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Helpful or hurtful? The ‘double-edged sword’ of travel nursing.

Rural hospitals are struggling with staffing shortages as more of their nurses leave for better-paying travel nurse roles—but some experts warn that hospitals' reliance on travel nurses may be a "double-edged sword."

The nursing shortage particularly strains rural hospitals

Hospitals around the country have seen a shortage of health care workers, particularly nurses, as Covid-19 case rates and hospitalizations continue to rise. Earlier this month, the American Nurses Association (ANA) sent a letter to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra asking him to declare the current nursing shortage a national crisis and work to address it.

However, while hospitals nationwide are struggling with the current staff shortage, rural hospitals have been hit the hardest.

Around 60 million Americans who live in rural areas rely on small, local hospitals for medical care, and the pandemic has further exacerbated the staffing shortages these hospitals have long struggled with, NBC News reports.

"If you lose one or two nurses, that makes a difference," said Audrey Snyder, president of the advocacy group Rural Nurse Organization and a faculty member at the University of North Carolina Greensboro School of Nursing . "These hospitals are small hospitals and they don't have a large nurse workforce."

According to the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research , a record number of rural hospitals closed last year after continuous low patient volume and high numbers of uninsured patients and patients with government-funded insurance plans. And Brock Slabach, COO of the National Rural Health Association , said another 216 rural hospitals are at high risk of closure.

"The rural hospital workforce has always been a challenge," Slabach said. "What Covid was uniquely suited to do was take advantage of every fracture and widen it significantly and make it even harder to cope with demands being placed on them."

Many staff nurses leave for travel jobs

A recent surge in demand for travel nurses has made long-running staffing shortages at rural hospitals even worse, NBC News reports.

Aya Healthcare , a medical staffing firm, said demand for travel nurses has increased 284% from the same time last year. And Kathy Kohnke, SVP of client relations at Fastaff Travel Nursing , said there are now more than 40,000 positions for travel nurses available on any given day. According to Modern Healthcare, 90% of hospital executives hired travel nurses to bolster their teams during the pandemic, compared with less than 60% in 2019.

In particular, many rural nurses are leaving for travel nurse positions that can pay up to 10 times more than their current salaries, NBC News reports.

According to data from the hiring website ZipRecruiter , nurses at rural hospitals are paid an average of $70,000 a year, or just over $1,200 a week. However, some staffing agencies, such as Nomad Health and White Grove Placement , are offering travel nurse positions that pay over $5,000 a week. And the health care hiring site Vivian has listed several travel nurse assignments that pay up to $9,562 a week.

Compared with rural hospitals, larger, better-funded health systems can pay travel nurses these higher rates, often in addition to a stipend for housing and travel expenses, Modern Healthcare reports.

"The travel nursing situation has essentially created a bidding war between hospitals," Phillip Coule, VP and CMO at Augusta University Health System , said. "A nurse can leave a facility, go on a 'travel contract' for a facility across the street, and earn more than double what they were making, while still living at home."

Separately, Susan Salka, CEO of the staffing company AMN Healthcare , said, "The delta virus is causing even more competition for scarce talent, and our clients are citing problems not only with permanent hiring but also with retention."

Salka added that demand is not exclusively due to surges in Covid-19 patients—it has been complicated by "leaves of absence, clinician fatigue, rising patient volumes and operating room backlog," which is "unlikely to change anytime soon," she said.

Relying on travel nurses may be a 'double-edged sword'

According to Modern Healthcare , this increased reliance on travel nurses may also lead to problems among hospitals' regular nursing staff.

"The good part of travel nursing is that when there's a natural disaster or there are very irregular levels of demand, hospitals can use travel nurses to sort of patch up the gaps," Patricia Pittman, a professor of health policy and management at the School of Public Health at George Washington University , said. "The bad side of travel nursing is that it becomes an excuse to not invest in your regular nursing staff. It's a double-edged sword."

According to Pittman, many staff nurses are being driven away due to frustrations stemming from working conditions and staff shortages, along with pay disparities between staff and travel nurses.

Kelly Rivera-Craine, a business agent for Teamster Local 332 and an RN at Ascension Genesys Hospital in Michigan, said offering bonuses to travel nurses but not staff members—who have remained loyal to their employers throughout the pandemic and amid staffing shortages— is a "slap in the face."

Rivera-Craine also said travel nurses may disrupt clinical care and workflow at hospitals since they typically don't receive as much training as their staff counterparts and don't stay at hospitals long enough to build relationships with patients.

Separately, Coule agreed with Rivera-Craine's assessment, saying, "When you go substituting team members, it certainly has the potential of impacting the quality of care… The potential for error, for communication issues will most likely go up."

And according to Matt Calzia, a nurse practice consultant with the Oregon Nurses Association , the reliance on travel nurses is only worsening the already existent staffing shortages in rural and underserved areas, most of which have fewer resources and are home to marginalized communities with poor access to care.

