Travel nursing is more popular than ever before. Because of the nurse exodus of 2020 and the expected one million registered nurses who will retire by 2030, there’s been a surge in demand for people who are willing to travel throughout the country and take on temporary assignments.
This surge has meant more opportunities, as well as a need for targeted technology that helps travel nurses keep up with busy schedules, transportation and lodging headaches, and other complications of living a life on the road.
If you’ve chosen travel nursing as your career path, knowing that there are apps and gadgets to help you can be a huge relief, but which ones really make a difference? Learn all about the best tech tools for travel nurses and how they can simplify and improve your life.
Planning your trip
Travel nursing means that you’re constantly planning for your next assignment. Every few months, you might be booking a flight, scheduling a car rental, finding a place to stay, and dealing with a variety of other logistical issues.
One app that makes it easy to have all of the information you need in one place is Tripit. This trip planner can import info from your inbox, which means there’s no losing important details about your flights or accommodations. With everything accessible in one app, you won’t have to go searching through your emails at the check-in counter.
Kayak is another helpful trip-planning app. It offers real-time updates with a detailed travel itinerary so that you never have to wonder about the next step in your trip. You can easily make changes to your itinerary with a few clicks on your phone.
Getting packed
You have your flight reservations and your itinerary in place, but what about packing? For many travel nurses, deciding what to take — and how to get it there — is the most frustrating part of starting a new assignment, but there’s an app that makes it easier: PackPoint.
PackPoint creates a list of everything you need for your trip based on where you’re going and how long you’re staying. You can connect this app to Tripit, too, and customize it to fit your exact needs. Once you’ve checked off the entire list, you know you’re ready to travel.
To complement your packing organizer app, choose compressor bags that allow you to make the most of your suitcase space. Many of them have openings for a vacuum hose so that you can remove all of the air from your clothes and roll them up.
Packing cubes are also very helpful. These come in many colors and sizes and have mesh tops so that you can see what’s inside at a glance. Once you fill each cube, you can place it in your suitcase. You won’t have to rummage through everything to find one item when you use these.
If you’re worried about misplacing items like your keys, you can rely on tracker apps. These apps use Bluetooth technology that alerts you when you’ve left an item behind.
Communicating efficiently
WhatsApp might help you remain connected to loved ones, but it can be more difficult to stay in touch with your agency or fellow nurses through a simple messaging app. If you want a more professional app that allows you to keep your personal and work life separate, options like Microsoft Teams or Slack make that possible.
These two choices allow you to communicate with your network in real-time, and you can even create channels for specific assignments. Microsoft Teams and Slack also make it much easier to share documents and participate in conference calls.
Focusing on your health
Travel nursing can be stressful whether you’re an ER nurse, a med-surg nurse, or a school nurse, and being on the go all the time could mean forgetting to address your own health. Your personal wellness is vital, so relying on some tech tools can help you stay healthy even while traveling.
Being in a new place every few months means that you’ll likely not bother to get a gym membership. That doesn’t mean you can’t exercise. There are numerous fitness apps that keep you active anywhere you are. The Nike Training Club is one option that offers workouts that don’t require equipment, but there are countless others.
These fitness apps can accommodate your experience level and any health or mobility issues you may have. If you can’t jump because of knee issues, for example, your app will help you find appropriate workouts.
Getting enough sleep is essential, yet it can be difficult if you regularly find yourself somewhere new. You can track your sleep patterns with an option like Sleep Cycle and use Calm to unwind. Calm provides sleep stories and guided meditations to relax you.
Finding quiet accommodations as a travel nurse sometimes depends on the luck of the draw. If your Airbnb or extended stay hotel room has thin walls, consider wearing sleep headphones to block out sounds instead of lugging around a bulky white noise machine.
Perytong Sleep Headphones are a good choice. They lie flat, so they’re more comfortable than other types of headphones, and they’re not only for sleep, either. You can use them while running or on flights. Most importantly, they fold up and don’t take up room in your luggage.
It’s not just your physical health that you want to focus on, but your mental health, too. You can keep up with therapy sessions no matter where you are with options like BetterHelp. This company offers online counseling services from therapists based all over the country.
Managing daily life
It can take a few days to get to know your new location, but that doesn’t mean that you have to go without your favorite foods or the items you need. Instacart and similar apps allow you to get anything delivered right to your doorstep. You can even schedule the delivery to arrive before you do.
Staying hydrated is vital for your health, but you may not want to spend a small fortune on bottled water. At the same time, not every city has quality tap water. The best solution is a water bottle with a built-in filter. You can carry it anywhere and always have access to safe water.
So many items you rely on depend on a power source, which means that a portable power charger is a must-have for anyone who does a lot of traveling. There are even solar-powered options that help you minimize your carbon footprint.
Alongside your portable charger, consider buying a power cord organizer to ensure you have everything you need to keep your devices charged.
Time and task management
Being a travel nurse requires juggling a number of tasks every day. To manage this career, you need to remain organized. Fortunately, there are plenty of useful apps for busy professionals.
Asana and Trello provide intuitive interfaces for creating digital boards and tracking assignments, and they allow you to share tasks with fellow nurses. These apps offer a clear view of everything you have to do during the day, making tasks easier to keep track of.
A smartwatch is another great gadget for time and task management. Most watches offer a number of built-in apps to help you organize your day. You can also load your work calendar right into your smartwatch and set it up to notify you of specific tasks or activities.
Professional development
As a registered nurse, you’ll have to maintain your credentials, and that means earning continuing education credits. It can be tough to get these if you’re always traveling, but there are apps that can help, like Coursera. It allows you to get the credits you need by taking courses at your own pace.
Another option for on-the-go learning is Udemy. This platform has a wide selection of free and low-cost classes that help you explore new areas of nursing and build foundational knowledge for your career.
Building your network is important, as well, and that means finding online spaces that help you meet and learn from others in your profession. Figure 1 is a popular choice. This platform makes it easier to collaborate with colleagues while getting access to the latest medical news and studies.
Find your next nursing destination with Prolink
These days, there’s an app for everything. By combining some crucial gadgets like portable power chargers and sleep headphones with apps that make the many tasks you have to keep track of easier, your life as a travel nurse will be simpler than ever.
At Prolink, we are all about helping you manage travel nursing’s unique challenges. We provide assistance during every stage of the process and offer ongoing support throughout each assignment. If you’ve been thinking about travel nursing as the next rung in your career ladder, our team of recruiters at Prolink is ready to help you get started. Start your next adventure with us by clicking the button below.
