post written by Dan Kashulines

It’s often said in the travel nursing world that you need one year of experience in your given specialty before you’ll be able to work as a travel nurse. This is largely the case, although there can be some exceptions. Though it is possible to start travel nursing with less than a year of experience, it can be quite difficult to get your foot in the door. In this post I’ll talk about some of the experience requirements that you’ll find in travel nursing while talking about my own journey starting out as a travel nurse with less than a year of experience.

My Start to Travel Nursing

I only had eleven months of per diem experience at a hospital

I’m sure many nurses feel this way to an extent, but I would venture to say that the start of my nursing career was particularly unique. Covid had a way of doing that, didn’t it? I started working as an LPN in a nursing home just before the start of the COVID-19 craziness. In response to the pandemic, the nursing home sectioned off the building and made me a director overseeing one third of the residents who lived there. As a result, when it came time to graduate and I received my RN licensure, I remained at the facility for some time. It wasn’t until later that year that I began working at a hospital.

Due to my working at the nursing home still, I only worked at the hospital per diem. The unit I worked on was originally cardiovascular surgery but by the time I started there it was more of a progressive care floor. I worked there for a total of 11 months, and over the course of that time the unit transitioned to a med/surg-tele floor. To complicate my work situation more, at the end of those eleven months I quit my job at the hospital and attempted to transfer my license to a Canadian province. My immigration process ultimately fell through when delay after delay kept me from being able to transfer my license. It also kept me from being able to work at all for six months. This was the sum of my experience when I began traveling.

It took a long time to find agencies and hospitals willing to consider me

When Emma and I decided to try travel nursing, I wasn’t confident how well or how quickly I’d be able to land a job. I decided to apply with numerous agencies in an attempt to better my chances. Due to my having technically less than a year of experience in my specialty, and the fact that I worked per diem and not full time, several agencies turned me down immediately. The rest of the agencies I reached out to didn’t believe I had much of a chance, but were willing to give it a try.

*I should note that many agencies require references before applying to hospitals, so if you go this route (of working with many different agencies) your references may get bombarded with requests. Thankfully my references were troopers and put up with my shenanigans.*

We submitted to many hospitals and cast a very large net. Then we waited. And waited. And waited. It took so long to land a contract, that we almost gave up altogether. But just before we decided to walk away, I got a call that we received an offer in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Finally! We were so relieved and excited to get started.

Actually working with one year of experience

Then came the next step, actually beginning work. This is the area in particular that I would like to suggest caution if you only have a year of experience. You can learn a lot in a year, but in general there is still much to learn. And with travel nursing in particular, you are expected to hit the ground running, and sometimes don’t have the support you’d like. If you’re not the kind of person who can adapt quickly to change and learn new skills and new environments efficiently, you may want to consider acquiring more experience before traveling.

For myself, I have to admit that I was a little rusty with my skills. Even the skills I did have, I had doubts about when it came to actually working because I had spent those six months in Canada not working. Thankfully in my situation I was working nights, so I had a little extra time to get my questions answered as they came up, and coworkers usually had time to help when I needed it. I incessantly asked questions, probably to the point of annoying my coworkers at times, but thankfully I had enough support to be confident while caring for my patients.

Looking back, while I had some struggles, I had a positive experience with my introduction to travel nursing. In some ways I wish I had had more experience when just starting out as a traveler, but I also wouldn’t take it back. I started my journey of travel nursing with less than a year’s experience in the hospital, and I’m still at it now. Thankfully, once you’re in the field it only gets easier as you accrue more experience and have actual travel nursing experience.

The Takeaways

Looking back, it’s crazy to see how many issues came up and how many ways I was technically unqualified to begin working as a travel nurse. If you’re looking to start travel nursing, but aren’t sure you have enough experience, here are some things to keep in mind:

1. Most hospitals and travel nursing agencies require EXACTLY twelve months of experience working in a specialty at least (not eleven months…).
2. You will likely only be able to work on units that you have that year of experience working in already.
3. There are different experience requirements depending on the specialty, as well as the state, and sometimes the hospitals themselves.
4. When looking for travel nurses, hospitals want a year (at least) of full time experience ideally, not per diem.
5. It will be challenging for you to transition to working as a travel nurse if you get a contract with little experience. You’ll need to be intentional about asking questions and preparing yourself.

I share all of this in hopes to be an encouragement and source of insight to my fellow travelers. Can you travel with less than a year of experience? Probably. But it’s not going to be easy. I had to concede in many areas when it came to my preferences. After this initial hurdle of landing my first contract, it was much easier afterwards. At this point, I would honestly recommend at the very least a year of experience if not two or more.