. Before you start looking for assignments together, share this with your traveling partner.
If you are hoping to do things together and it doesn’t happen, 13 weeks can seem like an eternity.
Tip #2: Set a Budget
Budgeting is essential for all of us — and it’s even more important for travel nurses.
When planning for your upcoming assignment, you and your travel buddy need the funds to get to your location and for a place to stay during your next adventure. Discuss how rent and other living expenses will be divided between the two of you.
To help make your money last, you and your travel buddy should come up with a budget before taking off on your adventure. If you are unsure where to begin, a quick Google search will help you find many free budgeting tools.
Tip #3: Divide and Conquer
It’s essential to remember that a roommate relationship is just like any other relationship, and relationships take work to thrive.
When moving in together, even though it’s only temporary, taking advantage of one other’s strengths and interests is essential. Decide where you both thrive (and where you don’t), so it’s not just one of you feeling like you’re in charge of the living situation.
For example, do you enjoy cleaning, but your friend enjoys organizing? It sounds as if you need to keep the apartment or home clean, but your friend should be the one keeping it organized.
Do you feel better when you pay the bills? Decide that you’re the one who will pay the bills, but you two will sit down and review the budget when this happens.
Tip #4: Be Flexible
Being prepared and planning is great, but you also need to know how to be flexible. Sometimes plans need to be altered, even if you have the best-laid plans.
For example, perhaps you decided that she would shop for groceries, and you would cook. The only caveat? You realize you hate cooking once you’re cooking for two.
Another example is that you and your roommate agree to visit a local hot spot on Thursdays, but your roommate decides they’re too tired on Thursdays, so that Mondays would work better.
When you feel a change needs to be made, be upfront and honest with each other. Expect to adjust plans and be flexible when needed — you’ll both be thankful for the flexibility.
Trusted Nurse Staffing: Helping You Find the Right Travel Nursing Assignment for You and Your Friend
The recruiters at Trusted Nurse Staffing work with our nurses to ensure they feel comfortable in their new surroundings — you and your travel buddy are more than just a number to us.
Your careers are in the best possible hands when you work with Trusted Nurse Staffing.
Throughout your experience with us, we strive to provide exceptional service and a personal touch. We strive to provide you with the highest level of accessibility and commit to being available whenever you need us.
We are honored to offer:
- Flexibility in working hours
- Competitive pay
- 24/7 availability
- Stipends for housing, meals, etc.
- Bonuses
- Insurance benefits
- And so much more
Contact us today for more information.