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Mental health is so important in any profession, but perhaps particularly challenging for travelers.

The demands of the travel nurse industry exacerbate the need to adapt to change, manage relationships, and ramp up quickly in new environments. While many nurses enjoy some predictability in their co-workers, routines, and facilities, travel nurses do not. That is all the more reason travelers should pay special attention to ensuring a life work balance to help reduce stress, avoid mistakes, and prevent burnout. It’s not possible to detail all the factors that contribute to mental health in one article, however, our goal is to convince you to make it a priority and recognize when things are out of balance. Here are a few key areas that deserve focus and mitigating strategies that can relieve the negative impact.

Honor your values

Take some time to appreciate your personal values and what is important to you. Be sure to understand this is extremely personal. Your values need not match someone else’s, nor should they check off an arbitrary list. Write down the things that are non-negotiable, for example, family, integrity, faith, physical fitness, continuing education, volunteer causes, etc. Next, compare that list to your daily life and if those values are integrated, to what extent, and which are being compromised. Resist the temptation to fix with a magic wand, think through how you can make incremental changes to be truer to yourself.

Schedule the good stuff

Most people are guilty of doing a meticulous job of scheduling work, appointments, and due dates. Understand that there are immense benefits to scheduling the “good stuff” as well. Putting things in a planner or documenting in some fashion helps foster commitment to the activity and serves as an important reminder. Allow yourself to schedule a walk, a nap, a phone call with a friend, personal yoga time, meditation hours, surf the internet, crafting, anything that fills your soul and rejuvenates your mind.

Ask for help

It’s very possible that achieving life work balance seems impossible because your work side of the scale is overloaded. Try to seek some nursing relief by taking full advantage of your support services, discussing patient loads, revisiting shift hours, and perhaps suggest processes that will increase efficiencies. Understanding that the flexibility here may be limited, it may be more realistic to seek relief on the personal side of things. Look for ways to get assistance around meal prep, cleaning, bookkeeping, pet care, any area during your personal time that is consuming more energy than you like. Help can come in a variety of ways, for example menu routines could benefit from basic meal planning using online resources for quick and easy meals, meal kits delivered to your door, or shopping prepared meals at the local market. And, there are numerous professional organizations that can help with therapy or medical evaluations if you are depressed, have chronic anxiety, or can’t shake feeling overwhelmed.

Close the door on your workday

One significant challenge to life work balance is our inherent habit of bringing our work home with us. This is especially true for nurses who care deeply for patients and become invested in their outcomes and recovery. While it would be devastating to avoid empathy, it can also be detrimental to care too much or too long. Life work balance means that you must leave work at work and use your home to fulfill personal well-being. If your personal time and home simply become an extension of your workday, then you are essentially always working. Good mental health requires that you take a break. We understand that you can’t complete turn off your feelings, however, you can take steps to minimize them interfering with your personal time. Create an after-shift routine that includes activities such as taking a relaxing bath, going for a walk outdoors, listening to calming music, changing into comfortable clothes and shoes, watching a favorite comedy, gardening, anything that helps you escape the pressures of the hospital.

Embrace your career

One powerful contributor to life work balance is appreciating the work that you do. This does not have to contradict #4, so be careful not to let this reflection become overly time consuming. You should, however, take time remember why you entered the field of nursing as well as why you were attracted to traveling. Cherish your ability to help others, to make a life changing difference in lives, to bring joy to families who trust you, to act like family when others can’t be nearby, to bask in the sheer satisfaction of contributing to a recovery. When you truly embrace your “work” and relish the results, your job feels less like work and becomes more seamlessly integrated into who you are as a person. Less boundaries between life and work makes it easier to achieve greater balance.

Take Care of You

Nursing is a demanding profession, both physically and mentally. Take time to ensure you are caring for your phycological well-being with the necessary commitment to life work balance. Set priorities and realistic goals that encourage, not prevent, balance. And, seek professional assistance at any time you feel the lack of balance is unmanageable despite your efforts to improve. Don’t wait for a crisis or the situation to become desperately unbearable. Trained therapists can help you before things get bad and also coach you on a maintenance path for a healthy life work balance as time passes and your situation changes. For a full suite of services and contacts click here. The Go Team has your back! To start your travel journey with us today, check out our job openings.