"You're perpetuating the disparities within the healthcare system overall," Calzia said. "We are taking nurses from areas that really need nurses, but don't pay as well, and moving them into areas that might pay better, who also really need nurses."

According to Pittman, as hiring travel nurses becomes more unaffordable for some hospitals, many are now realizing it was a mistake to furlough nurses early in the pandemic instead of investing in them as crucial workers.

"The silver lining of this crisis is that it is forcing nurse leaders and hospital leaders to take the nurse staffing situation much more seriously," Pittman said. (Miranda, NBC News , 9/15; Masson, Becker's Hospital Review , 9/16; Devereaux, Modern Healthcare , 9/16)

There’s a bidding war for nurses—how do organizations compete? See our 3 takeaways.

These articles highlight an unfortunate hard truth: the nursing workforce is not immune to the labor shortages and economic forces affecting nearly every industry in the wake of the pandemic. With demand for direct patient care jobs increasingly outpacing supply, the competition for nurses is fierce. Lucrative travel opportunities are exacerbating existing staffing shortages and impacting care quality. Here are three takeaways for health care organizations thinking about the boom in travel nursing:

Even though premium labor is costly, short-term reliance on premium labor to fill vacancies is necessary to maintain safe staffing and ensure the stability of the practice environment. However, be thoughtful about how you incorporate travel nurses into your workforce. Constantly communicate the necessity of agency labor to full-time staff—travel nurses are there to reduce their workload and serve as a temporary fix. Emphasize that your organization aims to convert agency labor to full-time staff. 

Financial incentives to join staffing agencies have significantly increased during the pandemic—expect some of your staff to take advantage of this opportunity. Consider allowing staff to leave for a travel contract but maintain their employment status and return to your organization when their contract ends. Establish a program to ensure returning travelers and other nurses at your organization can work together effectively in a positive practice environment.  

• Allow staff to scratch their travel itch through opportunities to flex internally.

Nurses are asking for flexibility to alter their schedules, and sometimes, location, to better meet their individual needs. To meet nurses’ needs and compete with agency labor, some health systems are creating internal travel agencies to flex staff across regions. If your system has sufficient scale, consider developing an in-house travel staffing resource pool that competes with traditional agencies on compensation. Offering this type of flexibility helps reduce your reliance on contract labor, helps retain staff interested in travel opportunities, and ensures nurses working in your health system are familiar with system protocols and culture.

While a reliance on travel nurses will help keep your hospitals running today, this band-aid solution is unsustainable and will not stabilize your nursing workforce in the long-term.

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Posted on September 20, 2021

Updated on September 29, 2023

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Lived Travel Nurse and Permanent Staff Nurse Pandemic Work Experiences as Influencers of Motivation, Happiness, Stress, and Career Decisions: A Qualitative Study

Affiliation.

• 1 Aya Healthcare Inc, San Diego, California.
• PMID: 35507046
• PMCID: PMC9162069
• DOI: 10.1097/NAQ.0000000000000530

Researchers explored travel nurses' and permanent staff nurses' COVID-19 pandemic work experiences, seeking to understand, "How do these experiences influence nurses' motivation, happiness, stress, and career decisions?" The COVID-19 pandemic took a heavy physical and psychological toll on health care providers. Demand outweighed resources as nurses accepted the monumental task of caring for communities affected by the catastrophe. We aimed to gain insight into nurses' lived pandemic experiences in the United States, while exploring the impact of these experiences on their motives to remain in current positions or alter their career paths. In this descriptive, phenomenological study, interview data collected from 30 nurses were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Physical and emotional trauma experienced during the early and peak months of the pandemic led nurses to evaluate their current work arrangements and to ponder alternatives. Our results suggest that pandemic work environments contributed to a change in nursing workforce distribution and exacerbated widening nurse shortage gaps. A call to action bids leaders to institute retention measures based on factors influencing nurses' career trajectory decisions in the current environment. Our findings led to recommendations for leadership approaches to promote nurses' emotional healing and mental wellness.

Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.

• COVID-19* / epidemiology
• Nursing Staff, Hospital* / psychology
• Qualitative Research
• United States

When Workers Travel: Nursing Supply During COVID-19 Surges

We study how short-term labor markets responded to an extraordinary demand shock during the COVID-19 pandemic. We use traveling nurse jobs - a market hospitals use to fill temporary staffing needs - to examine workers' willingness to move to places with larger demand shocks. We find a dramatic increase in market size during the pandemic, especially for those specialties central to COVID-19 care. The number of jobs increased far more than compensation, suggesting that labor supply to this fringe of the nursing market is quite elastic. To examine workers' willingness to move across different locations, we examine jobs in different locations on the same day, and find an even more elastic supply response. We show that part of this supply responsiveness comes from workers' willingness to travel longer distances for jobs when payment increases, suggesting that an integrated national market facilitates reallocating workers when demand surges. This implies that a simultaneous national demand spike might be harder for the market to accommodate rapidly.

