What is a travel nurse? Travel nurses accept short-term work assignments at hospitals that need to fill gaps in staffing. As a travel nurse, you can enjoy immersing yourself in different regional cultures. The process of how to become a travel nurse starts with earning a nursing degree.
Not all nurses work in the same healthcare facility day after day, year after year. If you believe variety is the spice of life, then you might love a career as a travel nurse. Travel nurses work temporary assignments at healthcare facilities and doctors’ offices around the country, traveling where the work takes them and enjoying an immersive experience in different regions.
If you’re interested in how to become a travel nurse, your first step is to earn a nursing degree. The University of Mount Saint Vincent’s Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing (ABSN) program allows you to earn a BS in nursing in as few as 16 months and gain hands-on clinical experience in some of the top healthcare facilities in New York City.
Before taking a closer look at the travel nursing pathway, consider the answers to common questions, such as “What is a travel nurse?” and “What do travel nurses do? “Then, consider the steps you can take to become one.
What Is a Travel Nurse?
Travel nurses accept temporary nursing jobs across the country. They work with one or more travel nurse agencies that connect them to temporary jobs. The assignment length varies but typically ranges between eight and 13 weeks. Once a travel nurse receives their assignment, they relocate to the local area and get ready to begin working.
Travel nurses can collaborate with the agency to determine where and in which units they want to work. Whether you wish to stay close to your home base or travel across the country, your agency can help make it happen.
Agencies also offer their nurses benefits packages, including healthcare coverage and retirement plans. Many agencies also offer other perks, such as temporary housing or housing stipends.
What Do Travel Nurses Do?
A travel nurse will perform the routine duties of a registered nurse (RN). These can include assessing patients, delivering patient education, providing wound care, and administering medications.
The day-to-day routine of a travel nurse is heavily dependent on their nursing specialty. An emergency room nurse, for example, will handle patient triage and provide stabilizing care, while a medical-surgical nurse manages IVs, cares for incision sites, and prepares patients for discharge.
As a travel nurse, you must be quick on your feet and take in information quickly. While this is important for all registered nurses, travel nurses have minimal time to acclimate to a new position. They must be ready to adjust to each new hospital’s procedures, technologies, policies, and work culture.
Travel Nursing Requirements
While you can become a travel nurse with an associate degree, a BS in nursing is quickly becoming the preferred credential for registered nurses. Earning your BS in nursing sets you up for more lucrative opportunities as a registered nurse and as a travel nurse.
Once you earn your nursing degree, you can take the NCLEX-RN and earn a nursing license. Expect to need clinical experience before applying to a travel nursing agency.
Learn what to expect in an accelerated nursing program so you can enter nursing school prepared for what’s to come.
Your education and clinical experience will promote the development of valuable skills needed as you learn how to become a travel nurse. Essential skills for a travel nursing career include:
- Communication skills
- Flexibility
- Critical thinking
- Love of traveling
- Interpersonal skills
Adaptability is another crucial skill. Travel nurses frequently enter new situations, work with new people, and learn new procedures.
How to Become a Travel Nurse in Five Steps
If you’re interested in pursuing an exciting career as a travel nurse, you’ll need to start with a nursing degree. If you lack prior college education, you’ll need to enroll in a traditional BS in nursing program, which typically requires four years to complete.
If you do have a prior non-nursing degree, there’s no need to spend four more years in college. Mount Saint Vincent’s ABSN program allows you to earn a nursing degree in as few as 16 months.
1. Earn a BSN
At Mount Saint Vincent, our ABSN program has three main learning components:
- Nursing theory coursework
- In-person nursing skills and simulation labs
- In-person clinical rotations at NYC-area healthcare facilities
The curriculum is fully integrated across all three components, which means that what you’re currently learning in the coursework will be relevant to your labs and clinical rotation. As you progress through the curriculum, you’ll develop increasingly more advanced nursing skills and knowledge.
2. Pass the NCLEX and Obtain an RN License
After earning a BS in nursing, you can take the NCLEX, which is the national licensure exam that allows you to obtain an RN license. At this point, if you already know that you want to become a travel nurse, you’ll need to consider your state of residency.
Travel nurses need a multistate license to travel seamlessly from one state to the next to work. This prevents the need to apply for a new license for each state. The multistate license is made possible by the Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC).
As of 2025, 43 states and other jurisdictions are members of the NLC. New York has pending legislation to join the NLC, but is not yet a member. Furthermore, you must be able to declare that a member jurisdiction is your primary residence before applying for a multistate license. This means you have two options:
- You can live and work in New York as a non-travel RN for a few years to gain clinical experience before moving to an NLC member state and applying for a multistate license. It’s possible that by the time you’re ready to become an RN, New York will have joined the NLC.
- You could move to a nearby NLC state, such as New Jersey, and obtain a multistate license.
3. Gain Clinical Experience
Clinical experience is a customary requirement for nurses applying to a travel nursing agency. While it may seem disheartening that you cannot enter travel nursing right after graduation, a few years of clinical experience are worthwhile.
As a travel nurse, you must acclimate to new clinical environments quickly. Gaining experience will build your confidence and make the transition much easier.
4. Apply to Travel Nursing Agencies
After gaining clinical experience in your specialty area, you’ll be ready to apply to travel nursing agencies. There are many agencies available, so take your time comparing the options.
Review the different benefits packages and other agency perks, and read testimonials from nurses who have worked with those agencies. Keep in mind it’s possible to work with more than one travel nurse agency. Some RNs do this to have access to a broader variety of nursing jobs.
5. Apply to Travel Nursing Jobs
Once you’ve been accepted to one or more travel nurse agencies, you can search through the list of jobs and apply to ones you’re interested in with the help of your agency recruiter. Your recruiter will help you with the logistics.
Expect to have remote interviews via videoconferencing. To make yourself a more competitive job applicant, consider earning a certification in your nursing specialty.
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Take the First Step Today
No matter where your career eventually takes you, Mount Saint Vincent provides a comprehensive curriculum that prepares you for all nursing career paths. Through coursework, labs, and clinical rotations, you’ll gain the knowledge and skills necessary to become a practice-ready nurse who can tackle challenges in any setting.
Contact us today to begin your nursing school journey. You will be assigned a dedicated admission counselor who will guide you throughout the admission process and set you on a path toward accomplishing your career goals.