The warmer weather, sun kissed flowers and singing birds are iconic signs of spring. The change of season often arrives like a breath of fresh air and inspires us with a sense of renewal. While many people take to their closets for a major clean out and the corners of their homes to wrangle dust bunnies, spring is also a perfect time to refresh your mind. Nurses, especially travel nurses who are faced with so much change on top of professional demands, need to care for their mental health just as they care for their patients.

Emotional well-being also has a direct effect on performance. It is very difficult to be at your best managing a big caseload, dealing with unforeseen emergencies, and coping with co-worker drama if you are not in a good headspace. Juggling an overwhelmed mind is also draining and can destroy your energy levels.

Clutter happens in more places than your cabinets, consider how these ideas might be causing distractions in your life:

• Spending too much time on negative feelings or worries
• Obsessing over a mental to do list
• Refusing to let go of incomplete goals that might be unrealistic
• Daily bombardment from external distractions and over stimulation
• Strategizing how to change things outside your control
• Harboring resentment
• Inability to shake sadness or hurt

We’re not suggesting you can snap your fingers and be free of every stressor, but there are proven ways to help manage these feelings.

Let spring be a reminder to declutter your mind and start a ritual toward better mental health. Try these tips to get on a path to a new season of well-being:

Get quality sleep

Science shows that quality sleep improves focus and brain function.

Create a prioritized to do list

Trim down your wish list to the top things you want to accomplish, ensure they are feasible and set practical due dates.

Declutter your physical environment

Look around where you spend your time. Find ways to organize and create open space, downsize items that are not used or needed.

Disconnect from social media

Take a break from electronic stimulation. It’s great to keep up with friends and family, but sometimes too much information causes us to compare and compete in unhealthy ways.

Confide in a loved one

Talking is always an effective way to release worry or pent up feelings. Choose someone you can truly trust and ease into sharing your deep thoughts. If they are judgmental or unsupportive, abandon them as confidante.

Journal

An extremely useful way to organize and declutter your thoughts. Writing is a very therapeutic method to vent frustration, release anger, cherish happy thoughts, and can help put things in a more realistic perspective.

Break down negativity to “bite size” pieces

Sometimes worry or anxiety can feel overwhelming and too big to tackle so we let it just eat away at us. Try to divide up your feelings into more manageable pieces and rid yourself little by little.

Try to focus

Everyone is guilty of juggling several things at one time. Reduce multi-tasking as much as possible and focus on one thing at a time. Studies show that your time to completion can actually be quicker in this manner.

Draw it out

Draw one large shape on a piece of paper, a circle, a square, etc. Then, divide that shape into proportional sections that represent the major feelings that you believe make up your thoughts. For example, you may have a large area labeled “work politics” and a smaller section called “finding and buying a new car”. Take time to understand what things are consuming most of your mental energy. Then, dissect each section to see how you can break it down into steps for resolution.

Have fun

The importance of downtime and enjoying the outdoors, a sport, craft, yoga, a massage, or any fun activity can’t be overemphasized. Nurses need to recharge and relax on a regular basis to stay at the top of their game. Burnout is real and the best medicine is to feed your soul regularly with some good old fashion fun.

Take Care of You

Spring has sprung and now it’s time for you to declutter your mind. Take some time to follow these tips and we hope you will soon feel refreshed and refocused. If you are struggling with severe depression or anxiety or would like to find assistance from a trained professional, call the National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) for free, confidential, 24/7/365 treatment referral and information service.   

Advice for travelers faced with bullying and difficult co-workers

Everyone understands it can be challenging to join a new team. Travel nurses are especially familiar since they are changing jobs-and teams-every 13 weeks or so. Meeting staff nurses, supervisors, and learning the processes at each hospital can take its toll. Sadly, according to the American Nurses Association (ANA) 18-31% of nurses have experienced bullying at work, which can include physical, verbal, and even non-verbal hostility.

Disrespectful treatment in any form causes stress, anxiety, depression and can lead to physical health issues such as hypertension. Dealing with difficult co-workers makes it hard to do your job because distractions lead to poor efficiency and mistakes. Nurses need to be at their best at all times to ensure top-notch patient care and adherence to standards. Read on for a helpful guide in navigating complicated co-workers.