We are grateful to Health Carousel for providing data, to Daniel Sonnenstuhl, Scott Loring, and Wanran Zhao for excellent research assistance, and to the Becker-Friedman Institute for support. We thank Bill DeVille, Amie Ewald, Debbie Freund, Stephen Gottlieb, Wes Hamilton, Jeff Hicks, Dmitri Koustas, Brian LeCount, Neale Mahoney, Hugh Shiplett, and Janine Sulavik for helpful comments. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

MARC RIS BibTeΧ

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Travel Nurses and Patient Care: Their Impact on Patient Outcomes and How Hospitals Can Help Them Succeed

• Hospitals are using more travel nurses to fill staffing gaps.
• Travel nurses typically cost more financially than staff nurses.
• The use of travel nurses is sometimes associated with worse patient outcomes based on limited research.

Travel nurses help fill gaps in hospital staffing, but there are questions about their impact on patient outcomes. Hospitals have consistently relied on travel nurses for decades to fill temporary nursing shortages — and that number is only growing – so healthcare providers must understand the potential impact on patient care.

A recently published systematic review concluded that the relationship between travel nurses and patient outcomes is unclear. The use of travel nurses may be associated with some adverse events in patient care, but these events may be due to hospital staffing and work environment issues.

The review found limited or no impact on patient falls, the number of medication errors, or patient satisfaction but a consistent correlation with hospital-acquired pressure ulcers, the severity of medication errors, and the incidence of nosocomial infections (healthcare-associated infections).

Discover how hospitals can better accommodate travel nurses to reduce the effect on patient outcomes.

What Is a Travel Nurse?

Travel nurses take on shorter-term assignments at hospitals, often traveling out of town or state to fill staffing gaps. While many of them work to fill the role of a specific staff member absent for vacation, parental leave, illness, or other reasons, employers also use travel nurses to alleviate nursing shortages.

Travel nurses generally earn higher salaries than staff nurses because of the additional stress of travel, being away from home, and lack of benefits. Travel nurses must adapt readily to new situations, procedures, and colleagues. Registered nurses can become travel nurses as independent agents or through a travel nurse agency.

The total hours worked by travel nurses as a percentage of the total hours worked by hospital nurses grew from 4% in January 2019 to 23% in January 2022, according to the American Hospital Association .

How Does Patient Care Differ Between Traditional and Travel Nurses?

According to the review, staffing levels did show a consistent correlation with travel nurses and worse patient outcomes. This finding is unsurprising since hospitals employ travel nurses to address low staffing levels. There is also a strong and consistent evidence-based association between nursing staff levels and patient outcomes, according to a qualitative study.

Staffing levels were the key variable affecting patient outcomes, according to the systematic review. Some patient outcomes did not show a consistent correlation with the use of permanent/traditional nurses rather than travel nurses. The outcomes that did not show an association include:

• Patient falls
• Number of medication errors
• Patient satisfaction

However, some negative outcomes did show a consistent correlation with the use of travel nurses. These include:

• Hospital-acquired pressure ulcers
• Severity of medication errors
• Nosocomial infections (healthcare-associated infections)

Because the research on patient outcomes and travel nursing is still limited, the systematic review included only 21 articles. Many reviewed articles tracked only one or two patient outcomes, and sometimes, studies of the same outcome found different results. For example, some studies found better outcomes for some variables with greater use of travel nurses. More research is needed to further understand the relationship between the use of travel nurses and patient outcomes.

How Can Hospitals Better Accommodate Travel Nurses?

The review also examined how hospital structures, patient risk factors, and travel nurse experience levels impacted patient outcomes. Ultimately, the work environment strongly correlated to patient care.

The study did not find that the type of unit (such as critical care) had a consistent correlation with outcomes and the use of travel nurses. Similarly, patient risk factors and travel nurse experience levels did not show a relationship between travel nursing use and patient outcomes.

The work environment had the strongest impact on overall patient outcomes. Some, though not all, of the studies in the systematic review, indicated that work environment may be the underlying factor that determines whether travel nurse use is associated with adverse patient outcomes.

Some of the factors associated with a positive work environment include but are not limited to:

• Appropriate level of challenges
• Career advancement
• Collaborative work environment
• Control over work environment
• Manager support
• A non-punitive environment
• Nurse input into error prevention
• Job satisfaction
• Patient-centric culture
• Perception of being valued by leadership
• Support for education and development
• Workplace civility

Hospital work environments and staffing levels may have an association with greater use of travel nurses. If permanent staff find staffing levels inadequate or the work environment unsupportive, they may be more likely to leave. Negative work environments can fuel the nursing shortage, which may lead to greater use of travel nurses. Where adverse outcomes seem to be associated with travel nurses, it is entirely possible that the work environment and staffing levels are the underlying causes.

