post written by Dan Kashulines

There are many things that can be tricky about working as a travel nurse. It’s not easy to pick up and move to a new location every three months. On top of the moving aspect, you have to adjust to a whole different job environment and a whole new set of coworkers as well. Needing to meet new people every three months could make you wonder if you’re ever going to be able to develop relationships with your coworkers. It is difficult to get to know people when you’re only in one place for three months, but our interconnectedness as a society with technology has changed the dynamic of how you can keep up with friends. So how difficult is it to make friends as a travel nurse?

is it hard to make friends as a travel nurse?

To answer the question simply, yes, travel nurses can make friends while on contract and yes, it can be difficult to do so. Much of this dynamic can change depending on how long you plan to stay at whatever hospital you may be working at. After all, if you plan to extend your contract for an entire year, you’re much more likely to grow close to your coworkers as opposed to if you’re only working somewhere for three months. However, I would argue that it’s actually not that difficult to make friends as a travel nurse even in just three months time.

Like in any other public setting of life, while working as a travel nurse you meet a variety of different personalities. All of us are different and generally we tend to get along with certain types of people better than others. What I find while working as a travel nurse is that I tend to gravitate towards those individuals with which I find it easy to interact and who are friendly with me. I work hard to do my job well, try to engage in small talk when other people start talking with me, and try to ask questions to get to know my coworkers better. When I have extra time, I offer to help my coworkers who may be struggling with a tough assignment.

What I find is that when people see you genuinely care about your job, they’ll enjoy interacting with you and helping you out on the job when you need it. When you enjoying talking with others and that feeling is mutual, this is a great step to forming real friendships while working on the floor. This opens up opportunities to engage with others outside of work. On top of this, I’ve found social media to be a great resource to keep up with people after your contract is over.

do travel nurses have a social life?

Making friends on the job is one thing, but maintaining a solid social life as a travel nurse can be a little more tricky. To add a caveat to this, I’ve only worked as a travel nurse since getting married, never when I was single. So I am a little limited to speaking to all the details of what it’s like to work and keep up with a social life as a single travel nurse.

To answer the question, I definitely think travel nurses can have a social life. It takes more time and effort because you need to get to know new people in the area, and then take the initiative to spend time with them outside of work. My wife and I have had the benefit of being regular churchgoers, so this has given us some built-in social life to our regular weekly routine. On top of that, I’ve had the chance to grab dinner or breakfast with coworkers and take advantage of the regular social gatherings that the staff nurses have together outside of work.

Again, I think some of this ties into your attitude on the job. If you want to have a good social life, then you need to present yourself as hard-working and friendly with your coworkers. If you do this, people will tend to like you more, and be more inclined to invite you out to regular activities they all like to do.

is travel nursing hard on relationships?

How about maintaining relationships while on contract or travel nursing with the family? I think if you want to have a significant relationship as a travel nurse, and your partner is not going to come with you, you both need to be very comfortable with the idea of a long distance relationship. Personally Emma and I were in a long-distance relationship for several years before we got married. Now at that time we were stationary and not moving around all the time, so our situation wasn’t quite as transient as working as a travel nurse.

I will say that we found long distance dating to be quite doable, especially with the level of technological communication we had access to. But it is definitely not an easy thing to do, you need to find creative ways to show how you care about your partner and still have meaningful time engaging with them virtually. For us this often looked like watching shows, movies, or playing video games while talking on Skype in addition to frequent visits. Difficult, but doable as long as you’re both on the same page.

is it hard to have a family as a travel nurse?

How about travel nursing with a family? To answer this question not so simply, it depends. Similar to the last question, you and your significant other need to be on the same page about being okay with travel nursing. If you want to be a travel nurse, and you want your partner to come with you (and potentially kids depending on your situation), then everyone needs to be on board. While I know it’s been difficult for me at times adjusting to a new location every three months, I know it’s also been tough on Emma.

It’s difficult to find jobs that are willing to hire you for only three months at a time, so we’ve often found that she’s been stuck at home more often than she like would like to be while I have the car at work. As a travel nurse you have little to no control over your schedule and it may or may not be regular, so your significant other or family is really at the whim of your job in a lot of ways. This is something you should be prepared for if you want to travel nurse as a family.

Travel nursing with a family is definitely doable. It’s not quite as clean cut as travel nursing when your single, but it is possible. And I would argue that travel nursing is a lot more enjoyable when you can share the adventure with someone you love, even if it makes it more difficult at times.