Step 1 – Understand the Cause

Due to circumstances beyond your control, you may be entering an already volatile environment. Often times travel nurses are contracted to fill a shortage in permanent staff. And unfortunately, facilities sometimes act far too late on this need. This creates a team that is already stressed, overworked, tired, and irritable.

Step 2 – Acknowledge the Perception

Understand that even though you are brought in to help and have genuine intentions, some may perceive you as a threat. Nurses often feel protective over their patients, territorial over the way things are done, and even jealousy that travelers are paid well with the freedom to explore.

Step 3 – Deescalate

Anytime you are faced with confrontation or an uncomfortable situation take the high road. Avoid engaging in unwinnable arguments, personal bantering, or debates over things that are subjective. Try to diffuse tense situations with something undeniably positive, a compliment, patient improvements, or just politely walk away.

Step 4 – Avoid Triggers

A key part of a successful strategy is to stay away from anything that can trigger unwanted behavior. Don’t get sucked into “gotcha” mentality. Do not engage in gossip, question rumors, invade personal matters, or spark conversations over topics that you know are controversial. Spend the least amount of time possible with those you find challenging and keep all interactions very professional.

Step 5 – Practice what You Preach

As you try to navigate difficult co-workers, take time to appreciate why those people are “less desirable”. Use this to reflect on your own personal brand and how to protect how others see you. It’s really quite simple, to be your best self, don’t do all the things that are bugging you about others. Treat others as you want to be treated, with respect and appreciation.

Step 6 – Self Care

We’ll say it even louder for those in the back “TAKE CARE OF YOU.” Nurses have one of the most demanding jobs on the planet. Sleep, nutrition, spiritual guidance, and physical health are all mandatory for your well-being. If you are not taking care of yourself, you cannot take care of others. Patient care requires enormous emotional and physical energy, be sure to relax and recharge regularly.

Step 7 – Record and Report

Just because other nurses are stressed, tired, “only human”, doesn’t make it okay for them to treat you unfairly or bully you. Several behaviors may warrant disciplinary action or at least supervisory intervention. These include: unfair patient load, additional task requirements above and beyond the norm, intentionally withholding information, lack of recognition, exaggerating minor mistakes, encouraging gossip and cliques, non-verbal harassment, as well as physical intimidation. And, of course, any behavior that jeopardizes patient care must be reported.

Step 8 – Look Forward

Try to always see the light at the end of the tunnel. Especially if you are experiencing minor relationship challenges and harmless cattiness from others, remember your stay is temporary. Stay true to who you are, kill them with kindness and start arrangements for your next assignment.

We hope these steps are helpful if you ever find yourself struggling in a difficult environment. Try to surround yourself with a supportive network of fellow travelers who will easily empathize with you. Your network can be local or even a group that connects via social media and zoom calls. Reach out to family as well, there is nothing like the unconditional encouragement from your loved ones.

Stay Safe

If you are struggling with depression, fear, or any feelings where you find it difficult to cope, seek professional assistance. If your situation is dangerous and you feel threatened for your safety, seek immediate help at 911 or from your hospital’s administrative team.

Unhappy with your current travel assignment and ready for a change? Speak with a recruiter today. We will happily find you a new assignment.

No doubt, there are a lot of perks and upside to traveling as a nurse. However, there are aspects that can be difficult to manage both personally and professionally. Don’t be fooled into thinking your new travel career is all sunshine and rainbows. There will for sure be some clouds and rain along the way. But our experts at Go Healthcare Staffing have been mitigating storms for decades and we can offer up a sturdy umbrella to get you through. Read on for seven ugly truths you should know about travel nursing and how you can overcome the challenges with realistic expectations.

1. Housing is NOT free

Don’t let anyone convince you that as a travel nurse you get free or paid housing. It’s a bit more complicated. The truth is, you get a stipend (usually tax-free) in addition to your hourly pay to offset housing costs. Housing stipends can vary greatly from location to location, so do the housing costs. Zip codes matter. Be sure to check out the cost of living for your assignment as well as the maximum housing allowances. Anything over and above your stipend will be an added out-of-pocket expense.