AHA Senate Statement on Examining Health Care Workforce Shortages: Where Do We Go From Here?” (2023). AHA

Blume K, et al. (2021). Staffing levels and nursing‐sensitive patient outcomes: Umbrella review and qualitative study . NIH

Kieft R, et al. (2014). How nurses and their work environment affect patient experiences of the quality of care: a qualitative study . NIH

Krupp A, et al. Intensive Care Unit Utilization Following Major Surgery and the Nurse Work Environment . AACN

Vander Weerdt C, et al. (2023). Travel nurses and patient outcomes: A systematic review . NursingCenter

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Many travel nurses opt for temporary assignments because of the autonomy and opportunities − not just the big boost in pay

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Travel nurses take short-term contracts that can require long commutes or temporarily living away from home. Time and again, they have to get used to new co-workers, new protocols and new workplaces.

So why would staff nurses quit their stable jobs to become travel nurses?

Well, for one, they get bigger paychecks . But U.S. nurses have other rationales besides making more money, according to a study I conducted .

To do this research, I interviewed 27 registered nurses based in different places.

Many of the people I interviewed disclosed that they left permanent positions to combat burnout. Although they welcomed the bump in pay, travel nursing also gave them the autonomy to decide when and where to work. That autonomy allowed them to pursue personal and professional interests that were meaningful to them, and it made some of the other hassles, such as long commutes, worth it.

On top of earning more money, travel nursing “gives you an opportunity to explore different areas,” said a nurse I’ll call Cynthia, because research rules require anonymity. “When you actually live there for three months, it gives you a chance to really immerse yourself in the area and really get to know not just the touristy stuff, but really hang out with the locals and really be exposed to that area.”

Other study participants said they enjoyed the novelty and educational opportunities.

“You don’t get bored or stuck in a routine,” Michelle said. “You’re always trying to learn new policies at the new hospital that you’re in, learning about the new doctors, nursing staff, new ways of doing things, where things are located. That helps keep me from feeling burned out so quickly.”

Said Patricia: “I want to see how other operating rooms across the country do things and how they do things differently. I do learn a lot of things going from place to place.”

Why it matters

A growing number of U.S. nurses were obtaining temporary assignments before the COVID-19 pandemic began.

But travel nursing became much more widespread in 2020, when hospitals were scrambling to keep their staffing levels high enough as millions of Americans were becoming infected with the coronavirus, straining capacity in many communities.

While compensation varies widely, the median pay of registered nurses in 2022 was US$81,220 , about 35% less than the $110,000 that registered nurses who traveled earned .

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, travel nurses could earn an even bigger premium . Many were paid twice as much as staff nurses.

Once the number of Americans with severe symptoms fell, that premium declined too . But there are still over 1.7 million travel nurses in the U.S. Hiring them is one of the main ways that hospitals cope with a long-term shortage of nurses .

But nurses with permanent jobs can get aggravated by this arrangement when they learn how much more travel nurses earn for doing the same work, as I found through another research project .

What other research is being done

Research supports a widely reported trend: More Americans have temporary jobs and freelance employment than in the past.

While travel nurses can help hospitals, nursing homes and doctors’ offices meet staffing needs, there are signs that patients don’t always fare as well with their care.

And a Canadian study found that when hospitals let staff nurses work part time and offer other alternative arrangements, their retention rates may rise .

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Travel Nursing Won’t Solve the Staffing Shortage, But Reimagining Staffing Models Might

Shift flexibility is critical to nurse satisfaction.

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It started as a response to quell the unexpected overflow of hospitalizations during Mardi Gras in 1970s New Orleans but today travel nursing is a contentious topic that has turned into a Band-Aid solution for the nationwide nurse shortage. 

During the pandemic, travel nurses played a key role in filling major gaps stemming from historic levels of staffing shortages. However, the infusion of a temporary, contracted workforce employed by external staffing groups has come under scrutiny, sending shockwaves through the profession and sparking questions about pay equity. One report from the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission even suggests that employing travel nurses contributes to the high turnover rate of permanent clinical staff. The report surveyed nurses from across the state and showed that the staffing shortage is not caused by fewer people wanting to become nurses, but instead is caused by nurses leaving the field after they have already begun working, signaling that health leaders must focus on retention to secure the longevity of a thriving workforce. 

To say that nurses are burned out is an understatement – nursing is in crisis. A recent study found the leading reasons nurses left healthcare employment from 2018 through 2021 included emotional exhaustion, insufficient staffing, family obligations, concerns related to Covid-19, and unsafe working conditions. Looking ahead, the American Hospital Association projects that 610,388 registered nurses (RNs) plan to leave the field by 2027. Over the next three years, hospitals must think creatively and act with an intentional focus on improving core staff retention to fill these staffing gaps. The reason behind the mass nursing exodus from healthcare signals an opportunity for employers to do more to support their current staff and provide the flexibility they are looking for.

