Exploring the world of traveling healthcare is one of the most exciting and thrilling experiences and yet it can be frightening to set out in a new place all on your own. You are filled with the excitement of exploring a new city and facility and meeting new people but yet plagued with the fear of being the new person in a town that you may have never even seen before.
Many people have found the way to ease that fear is to find a travel partner to share the journey with and then YOU CAN HAVE THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS! Many times we are asked questions about how the benefits, communication, and flexibility differ when traveling with another person. Here are a few important things to consider before embarking on your journey as a pair.
What are the benefits of traveling in pairs?
The obvious first benefit is instant companionship. You immediately have access to someone else who you can explore your new surroundings with, someone who can check out that downtown concert with you, or someone that can join you at the new steakhouse you have been dying to try. Your traveling partner can help make your new location feel a little more like home.
Another benefit to traveling in pairs is the financial benefit. While you are traveling in pairs many times you may share housing costs, travel costs, grocery costs, and commuting costs if you are fortunate enough to work together (we will discuss that topic more in depth later). You may also earn referral bonuses for referring your friends. Once others see your success and adventures they will want to follow in your footsteps!
How is communication with my recruiter different when traveling in pairs?
It is easy sometimes to think one of you may be the “better communicator” and that be the person to communicate with your recruiter on a regular basis. In reality, although you are traveling together you are treated as individuals and we want to ensure your individual needs and wishes are being met to the best of our ability. A recruiter wants to build an individual relationship with both of you. Even though you are traveling to the same location, it does not necessarily mean your preferences mirror one another.
Remember to communicate with your recruiter regularly and on an individual basis to ensure you are exchanging details about your current contract and future career goals. Although email, texting, and social media can be the easiest way, try to talk to your recruiter via phone at least every other week to establish and continue to build trust in one another.
How flexible do I need to be when traveling in pairs?
This is the million dollar question! There are obviously some great benefits to traveling in pairs but one of the major challenges is how flexible you both must be when pursuing new job options. Flexibility with location, scheduling, start dates, hospitals, and housing are all things to be mindful of if you are going to make traveling in pairs work.
You must be open to the idea that both of you may not have positions in the same hospital in the same part of the city and you may not be working the same shifts. You are two different travelers working to help fill vacancies currently being felt by facilities and many times they are not able to shift their needs around to accommodate special circumstances. While you may want to be working side by side with your traveling partner, odds are that may not be the case.
Housing flexibility is also a necessity. Even if that means working at hospitals one hour away from one another the compromise is that you can be housed in the middle. Making sacrifices for some of the benefits is a trade off and is something to be considered when traveling in pairs. The other thing to keep in mind with housing is that if something happened to go wrong and one of you had to leave your assignment you would be left with covering the housing expenses on your own. Ensure that is an undertaking you are willing to risk.
Overall, traveling as a pair can be one of the best decisions you can make, but it is certainly not for everyone. Communicate your preferences with your recruiter and decide what is best for you. And remember, just because you start out as a solo traveler doesn’t meant that there are not thousands of others out there just like you, looking for someone to share adventures with!
Ashley Lovell is the Northwest Branch Manager for the Nursing division of Aureus Medical Group.