2. Tensions with permanent staff

First remember this, travel nurses are likely brought in because of a staff shortage. The permanent staff are already under increased pressure and workloads. While you hope they would see you as a relief, often times there is some resentment. Travel nurses are seen as receiving higher wages than permanent staff with less experience in that particular facility. The truth is, you are assigned there to fill a need. If you work to your potential and perform, the permanent staff will quickly appreciate your presence and return respect. Try to stay positive and be mindful of the in-house protocols, even if they differ from your normal routine. Keep patients first place and don’t get distracted.

3. Get ready to float

When there is an urgent need in another unit, nurses are often transferred over, known as floating. Travelers are often the first ones selected to “float.” Floating can sometimes be viewed as a negative and from time to time will take nurses outside their comfort zone. But understand, there are real patient needs being addressed when you are asked to float. It could be life or death situations. The truth is, floating can open up more opportunities, help you build more diverse skills and help out the staffing nurses who prefer to stay put. If you refuse to float, understand it will limit your assignment options.

4. Traveler benefits are lousy

Traveler benefits are provided by the recruitment agency. Different agencies offer different benefit packages. The truth is, some packages are quite good. Benefits can include medical, dental, vision, a 401k plan, and even lucrative incentive programs. At Go Healthcare Staffing, we like to take care of our travelers so they stay with us and continue with future assignments. In fact, we even offer a rewards program where travelers earn points to redeem for exciting merchandise.  Click here to review the benefits Go Healthcare Travelers enjoy every day.

5. Traveling is lonely

Everyone has the need for a support system that includes family and friends. It can be extremely difficult to satisfy these needs when you just left everything familiar to you and arrived in a new city. Most travelers feel homesick at one time or another. It takes time to build confidence with new acquaintances and until then it can be very lonely. The truth is, amid all the change, you get to enjoy the excitement of new places, new people, new patients, and new routines. And, there are many ways to overcome the sad feelings of homesickness. (We put together 12 Great Tips here). Try to focus on the upside to your assignment. Take some time to celebrate “me time”—go to places that interest you, watch your favorite movies, binge your favorite TV series. And seek out ways to make new friends at local clubs, classes, outdoor fairs and festivals, even events at your hospital can help break the ice with new people.

6. Travelers get the worse shifts

Travelers may often work undesirable hours, including weekends, nights, holidays, and 12-hour shifts. Schedules will vary depending on the employer’s policies, so don’t count on any one specific routine. The truth is, travelers are serving an unmet or underserved need in hospitals. It’s not unusual for those needs to be less attractive since the staff nurses are not fulfilling them. Travel nurses should be flexible and ready to adapt to change because part of their attractive compensation is based on demand and commitment to patient care. Plus, your assignment is temporary. If the conditions are not acceptable to you, speak with your recruiter and seek an assignment that works better for your lifestyle.

7. Travelers have to travel

Okay, this might seem obvious, but as a travel nurse you have to go from Point A to Point B on a regular basis. And any travel, whether by car or plane or train can be a stressful mess. You risk delays from weather, car trouble, late or cancelled flights, unreliable movers, the list goes on. You must also manage your personal banking, prescriptions, physicians, etc. from location to location to ensure continuity. What’s more, many of these elements have costs and need to be included in your budget to ensure your assignment pays out like to expect. The truth is, in exchange for these hurdles, you get to enjoy incredible flexibility and great pay. Stay organized, plan accordingly, and mind your budget. Travel nurses across the country have been successfully navigating assignments for many years. Success is absolutely possible!

Our team at Go Healthcare wants to be honest about a career as a travel nurse.

The truth is, there are some very challenging aspects but it can be incredibly rewarding. And, it’s not for everyone. We tackled seven areas that be tough to navigate as a traveler. However, they are all manageable with the right attitude and support system. Let our experienced recruiters help you evaluate a career as a travel nurse. We’ll be sure to explain the full picture and help you set realistic expectations. Then we hope you will join the thousands of travelers across the United States who are living their best life, helping others, making great money, and exploring exciting new places. Get started today. Apply Now.