Dreams of exciting adventures fill the heads of travel nurses across the country. For the most part, these assignments allow nurses to explore new cities and landscapes, eat local cuisine, and work with other nurses from all over the United States. While most travel nurses set out on grand new assignments feeling excited, there are occasions when assignment regret starts to creep in. Here are a few tips for dealing with travel nurse assignment regret.
1.Stay in Contact with Family and Friends
Feelings of loneliness can quickly overcome the feelings of joy and excitement that travel nurses feel when they head off on a new assignment. In some cases, it can be a challenge to join an already existing staff without feeling like an outsider. It is also difficult to make friends outside of work with a job that is as demanding as nursing. Regret can start to creep into your mind if you are a long way from your family and friends and finding it difficult to socialize outside of work.
One way to combat loneliness is to stay in touch with those who matter the most to you. Find time—even when working odd hours—to video chat, call, email, text, or write to family and friends back home or from previous assignments. Even a quick chat can alleviate some of the stress that travel nurses feel when they are alone on a new assignment far from home.
2.Find Places to Explore
When the job isn’t what you expected, you might have to get creative with how you deal with your free time. Are you near interesting sites that you can visit when you aren’t at work? Cities and towns across the country have historic sites, museums, and more. Taking the time to go to a local site or try a new restaurant can help stave off boredom and prevent nurses from feeling lonely. Plus, going out more can help you meet new people other than those you work with.
3.Find Something New to Focus On
Hobbies can make stressful times better. If you don’t already have a hobby, it’s time to pick up a new one. You can try something like knitting, learning a new language, learning to solve a Rubik’s cube, crafting, reading, art, and photography. Consider something that travels easily so that you don’t have a problem bringing it to your next travel nursing assignment. Putting your energy into learning something new or practicing a hobby can help the time go by faster until you are onto your next new job.
4.Focus on the Future
Fortunately, when things aren’t going well, travel nursing assignments can be short-term contracts. It can be hard to think outside the hardships you are facing with this contract; however, if you can think about where you are going in the future, you might be able to make yourself feel better. In fact, you can even start planning your next assignment, vacation, trip home, or anything else you are looking forward to.
5.View This as a Learning Experience
Even though you aren’t enjoying your current nursing assignment, you can count it as a learning experience. Take note of the things that you don’t like about the position. Is the city not exciting enough? Do you not enjoying working in a particular unit of the hospital? Are you too far from nature to go on hikes? Make a list of what isn’t working in this location, so you can make sure that you are happier in future assignments.
If you are working with a recruiter, be sure that you give them your revised wish list for your next assignment. A good recruiter will be able to help you find a more suitable post in the future.
While you are still on assignment, you should try to make the very best of it. Not all of your experiences will be positive, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t make the most of it. Try to solve the problems you are experiencing, and if the issues can’t be solved, just try to have a good attitude despite the things you are unhappy with.
How to Prepare for a Better Assignment
Like we previously mentioned, it is important to start making a list of the things you are unhappy with at your current position. Once you know what you are looking for in a new assignment, you can start working with a recruiter to find a position that is a better fit for you. Although contracts vary by length, many of them are less than a year, so you can start planning your next assignment during your current assignment.
Starting to plan early allows you to see more options, helps you ready yourself for your next assignment, and lets you focus on the future. Early planning usually yields the best pick of the available travel nursing assignments, as it gives you or your recruiter plenty of time to dig up leads and send out a resume. After you have everything with the new assignment lined up, you can start preparing to move and looking forward to your next new adventure.
At this point, you can start working on acquiring housing, determine when you need to pack, get all of the necessary paperwork filled out, and make arrangements for how you will get to the next destination in your travels. Getting all of this accomplished early will allow you to relax and focus on doing things that you enjoy before you leave your current city.
Working with OneStaff
At OneStaff, we don’t just want to be your recruiters. We want to be your partners in your travel nursing venture. If you have had a bad assignment, we want to know how we find a better fit for you in the future. When you work with one of our recruiters, we will discuss all of the things that you want out of your next assignment and search for your best options. We will want to know the one factor that you care about most for your new assignment, where you think you want to be stationed, and ask other questions that will help us determine the best fit for you.
To get started on your next travel nursing assignment, please contact us today at 877-783-1483.