With more and more reliance on travel nurses amid nurse shortages, chief nursing officers must juggle the needs of both temporary and full-time staff. Proper orientation, adequate compensation, and a welcoming culture will be key to staff morale.
Nurse shortages and staff turnover have led to greater dependence on travel nurses. However, that stopgap solution presents unique challenges for nurse leaders, who must balance the needs of travel nurses with those of full-time staff.
From work orientation and training to addressing high levels of fatigue to tackling practicalities such as temporary housing, bringing travel nurses into the fold can be a juggling act for chief nursing officers (CNOs) or chief nursing executives (CNEs). Successful management of that complex environment will be vital to maximizing travel nurses’ expertise while maintaining morale of full-time staff.
What are travel nurses?
Travel nurses are skilled professionals temporarily employed on short-term contracts to travel where needed. Contracts can be as short as a week or as long as 26 weeks, though on average, assignments last 13 weeks.
The travel nurse industry dates back to the 1970s, but demand has escalated in recent years amid a growing nursing shortage prompted by high levels of burnout, emotional distress, and job dissatisfaction.
Demand reached a peak during the COVID-19 pandemic, when pay for travel nurses soared, with some earning $5,000 and even $10,000 weekly. The demand and pay have since fallen, though staffing agencies say they remain higher than prepandemic levels. However, some nurses are being lured back to full-time hospital jobs.
Exploring the experiences of travel and full-time nurses
There is growing awareness that burnout and job dissatisfaction are just as prevalent for travel nurses and can become exacerbated by intense and unfamiliar work environments, the demands of travel, lengthy work shifts, and lack of social support.
Although many studies have pinpointed burnout and job dissatisfaction as issues, few studies have compared the experiences of staff nurses with those of travel nurses.
In a recent study based on survey results of registered nurses in Florida, researchers explored physical and emotional burnout, job dissatisfaction, turnover intentions, and perceptions about the assignments of staff nurses and travel nurses. The study, which was published in Nursing Management® in May 2024, delved into how travel nurses’ work experiences differ from those of staff nurses.
The study found that the physical-fatigue element of burnout and a perception that they are being assigned illegitimate tasks were higher among travel nurses. The differences between staff nurses and travel nurses with regard to job and pay satisfaction were negligible.
In their analysis, the paper’s authors suggested that the reason travel nurses suffer greater physical fatigue may be related to the burden of traveling to new locations and, possibly, lacking a social network outside of work to offer support. Travel nurses may also feel their skills aren’t being considered when they are assigned to what they deem to be illegitimate tasks.
Fostering the inclusion of travel nurses
To take advantage of the skills and knowledge of travel nurses and prevent resentment and burnout, nurse leaders must determine how to best integrate temporary staff into an organization. Strategic planning, good onboarding processes, and clear communication about roles and performance expectations are crucial to that integration.
Recommendations include:
- Welcoming travel nurses to the unit, ward, or facility so they feel part of the team and staff nurses are not left feeling resentful
- Helping travel nurses find their feet and letting them know where to turn if they have questions
- Creating a positive experience that supports travel nurses’ experience
- Preparing an orientation checklist so nurse leaders working with travel nurses can determine possible gaps in travel nurses’ knowledge of processes and procedures
- Seeking out travel nurses’ feedback so they feel their expertise and knowledge are valued.
As the authors of the paper noted, travel nurses may need additional support because they lack the home network full-time staff tend to have and because travel nurses are less able to build strong bonds at work, given the temporary nature of their employment.
“Extra efforts to provide support with continual check-ins and offers of assistance as well as encouraging staff nurses on the unit to do the same would go a long way to making the travelers feel welcome and less stressed,” the authors stated.
Navigating the way forward for travel nurses
The recent study offers valuable insights, but has limitations, including the number of responses (111 travel nurses and 262 staff nurses), self-reporting on tasks and workload, and the fact that nurses in only one state were surveyed. Nevertheless, the findings offer important lessons for nurse executives in their management of travel nurses alongside full-time staff. Nurse leaders set the culture and drive better patient outcomes through evidence-based practice.
By establishing a culture of inclusion and learning, by taking advantage of travel nurses’ expertise to improve job satisfaction, and by building a proper framework for travel nurse orientation and communication, CNOs and CNEs can provide positive experiences for all nursing staff.
