Balancing Family Life with Travel Nursing

Providing top-notch healthcare can be professionally rewarding, but family and personal relationships are important for a harmonious life too. Balancing family life with a full time nursing career is notoriously difficult. In 2020 - 62% of nurses reported feeling burned out during an extremely difficult worldwide pandemic on top of their already demanding jobs. Travel nursing offers a unique way to try out different healthcare settings and counter professional burnout, but can take a toll on a stable and nurtured family home life. Tensions at home can lead to decreased ability to handle work related problems and vice-versa. Managing stress is a big part of maintaining stability in your home and work life.

Work / life balance is hard for most people to achieve, and the mental strain of the nursing profession is well known. As a travel nurse you may have to adjust to changed workplace duties, new workplace culture, and being apart for a specified period of time from your children, other family members and friends. You may be away for weeks at a time and you may not be able to spend daily time with each family member, which can lead to disruption in normal routines. Stress can result in reduced mental energy for interpersonal interactions with both your co-workers and family members. It's important to make time for your loved ones whether it be a video chat after a long day or just a text that lets them know you're thinking of them. Your family is your biggest support system when you are on assignment so it's important to make time to have meaningful interactions to reconnect with them. Have a support system in place and dont be afraid to ask for help on those difficult days.

Work or family may take different priority on different days and that's ok. Recommit to your values and most importantly take care of yourself!