As a travel nurse, you may be looking for new activities so that you can make new friends outside of work, explore a local community and try something new. While there are plenty of professional organizations and groups to join in large metro areas, the available activities may not interest you. Instead, consider spending your time working to make the world a better place by volunteering.
Here are three ways volunteering can benefit a travel nurse:
1. Professional growth. Employers may be attracted to the lessons and skills you learned while volunteering. According to a TimeBank survey, 73 percent of employers would recruit a candidate with volunteering experience over one with none. An astounding 94 percent of employers believe that volunteering can add to a worker's skills, and 94 percent of employees who have volunteered claim to have professionally benefited from the experience by either getting their first jobs, improving their salaries or being promoted. World Volunteer reports that volunteering can show a potential employer your personality and your value system, which could prove beneficial.
2. Meet new people. Volunteer opportunities are rarely a solo adventure. If you are a new member to a community, offering your services to a cause or group can allow you to connect to local residents. While the new people you meet at work are often friendly and can become close friends, you could also benefit from meeting people outside of the medical field and away from the pressures of the hospital setting. Add a bit of diversity to your friend group by volunteering. The individuals you meet there may share a similar value system as you because you both have a common interest. Meeting new friends may show you parts of the local culture you would have been unaware of.
3. Solve problems. Regardless of what type of volunteer group you join or event you attend, you will have the opportunity to solve a problem for a community. If you're feeding the hungry at a food pantry, you are providing people the nourishment they need to survive. If you're teaching underprivileged children to read, you are helping them gain a leg up that could benefit them for the rest of their lives. Volunteering offers you the opportunity to right one wrong, solve one problem and potentially improve the quality of life of one community.