Challenges Travel Nurses Face in Rural Settings No One Knows About
Healthcare serves the same purpose everywhere, but regional factors affect those working in the field and patients receiving care. The healthcare needs of people vary by region, especially in rural areas. Roughly 20% of the U.S. population lives in rural areas, and many of these people depend on travel nurses.
Travel nursing is a privilege, but it comes with several location-based challenges. Some travel nurses understandably struggle to adjust to the change of scenery and everything that comes with that.
Follow along as we highlight the often-overlooked challenges travel nurses face in rural settings.
The Role of Travel Nurses in Rural Areas
Lightly populated rural towns often rely on travel nurses. Many rural hospitals and clinics suffer staffing shortages, which affects nurses and patients. This gets compounded during public health crises and even standard seasonal illness spikes.
A short-staffed hospital cannot operate at full capacity, especially in rural areas with limited nursing staff. Travel nurses allow hospitals to tend to as many patients as possible without deferring care. This comes in handy during staff shortages and regional emergencies, such as a spike in influenza cases.
People in rural settings typically have fewer options for hospitals and clinics to visit. This can lead to long waits when medical practices are short-staffed and can’t get patients in soon enough. That’s why travel nurses are indispensable in rural settings, despite the challenges they face.
Rural Healthcare Poses Many Challenges to Travel Nurses
Working as a travel nurse is equally challenging and rewarding. That said, travel nurses face unique challenges in rural settings, especially in remote areas you aren’t used to. While it is a worthwhile job, you must consider some of the challenges that some people don’t consider, such as:
Irregular Shifts
Working an unpredictable schedule is nothing new to travel nurses. However, it can be hard to adapt to in rural settings, especially when switching time zones. A constantly changing schedule can make navigating a new setting difficult for any type of nurse.
Socializing, finding restaurants, and getting comfortable in a new location takes longer when your schedule frequently changes. This makes it easy to feel lonely or ill-prepared when working as a nurse in a rural area. That’s why it’s important to make the most of your downtime as a travel nurse.
Burnout
Depending on the reason you’ve been called to a rural setting, you may be working long hours as a travel nurse. Travel nurses often relocate in times of great need for healthcare in locations with widespread problems or staffing shortages. This leads to long hours and schedules that don’t offer many days off.
Continually working long hours can lead to burnout, both physically and mentally. Finding time to prioritize your necessities, eat, and maintain a healthy sleep schedule can be hard. However, you must prioritize self-care, or your demanding schedule will quickly overwhelm you.
Emotional Toll
There’s no denying that working as a travel nurse is rewarding, but it comes at a cost. The emotional toll of travel nursing in rural settings is twofold, starting with the nature of the work. For example, getting deployed to a rural setting during a pandemic entails seeing suffering and heartache firsthand.
Whether it be terminal illnesses, fatalities, or serious injuries, everything you encounter can affect your mental health. The fact that you cannot readily see your friends and family at home makes it harder to cope with this part of being a travel nurse. Keep in touch with your loved ones and vent to your friends and coworkers as needed.
This can make it much easier to deal with the emotional toll of working as a nurse so far from home. Today, therapy and other mental health resources are more widely available than ever.
Licensing
Of course, all nurses must be licensed to work in hospitals and clinics. However, travel nurses must have a compact nursing license to work in several states, or their work isn’t considered lawful. Keeping up with all your licensing documents can be overwhelming.
That’s especially true when working as a travel nurse in a remote area. For example, resolving simple paperwork discrepancies can take longer than usual because of mail routing. With a nursing degree from an accredited program, you should have no trouble if you apply for the license early.
Travel Nurses Can Make a Mark on Rural Communities
Travel nursing may pose challenges, but that doesn’t negate the rewarding nature of the work. Working in a rural setting requires some adapting, but it’s worthwhile. You will quickly find that there are as many similarities as there are differences between rural and urban communities.
It’s worth taking the journey and switching locations, even if you haven’t worked in a rural setting before. You’ll likely find that it isn’t as different from working in urban communities as you initially thought. After all, nursing is about helping those in need, and that alone is worth the trek.