What are the roles of a travel nurse? A travel nurses is a registered nurse from various clinical backgrounds who work for independent
staffing agencies. Travel nurses move from one region to the next, performing nursing duties and
providing care services in residential areas, schools, and other organizations.
They work hand in hand with agencies and brokerage firms to place them with hospitals that have
shortages. Travel nurses are responsible for prescribing medication,
manage patients’ medical records, and collaborate with other health professionals in offering
care.
Travel nurses perform various roles including prescribing medications,
managing patients medical records, and performing tests. It is important that travel nurses be provided with certain information before they start their travel
assignment to help determine if their background skills will meet the needs. Additionally, they should be provided with onboarding schedules a week or two before the start of the travel assignment. This can help health care facilities to develop streamlined
and tailored travel nurses onboarding who are compliant with the Joint Commission regulations.
What are the roles of a travel nurse?
Healthcare facilities that cannot hire nurses required regularly see travel nurses as the best option to fill the clinical needs. This is because travel nurses work on short-term contracts and often travel to complete assignments in different parts of the country. Travel nurses assume direct patient care
duties upon receiving their unit assignment and orientation. There are no significant
difference in patient experience and quality of care in various nursing units. There are also no
identifiable relationship between travel nurse coverage and the quality of care.
Another area of interest is analyzing the perception of travel nurses on their communication and relational
experience with other nurses. It is common for nurses to offer and accept
help several times within a single shift. The law of reciprocity argues that nurses supported by
others are more likely to reciprocate in prosocial behavior. Envy and
prosocial behavior are not mutually exclusive and that their relationship is more of an
antecedent-consequent nature. Understanding this could help improve unit productivity,
promote fairness, and overcome resources deficiency. APA