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Travel nursing

If you ask a staff nurse what they think of their visiting colleague, you’ll hear the familiar sentiment that the pay discrepancy between staff is unfair. As one analysis puts it, “[the] perception of pay inequity between the two groups provokes animosity, jeopardizing morale and teamwork.” In addition, an appealing element of travel nursing is the ability to focus on patient care and avoid being involved in the administrative duties of a staff nurse. However, this very benefit for travel nurses can exacerbate permanent staff’s dissatisfaction as they feel that travelers are not invested in the unit they are working in. On the health system side, the high cost of travel nurses is straining hospitals’ already limited resources. Employing a high number of travel nurses is not a sustainable solution to the clinician staffing shortage; health systems must innovate to reduce full-time staff turnover and improve nurse satisfaction, allowing them to only deploy travel nurses where they truly do make an impact during seasonality fluctuations and other extenuating circumstances. The perks of travel nursing – higher pay, a larger focus on patient care and a lesser emphasis on administrative work, and more schedule flexibility – highlight exactly what nurses want from their careers and give health systems a road map to support their permanent staff.

Investing in permanent staff

We all want to feel like we are in the driver’s seat of our careers – and clinicians are no different. That’s why it is imperative to reimagine hospital staffing models to ensure that they center on nurse satisfaction and career longevity. One way to do this is to deploy a ‘float shift’ staffing model. Float shifts operate similarly to float pools, but instead of being confined to the float pool and stepping into the hospital every day without knowing which unit you will be placed in, float shifts give staff the ability to pick up extra shifts for a dollar incentive, while having full visibility into which unit they will be assigned to for that day. An important element of the float shift model is that these shifts complement a clinician’s full-time schedule, giving them more opportunities to make more money or a part-time gig that gives them more control over their schedules and the flexibility they desire. Shift flexibility is critical to nurse satisfaction. As we imagine a future where our health systems have happier and healthier full-time staff, let’s empower nurses to pick what works for their unique needs and limit the likelihood of their burnout and departure from the bedside – or worse, the profession.

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Becky Kahn , Chief Client Officer at Works & Trusted Health , is an experienced healthcare workforce solutions and staffing leader. She joined the company in 2019 as the Head of Client Solutions and took a brief hiatus from the company to serve as the Chief Executive Officer at Republic Health Resources, a mid-sized hospital staffing firm. She later rejoined Works & Trusted Health as the Chief Client Officer where she has been responsible for the development of the company’s account management and direct staffing efforts, significantly growing the Trusted presence across the US. Khan was a key player in launching the Works VMS platform to hospitals and health systems across the country.

Before joining Works & Trusted Health, Kahn served as the Managing Director, UK Operations, at Medacs Global Group, the largest provider of international healthcare staffing and workforce solutions in Europe. Prior to that, she spent nearly sixteen years of her career at AMN Healthcare where she held several executive leadership positions and was responsible for the oversight of AMN Healthcare's travel nurse client sales and services and local staffing divisions, as well as the account management of AMN's Managed Services and Workforce Solutions product offering, and technology divisions. Khan launched AMN’s Managed Services solution and grew it over her tenure to over $2 billion in spend under management. Khan is a passionate leader who is dedicated to bringing sustainable workforce solutions to healthcare.

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TravelNursing

Study Reveals the Real Travel Nursing Experience

By Linda Beattie, contributor

Since travel nursing first emerged in the health care industry more than 25 years ago, it has grown into a strategic staffing choice for health care providers and a flexible yet stable career choice for nurses. Yet travelers still constitute a small minority in the nurse population. Little research has been done on travel nurses and the unique issues that they face, but as this temporary workforce trend continues to grow, researchers are starting to take notice.

Some have looked at how travelers impact the facilities and patients where they practice. For example, a 2007 study from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing showed that supplemental nurses, including travelers, are as well qualified or more qualified than permanent nurses and have a positive impact on nurse and patient outcomes.

Now, a new study published in the July issue of Nursing Management takes a closer look at travel nurses themselves. The results provide some insights into why travel nurses choose life on the road and what kinds of things they face on assignment.

The research team, led by Marcia Faller, PhD, RN, chief clinical officer for AMN Healthcare, sent e-mail invitations to current and recent travelers, and, after the selection process, conducted in-depth, qualitative interviews with 17 travel nurses.  Their sample group included 14 women and three men; the average respondent had more than nine years of nursing experience and nearly five years of experience as a travel nurse.

The results provided the following insights about travel nurses:

1. Their motivations: “These travel nurses chose their career paths based partly on dissatisfaction with their current job and a need for flexibility, which is similar to other studies on temporary workers,” said Faller. But these travel nurses also had the desire to get more experience at different hospitals and wanted to see more of the country.

“We found that these nurses chose traveling because they wanted to learn more, gain different experiences in practice and with different people and cultures,” she continued. “Many also saw travel nursing as a mechanism to travel to new places, to escape an unhappy job situation or to try a variety of employers in order to find a good match.”

