My name is Brianne and I’ve been traveling with American Traveler for 2.5 years. I’m originally from Indiana and my current contract is in Peoria, Illinois on a Pediatric Psychiatric assignment. I came across American Traveler in 2021 when searching online for travel nurse jobs. I was feeling very burnt out at my job at the time, frequently being mandated to work 16+ hour shifts and having to go back and forth between day and night shifts in the same week. I love being able to work with my recruiter because she communicates between me and the hospital and will help to negotiate pay and time off before an assignment starts.
Travel nursing ended up being the best option for me to have control over my schedule. I’m able to bring my 10 year old tabby cat with me and she actually loves getting to see new places! So far I’ve only done contracts in the Midwest where the pay tends to be higher, but I don’t mind because I’m used to the cold weather.
When I’m working on a travel assignment I try to do a lot of overtime so that I can take more time off in between assignments. The days I have off during my assignment I’m mostly catching up on sleep and spending time with my cat, Baby. My housing preference depends on the situation. Some states have really affordable apartments with shorter leases so I’ll take advantage of that if I can. Otherwise, hotels and Airbnb's are a good option for me. I prefer staying in a hotel because I’ll use the hotel’s app and collect points for each night I stay. Because of travel nursing I’m able to have free hotel stays several times a year just from all the points I’ve collected.
My biggest advice for other nurses thinking about doing travel nursing is to just take the first step and sign up with an agency, that way if you find an assignment that is a good fit, you can easily apply. I work PRN jobs in between assignments and last year one of them increased nurse-to-patient ratios, decreasing the amount of shifts available to pick up. This was no problem for me because I was already signed up with American Traveler and just picked up an assignment. That’s another reason I recommend getting signed up with an agency in case you ever need or want more hours.”