Travel nurse jobs are a great option for dialysis nurses looking for adventure and higher pay compared to traditional staff positions. If you’re looking for a career change that gives you more freedom while continuing to do what you love, consider travel dialysis nurse jobs. In this article, we’ll explain what they are, what the benefits are, and how to find the right staffing agency to help you find travel assignments.
What are Travel Nurse Jobs for Dialysis Nurses?
If you’ve never heard of travel nurse jobs, then you might be wondering what they are and how it works for dialysis RNs. Travel dialysis nurse jobs are where a nurse takes a temporary contract with a facility who needs to fill staffing gaps. Usually these assignments last about 13 weeks. Once the contract ends, the nurse moves onto a different assignment. Often, this means that the dialysis nurse travels to different towns, cities, and states to take travel nurse jobs.
Things to Consider for Travel Nurse Jobs
When looking for travel dialysis jobs, there are many things to look at for each assignment. Your recruiter can help you evaluate potential assignments and make sure they are a good fit for you. However, here are some general things you should look at when thinking about applying for a travel assignment:
- Contract time period
- Location
- Shift
- Education and credentials requirements
- Compensation packages
Why Become a Dialysis Nurse?
If you’re considering becoming a dialysis nurse, it’s important to know some of the advantages of this type of nursing. Dialysis nurses are a type of nephrology nurse. They may work in a variety of settings, including:
- Hospitals
- Dialysis centers
- Nursing homes
- Home healthcare
Responsibilities depend on the specific role, but dialysis nurses, also sometimes known as renal nurses, provide care to chronic and acute kidney patients. They may be responsible for monitoring patient vitals, communicating important patient information to others like dialysis techs and nephrologists, providing patient education, as well as overseeing dialysis techs in charge of maintaining and setting up dialysis equipment.
Here are some of the many benefits of a career as a dialysis nurse:
You Get to Know Your Patients
With many other nursing specialties, you may see a patient once and never again. However, dialysis nurses often see the same patients over and over again, allowing them to form close bonds with their patients. Kidney patients frequently need dialysis several times a week, so this might be a great career option if you like forming closer relationships than you would in, say, an ER setting.
You Can Make a Difference Daily
In addition, dialysis nurses make a huge impact on their patients. Dialysis is a life-saving tool that allows people with kidney diseases like ESRD to live a normal life with the right treatments. Therefore, if making a difference is important to you, then dialysis nurses certainly do this.
Dialysis Nurses are in Demand
Kidney disease is on the rise, meaning more and more people need dialysis to survive. Not only this, but there’s a national nursing shortage. Therefore, dialysis nurses are in high demand. This career is growing rapidly, which offers a lot of job security for qualified dialysis nurses with excellent clinical skills.
Why Look for Travel Nurse Jobs in Dialysis?
Now you know why you might want to be a dialysis nurse, let’s talk about why to become a traveling dialysis nurse. This is a career trajectory that is becoming more popular because of the many advantages that come with it. Here are some reasons to become a traveling dialysis nurse:
Travel Nurse Jobs Usually Pay Dialysis RNs More Than Staff Positions
One important reason many dialysis nurses are becoming travelers is that travel nurse jobs usually pay much higher than permanent positions. When facilities are in need because of staffing gaps they can’t fill with a staff nurse, they are often willing to pay a premium to get temporary help. Therefore, travel dialysis jobs can often offer pay significantly higher than a staff position, sometimes even double or triple in certain cases.
You Can See the Country as a Travel Dialysis Nurse
Additionally, with travel nurse jobs for dialysis nurses, you can travel anywhere you want in the country. Since dialysis nurses are in demand basically everywhere in the U.S., you can pick practically anywhere you want to go, whether you want to see the beach, some snow, or something in between. So, make a bucket list of destinations and start crossing them off your list through travel nurse jobs.
Travel Nurse Jobs are a Great Opportunity for New Experiences
Travel dialysis nursing jobs are also great for gaining a lot of experience in a short amount of time. That experience is great for a resume. Showing that you have worked with several types of EMR systems and have worked under many different types of policies is a plus when looking for any job, whether travel or permanent.
Choosing Medical Staffing Agencies to Find Travel Nurse Jobs
Traveling dialysis nurses work with medical staffing agencies to find assignments. So, it’s really important that you find the right agency for you. Here are some of the things to look for in an agency:
Look at the Benefits Offered By Medical Staffing Agencies
When you’re a traveling nurse, medical staffing agencies are basically your employer. You might work for different facilities during your assignment, but it’s the agency who provides you with benefits like health insurance and 401K plans. Therefore, we recommend looking at the benefits offered for each agency. The pay rates and stipends will change based on the assignments usually, but the benefits should stay the same. Make sure the benefits offered match what you need.
Make Sure Your Agency Has Travel Nurse Jobs that Fit You
Take some time to research available jobs at each agency. This can give you a good picture into whether it will be easy to find assignments that match your goals. For instance, some agencies only offer assignments in certain regions or they might not have good quality jobs that you want to take. Facilities work with agencies based on reputation and reliability, so the lower quality agencies usually have slim pickings when it comes to good quality assignments.
Choose a Team that Cares About Your Goals
Some medical staffing agencies see their professionals as simply people to fill open slots. However, it’s better to work for an agency that really listens and understands your goals and helps you make them happen. Rather than pressuring you to take a particular assignment they need to fill, agency recruiters should be helping you find a good fit for each assignment that furthers your goals in some way.
AHS RenalStat – Specializing in Travel Dialysis Jobs
If you’re considering a career as a travel dialysis nurse or technician, get in touch with our team at AHS RenalStat. We are a healthcare staffing agency that specializes in matching dialysis professionals with the right jobs. Our teams go above and beyond to help all our professionals because we truly care about you and want to ensure you have an amazing experience. Get started today by browsing our job board or talking to a recruiter.
