Baby boomers—those born between 1946 and 1964—are nearing retirement age. While many baby boomers are finishing up their careers, some of them are looking for new opportunities. Nurses are in high demand across the United States right now, and travel nursing is a unique subset of the nursing community that requires nurses to frequently move to new areas to fill nursing needs.
Many young nurses are taking advantage of travel nursing before getting married or having children. However, there are also people in older generations who participate in this exciting field. There is no “right age” to become a travel nurse.
Travel nursing is a rewarding field, and many baby boomers are taking advantage of this career path even though they could retire because of all of the opportunities it presents. Here are a few reasons why travel nursing is perfect for baby boomers.
Opportunity for Adventure
Most baby boomers are also empty nesters. With kids out of the house, it is a lot easier to tackle travel nursing. In fact, this actually creates the perfect scenario for baby boomers to take advantage of travel nursing. Instead of retiring, baby boomers can explore new cities and activities.
A baby boomer with a retired spouse can also enjoy these travels with their spouse. It is the perfect opportunity for the couple to spend a few weeks in a new city where they can see just what each area has to offer. With each new placement, you can explore a different city, state, and region of the country.
As you explore each new area, you might find that you develop new hobbies such as hiking, bird watching, museum browsing, or many other different things.
We recommend having an open mind when it comes to the places you want to travel because you might not always be able to find a job in the exact city or state that you want to live in. For this reason, it is a good idea to have a few location options in mind every time you are looking for a travel nursing position.
Try New Things
Nurses this age have often experienced a lot on the job, but a travel assignment can be the perfect switch up. This type of position often pushes people out of their comfort zones. Taking a job in a new city will help push you out of your comfort zone, but another aspect is that you are likely to learn about new technologies and techniques for patient care that you might otherwise not be exposed to.
Keeping your mind sharp by practicing your skills and learning new ones is one of the best ways to maintain a strong memory. As we age, memory recall tends to become a skill that is harder than it once was, so daily learning and working can help prevent these important skills from slipping away.
Opportunity for Mentorship
As someone with more life experience, becoming a mentor can bring a lot of joy and fulfillment to nurses of the baby boomer generation. Your experience and expertise can be a blessing to nurses who are just getting started on their incredible journeys.
There are also a number of benefits to becoming a mentor, including:
- Developing management and leadership skills: Leadership skills don’t develop overnight. Acting as a mentor to younger nursing staff helps you better understand how to manage people and earn their trust as a boss or mentor.
- Giving back to the nursing industry: After years in the industry, you have given your all to your patients, and becoming a mentor allows you to give to your fellow nursing community. As a mentor, you can help teach young nurses new skills and teach them to value high-quality patient care. While the ability to give back to other nurses is truly valuable, you are also likely to feel better about yourself when you are helping others.
- Building a new type of professional relationship: While you are used to professional relationships on the job, being a mentor exposes you to a completely different type of professional relationship. In this type of relationship, you are likely to form a genuine connection with your mentee. The individual, personal connection that you make is far more valuable than the many acquaintances you meet on the job.
- Empowering feeling: When you mentor another person, it can lead to a feeling of empowerment. Even if you don’t consider yourself a teacher, you can help younger nurses avoid the mistakes that you made early on in your career and teach them how to care for patients. Additionally, you can help your mentee learn about navigating your place of employment and other aspects of being a nurse.
Make New Friends
Travelling allows you to meet all kinds of new people. You are very likely to make new friends as you travel the country. At every new location, you will meet new co-workers who will become fast friends. You also have the opportunity to meet new neighbors and other people in the community. This new network of friends could help you in the future when you look for new positions in other cities. Additionally, some of these friends could end up being long-term friendships that you will enjoy for the rest of your life.
Making friends at each of your travel nursing locations could also provide a great opportunity to visit the area again in the future, either with a new position or for a vacation.
Travel nursing has a lot to offer, and age shouldn’t be a deterrent for anyone who is considering this unique career path. In fact, in some ways, it is the ideal position for baby boomers who are no longer raising children of their own and have a desire to travel. To learn more about travel nursing opportunities, check out our jobs page.