2. Their expectations: These nurses knew that the hospitals where they were assigned were short-staffed, and understood their primary role was helping out in the current situation (whatever it was). The travelers recognized that they might not get their preferred schedule and might float more than regular staff, but that was okay.  Their expectations were not the same as those held by permanent staff.

But they also expected to be treated as professionals who could contribute to the goals of the unit and the facility. They wanted to be treated as part of the team.

3. Their experiences: These travel nurses described their assignments and experiences in detail. At many facilities they were treated well and felt a part of the unit; at other facilities they experienced less favorable treatment, which impacted their feelings of acceptance as part of the health care team.

Which facilities had the right formula? Those that showed travelers a welcoming attitude; provided them with an appropriate orientation; paired them with a “buddy” on staff; included them in unit social functions, in-service training and continuing education, and nurse recognitions; asked their opinions on unit matters; gave them a hospital e-mail address; assigned manageable schedules; and had nursing leaders take the time to introduce themselves to the new travel nurses.

“Even if their experiences were less than ideal, most nurses expressed that they could manage anything for 13 weeks,” said Faller.  “Plus, travel nurses have the advantage of avoiding the usual ‘unit politics’ and many administrative duties that staff nurses have to endure.”

4. Their potential matches: One reason that nurses decided to travel was to find a facility and job with a better fit than what they left behind, or to try out a new city before making a permanent move. So when hospital staff and leadership treated them well, it was more likely that they felt like this might be a place they could stay. Often it was apparent to the travel nurses that the hospital was looking to recruit them and it affected how well they were treated on assignment.

5. The lasting benefits: The nurses in this study consistently expressed the belief that they have grown both personally and professionally because of their experiences as a travel nurse. They described how their experiences resulted in increased self-confidence, improved technical skills and the ability to manage successfully in any situation. They also reported that they had become more flexible overall and more tolerant of others, and had learned invaluable lessons from the exposure to many different cultures.

The nurses appreciated the professional exchange of ideas with new colleagues, exposure to new ways of doing things, the chances to broaden their area of practice and the challenges that made them grow. These travelers also believed that they would not have experienced such growth staying in a permanent role.

“Nurses grow and improve in their profession through a wide variety of experiences that allow them to view the world, their work and their patients differently,” said Faller. “For those nurses who determine travel nursing may be right for them, they can expect to find themselves a better nurse for the experience.”

© 2012. AMN Healthcare, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Travel nurses' gold rush is over. Now, some are joining other nurses in leaving the profession altogether.

Working as a travel nurse in the early days of the Covid pandemic was emotionally exhausting for Reese Brown — she was forced to leave her young daughter with her family as she moved from one gig to the next, and she watched too many of her intensive care patients die.

“It was a lot of loneliness,” Brown, 30, said. “I’m a single mom, I just wanted to have my daughter, her hugs, and see her face and not just through FaceTime.”

But the money was too good to say no. In July 2020, she had started earning $5,000 or more a week, almost triple her pre-pandemic pay. That was the year the money was so enticing that thousands of hospital staffers quit their jobs and hit the road as travel nurses as the pandemic raged. 

Two years later, the gold rush is over. Brown is home in Louisiana with her daughter and turning down work. The highest paid travel gigs she’s offered are $2,200 weekly, a rate that would have thrilled her pre-pandemic. But after two "traumatic" years of tending to Covid patients, she said, it doesn’t feel worth it.

“I think it’s disgusting because we went from being praised to literally, two years later, our rates dropped,” she said. “People are still sick, and people are still dying.”

The drop in pay doesn’t mean, however, that travel nurses are going to head back to staff jobs. The short-lived travel nurse boom was a temporary fix for a long-term decline in the profession that predates the pandemic. According to a report from McKinsey & Co., the United States may see a shortage of up to 450,000 registered nurses within three years barring aggressive action by health care providers and the government to recruit new people. Nurses are quitting, and hospitals are struggling to field enough staff to cover shifts. 

Nine nurses around the country, including Brown, told NBC News they are considering alternate career paths, studying for advanced degrees or exiting the profession altogether. 

“We’re burned out, tired nurses working for $2,200 a week,” Brown said. People are leaving the field, she said, “because there’s no point in staying in nursing if we’re expendable.”

$124.96 an hour

Travel nursing seems to have started as a profession, industry experts say, in the late 1970s in New Orleans, where hospitals needed to add temporary staff to care for sick tourists during Mardi Gras. In the 1980s and the 1990s, travel nurses were often covering for staff nurses who were on maternity leave, meaning that 13-week contracts become common. 

By 2000, over a hundred agencies provided travel contracts, a number that quadrupled by the end of the decade. It had become a lucrative business for the agencies, given the generous commissions that hospitals pay them.  A fee of 40 percent  on top of the nurse’s contracted salary is not unheard of, according to a spokesperson for the  American Health Care Association , which represents long-term care providers. 

