The home is where the heart is, right? But if your heart takes you places where you take care of other people, chances are that the destination of your home could be changing frequently. So, to make yourself feel pleasant and to make the most of your next travel assignment, it is vital to find a home that suits your needs and wishes. And if you are a first-time travel nurse or even an experienced traveler, you may be wondering what options are there in housing for travel nurses and which one to choose.
When it comes to finding your temporary home in travel nursing, you basically have two options: you can find your own housing or rely on your medical staffing agency to find you one.
Let’s look further into the advantages and drawbacks of each option.
Where To Start When Looking For Housing For Travel Nurses?
The best thing about housing for travel nurses that are provided by your medical healthcare recruiter is that everything is already prearranged for you. You don’t have to spend time searching for a residence by yourself nor do you have to worry about upfront costs that otherwise you would have to inevitably have. And if your financial situation is not quite good at the moment, the agency-placed housing might be your only choice, so it’s nice to know you can choose that scenario.
Another advantage of getting agency-provided housing is not only avoiding the cost you’d need to cover upfront but also all the potential expenses you could face in the future. For example, if you experience, let’s say, a water leak problem, all you need to do is contact your travel nursing agency and they’ll take care of it instead of you. You will not have to worry about paying for utilities every month either, as this would be taken care of by the agency as well.
On the downside, if you choose housing for travel nurses provided by your recruiter will have a few options or in the worst-case scenario no options at all to choose from. You might have to settle on a location and home interior. This depends solely on the med staffing agency and its housing policy.
To sum up, if you go for an agency-provided housing option, you can save time and money but you might face a limited number of housing options.
Stipend Housing
If you opt for finding housing on your own, there are things that you should take into consideration. As opposed to agency-arranged housing, taking a housing stipend opens up more options for getting a place that suits your needs. You can look for an apartment at a location you desire, with extra rooms or an extra bathroom for your potential travel companions or visitors, or a pet-friendly home since you are not limited by a health recruiter’s policy.
By choosing this option, you control how and where you live. And if you get lucky to get a home that ticks all the boxes at an affordable price, the extra money from a housing stipend goes right into your pocket.
As for the downsides regarding housing for travel nurses, there are a few of them. First of all, your search for a perfect home would probably require more time. Secondly, you must be financially capable of covering at least one month’s rent in advance and handle unexpected expenses on your own.
So, in a nutshell, if you choose to use the housing reimbursement option, you’ll have more freedom to set up housing according to your preferences, but it’ll require more time and money to invest at the very beginning of your travel nursing assignment.
Now that you know the possibilities and limitations of every option there is, hopefully, you’ll make the right decision. But, still, if everything doesn’t go according to the plan, remember not to get too upset about it.
Travel nurses know the best that life can be unpredictable every now and then. And so can a search for housing for travel nurses. No matter how cautious you are, you still may end up with some issues that come out of the blue. You may get noisy neighbors, face maintenance and repair costs you couldn’t even imagine, weather or traffic-related difficulties that could all affect your desired lifestyle and your home.
Sometimes we are capable of resolving these issues with or without the help of our med staffing agency, but no matter the difficulties that life may throw in front of us, we know that the most important thing is to keep going and keep trying.
Ventura MedStaff surely keeps trying to give its travel nurses the best they have to offer.
