Travel nursing is a wonderful opportunity given to medical workers to experience traveling and working at the same time. But before you start browsing for jobs, bear in mind that the competition is becoming fierce in the travel nursing field and it’s better to make sure first that you are fully prepared to embark on this journey. Every healthcare recruiter would want you on their team if you have these personality traits that make a great travel nurse.
So, what are the top personality traits that are valued the most in travel nursing?
1. Professionalism
It doesn’t come as a surprise that professionalism takes the number one spot on the list. However, it can be easily put aside when we talk about this particular healthcare field, because it involves a lot of traveling and fun. While it’s ok to focus on fun in your free time in travel nursing, never forget that job comes first. Every healthcare recruiter will value more instantly if you show them that your job is your priority and that you are a responsible and dedicated employee.
2. Compassion
While it is important to stay professional in every situation, having and showing compassion to your patient is equally important. According to the research of the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s National Library of Medicine (NIH/NLM), compassion and understanding of patients have a great influence on their physical and emotional state and the outcome of their disease. Giving compassionate care by simply smiling or approaching the patient with understanding makes the healing process easier and takes off a lot of stress that hospitalized people normally feel.
3. Flexibility And Adaptiveness
Flexibility is another one of the major traits that every travel nurse needs to have. From the start of your travel nursing assignment, you need to be ready to face changes in your personal and professional life. And as a travel nurse, you need to be able to adapt to those changes on short notice. From unexpected delays in your flight schedule to a quick reaction required at work, you need to respond to changes in your environment in the best possible way in a given situation.
4. Ability To Learn
Learning capacity and willingness to upskill also rank highly on the list of the top requirements. For travel nurses, there’s usually no regular day at work because there’s always something new to learn, a new habit to adopt, a new challenge to overcome. As a travel nurse, you need to embrace the unknown and roll with it. That’s why learning on the go is highly valued among med staffing agencies especially since the start of the pandemic.
5. Being A Team Player
Since working in healthcare implies having contact with other healthcare professionals, starting from your med staff recruiter, fellow travel nurses to patients, being a team player is a must. All of these people need to be able to trust you and put their lives in your hands and it is not possible to do unless everyone gets together. Effective communication can sometimes be a matter of life or death and knowing how your team works are crucial.
6. Endurance
No matter how prepared we are or how many times we had taken on a travel nursing assignment before, sometimes the stress of working as a nurse can overwhelm us. And that’s completely ok. The important thing is to endure these difficult times and come out stronger. We just need to do everything in our power for the people we take care of, but we must not forget to take care of ourselves, too.
7. Passion for helping people
Everything starts and ends with being passionate and so does your career path and sense of purpose. If your true calling is helping people and giving your best while doing it, travel nursing is probably the right fit for you. If you thrive in this kind of environment, then everything else can be learned and perfected along the way.
There are more personality traits that we love to see in our travel nurses, as being positive, optimistic, outgoing, detail-oriented etc. But the most important thing is to love what you do, and everything else will fall into place. We like to click with our employees and match each and everyone with the right agency representative. We understand everyone’s uniqueness and appreciate and welcome differences.
If you’d like to be a part of the Ventura MedStaff team, we can promise we will always stand by you.
