Travel Nursing Requirements
March 8, 2023
When it comes to travel nursing, there really aren’t too many requirements. There are plenty of extras you can do from experience to certifications, but if you’re already a Registered Nurse with some experience you’re pretty much ready to go. Below I’ll outline the requirements for working as a travel nurse including:
education & licensure
do you need a Bachelor’s Degree to work as a travel nurse?
NO. In general, the minimum requirement to work as a travel nurse is an ADN (associate’s degree in nursing). It’s also possible to travel as an LPN, though the options seem to be quite limited. Travel nursing is a competitive field so typically nurses with a bachelor’s degree will have a leg up when breaking into the field and looking for contracts. It’s possible to travel nurse without a bachelor’s degree, you just may need to be more flexible. It will also be important to find ways to distinguish yourself and become as attractive of a hire as possible if you’re looking to travel nurse without a bachelor’s.
travel nursing as an RN
In general, having a bachelor’s degree in nursing is preferable. Having your bachelor’s helps you to stand out immediately to potential hospitals and will give you more freedom to go where you want, when you want. Once you’ve completed your degree, the next step is to take the NCLEX-RN and become licensed.
compact license
It’s important to keep in mind whether or not your home state is a compact state or not. There are currently (as of March 2023) 39 states that have joined/implemented the Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC) with many more pending implementation. It’s possible to work within your home state as a travel nurse (depending on the state and the facility), but if you want to work in another state you’ll need to be licensed there. Ideally you would become licensed in a compact state so you have the freedom to work as a travel nurse in any of those 39 states.
experience
Once you have received your education and your license, it’s time to make sure you have enough experience. Whether you’re a new nurse or not, the minimum experience requirement is typically one year in any given specialty. That said, the more experience the better, as you’ll stand out more and are more likely to land a contract. Depending on what specialty you’re looking to work in (how specialized/acute the care you’ll be giving is), multiple years of experience may be required.
Technically, Dan was able to get a contract with less than a year’s experience working in a specialty. He had 11 months of experience working in a hospital on a med surg/tele floor, but over a year’s experience as an RN. Even then, it took quite a while and a lot of rejections for him to land his first contract.
Keep in mind that there’s little opportunity to train on new specialties while travel nursing. You’ll likely be limited to the specialties that you have a year or more experience working in. In Dan’s experience, there seems to be some limited opportunities to go from Med Surg/Tele to a strict Telemetry floor and possibly then to Progressive Care, but he’s never actually been offered a Progressive Care contract. He has, however, been offered a Telemetry contract.
certifications/credentials
Required Certifications
- BLS (Basic Life Support)
- ACLS (Advanced Cardiac Life Support) or PALS (Pediatric Advanced Life Support)
After you have established the basics of education, licensure, and experience, it’s time to invest in some extra certifications. You probably already have your BLS CPR certification if you’re working as a nurse, but this is definitely a necessary one. Depending on your specialty and what types of units you’re looking to work on, either ACLS (Advanced Cardiac Life Support) or PALS (Pediatric Advanced Life Support) will likely be required. The AHA (American Heart Association) is the most universally recognized credentialing center in the US for these certifications as well as the NIHSS.
Additional Certifications
The AHA also offers certifications such as NIHSS (National Institute of Health Stroke Scale) which may be required depending on the hospital/contract. Even if you don’t plan to work in critical care, pediatrics, or neurology, these above mentioned credentials are fairly easy to obtain and give a helpful boost to your resume whether they’re required or not.
After this, it may also be beneficial to get officially certified in your specialty through your specialty-specific credentialing body. Further certifications are largely specialty-specific and require multiple years of experience in their given specialty (as well as continued experience to maintain the certification). This is just another way to stand out from other potential candidates. Having that leg up could afford you more control over the details of your travel nursing contract (pay, day vs. night shift, unit, and location).
Each specialty is governed by their own credentialing body so you would obtain further certifications through the association of your given specialty. For example, to get a CCRN certification (to be a Certified Critical Care Nurse), you would get certified through the AACN (American Association of Critical-Care Nurses) after two to five years of experience working in critical care.
Resources to Help You Get Started
Once you meet these above requirements, it’s time to get started travel nursing! Check out our Timeline of Starting a Travel Nurse Contract for a breakdown of each step along with the corresponding resources we’ve created giving advice on all of these topics:
- Choosing an agency and a recruiter
- Onboarding with your agency
- Sorting through and negotiating contracts
- Finding housing
- Taking a road trip to your contract location
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