Just before the pandemic, in January 2020, there were about 50,000 travel nurses in the U.S., or about 1.5 percent of the nation's registered nurses, according to Timothy Landhuis, vice president of research at Staffing Industry Analysts, an industry research firm. That pool doubled in size to at least 100,000 as Covid spread, and he says the actual number at the peak of the pandemic may have far exceeded that estimate.

By 2021, travel nurses were earning an average of $124.96 an hour, according to the research firm — three times the hourly rate of staff nurses, according to federal statistics. 

That year, according to the 2022 National Health Care Retention & RN Staffing Report from Nursing Solutions Inc., a nurse recruiting firm, the travel pay available to registered nurses contributed to 2.47% of them leaving hospital staff jobs.

But then, as the rate of deaths and hospitalizations from Covid waned, the demand for travel nurses fell hard, according to industry statistics, as did the pay.

Demand dropped 42 percent from January to July this year, according to Aya Healthcare, one of the largest staffing firms in the country. 

That doesn’t mean the travel nurses are going back to staff jobs.

Brown said she’s now thinking about leaving the nursing field altogether and has started her own business. Natalie Smith of Michigan, who became a travel nurse during the pandemic, says she intends to pursue an advanced degree in nursing but possibly outside of bedside nursing.

Pamela Esmond of northern Illinois, who also became a travel nurse during the pandemic, said she’ll keep working as a travel nurse, but only because she needs the money to retire by 65. She’s now 59. 

“The reality is they don’t pay staff nurses enough, and if they would pay staff nurses enough, we wouldn’t have this problem,” she said. “I would love to go back to staff nursing, but on my staff job, I would never be able to retire.” 

The coronavirus exacerbated issues that were already driving health care workers out of their professions, Landhuis said. “A nursing shortage was on the horizon before the pandemic,” he said.

According to this year’s Nursing Solutions staffing report, nurses are exiting the bedside at “an alarming rate” because of rising patient ratios, and their own fatigue and burnout. The average hospital has turned over 100.5% of its workforce in the past five years, according to the report, and the annual turnover rate has now hit 25.9%, exceeding every previous survey. 

There are now more than 203,000 open registered nurse positions nationwide, more than twice the number just before the pandemic in January 2020, according to Aya Healthcare.

An obvious short-term solution would be to keep using travel nurses. Even with salaries falling, however, the cost of hiring them is punishing.

LaNelle Weems, executive director of Mississippi Hospital Association’s Center for Quality and Workforce, said hospitals can’t keep spending like they did during the peak of the pandemic.

“Hospitals cannot sustain paying these exorbitant labor costs,” Weems said. “One nuance that I want to make sure you understand is that  what a travel agency charges the hospitals  is not what is paid to the nurse.”

Ultimately, it’s the patients who will suffer from the shortage of nurses, whether they are staff or gig workers. 

“Each patient added to a hospital nurse’s workload is associated with a 7%-12% increase in hospital mortality,” said Linda Aiken, founding director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research.

Nurses across the country told NBC News that they chose the profession because they cared about patient safety and wanted to be at the bedside in the first line of care. 

“People say it’s burnout but it’s not,” Esmond said about why nurses are quitting. “It’s the moral injury of watching patients not being taken care of on a day-to-day basis. You just can’t take it anymore.”

Jean Lee is an associate reporter with NBC News’ Social Newsgathering team in Los Angeles. She previously reported for the NBC News consumer investigative unit.

What is a Travel Nurse? Everything You Need to Know

How to become a travel nurse.

• State Licensing
• Agencies & Recruiters
• Certifications
• A Travel Nurse's Journey
• Final Thoughts

The world of nursing is not confined to traditional hospital settings. For those seeking excitement, flexibility, and diversity in their nursing careers, travel nursing presents a unique and rewarding opportunity.

This guide will discuss  travel nurse requirements , essential steps, qualities, and perks of becoming a travel nurse, offering valuable insights into this exhilarating profession.

Want to learn how to become a travel nurse ? The first step is obtaining the necessary education and licensure.

Aspiring nurses can choose to pursue an Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN) or a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) from an accredited institution. Opting for a BSN opens doors to a broader range of job prospects, including prestigious healthcare systems and trauma centers.

After completing their nursing education, nurses must pass the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) to obtain their state nursing license, laying the foundation for their travel nursing journey.

As a travel nurse, certain certifications are commonly required and highly recommended to ensure the nurse’s readiness to handle various clinical situations and emergencies. The two critical certifications that travel nurses typically need are:

Basic Life Support (BLS): BLS certification by the American Heart Association is a fundamental requirement for all healthcare professionals. BLS training equips nurses with the skills to recognize and respond to life threatening emergencies such as cardiac arrest, choking, and respiratory distress.

Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS): ACLS certification by the American Heart Association is essential for nurses working in settings where they may encounter patients with cardiac issues or in critical care situations. ACLS skills build upon BLS skills and provide additional knowledge and techniques to manage cardiac arrest, stroke and other cardiovascular emergencies. 

Depending on your specialty and the requirements from the facility you wish to travel to, other certifications such as PALS, NRP, and Stable may be required, so be sure to ask your recruiter before applying to travel nursing positions. Additionally, it's important for nurses to keep their certifications up to date, as they typically require renewal every few years.

>> Related: What do Travel Nurses Do?

The most important element to becoming a travel nurse is experience. Most travel agencies and hospitals require nurses to have a minimum of two years of nursing experience prior to applying for travel nursing contracts.

>> Click here to see available high-paying travel nurse opportunities!

Navigating State Licensing as a Travel Nurse

Travel nurses frequently move between states, requiring them to research and understand each state's licensing requirements. Some states offer temporary "walk-through" licenses, enabling nurses to obtain short-term licenses swiftly. Familiarity with individual state licensing procedures and timelines is crucial for successful travel assignments.

Compact state licensure for travel nurses is a game-changer in the healthcare industry, streamlining the licensing process and making it easier for nurses to practice across state lines. By participating in the Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC), qualified nurses can hold a single multi-state license, granting them the privilege to work in any other NLC state without the need for additional licenses. 

This simplification not only reduces bureaucratic barriers but also addresses the growing demand for healthcare professionals in various regions. Travel nurses can now embark on new assignments swiftly, providing crucial medical support where it's needed most, and ultimately enhancing patient care across the nation.

Key Attributes of a Travel Nurse

Effective travel nurses possess a unique set of qualities that enable them to excel in diverse healthcare settings. These attributes include:

Adaptability and flexibility : The ability to quickly adjust to new environments and handle various patient populations and healthcare systems

Strong communication skills: Effective communication is essential for collaborating with different healthcare teams, patients, and families

Problem-solving and critical thinking : Travel nurses encounter new challenges regularly, necessitating strong problem-solving skills and critical-thinking abilities

Compassion and empathy: A genuine love for patient care and empathy are vital in providing exceptional nursing services as a travel nurse.

Leadership abilities: Travel nurses should be comfortable assuming leadership roles when needed and confidently handling responsibilities

• Love for adventure: A spirit of adventure and a curiosity to explore new places and cultures is essential.

Benefits of Travel Nursing

Apart from competitive pay, travel nurses often enjoy an array of benefits:

Non-taxed stipends: Additional stipends for housing and living expenses on top of hourly rates if you qualify

Healthcare insurance: Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage.

Retirement plans: 401K investment options for long-term financial planning

Bonuses: Sign-on, completion, and referral bonuses as incentives

Continuing education: Access to free courses for continuous professional development

License reimbursement: Support for renewing and maintaining licenses

Reliable pay: Weekly or bi-weekly pay schedules

Tax advantage plans: Tax-saving options for travel-related expenses

Insurance coverage: Coverage for life, liability, disability, and worker's compensation

Travel reimbursement to and from your assignment

Support: 24/7 support from the staffing agency. 

Travel Nurse Salary

The compensation for travel nurses varies significantly based on location, specialty, experience, and the chosen agency ZipRecruiter.com reports the national average for travel nurses is $118,400 per year.  While the pandemic and nursing shortage temporarily drove higher wages due to increased demand, these exceptional rates have not since been sustained post-pandemic. 

​​Travel Nurse Salary by State

Source: ZipRecruiter

Wages for travel nurses involve more than a straight hourly rate. They can receive non-taxed stipends for travel nurse housing and living expenses. Stipends are paid on top of the nurse’s hourly rate.  Other benefits for travel nurses, depending on the staffing agency,  include, 

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• 401K investment options
• Sign-on, completion, and referral bonuses
• Free continuing education courses
• License Reimbursement 
• Weekly/Bi-weekly Pay
• Tax Advantage Plan
• Life Insurance
• Liability Insurance, Disability Insurance, and Worker’s Compensation
• 24/7 Support

Additionally, you can increase your travel nurse salary through specialization or advancing your education. The average travel nurse practitioner salary is significantly higher than that of travel RNs.

What Are The Best Travel Nurse Agencies and How Do You Pick One?

Your travel nurse company and recruiter can make or break your experience, so this question should not be taken lightly. 

When you’re starting your travel nurse journey, one of the first steps you need to take is finding a travel nurse company and recruiter. This process might feel overwhelming because there are so many options out there. How do you know if you’ve found a good travel nurse company and a recruiter who has your best interest at heart?

When looking into travel nurse agencies, you should first make sure that they have these non-negotiables:

• A dedicated housing department of experts to help you find housing or do they give you a stipend to find your own housing
• Day 1 health, dental and vision insurance, and premium cost
• 401K that you can start contributing to immediately
• Travel reimbursement
• 24-hour customer support. Make sure to choose one with a clinical department that is available as a resource for you. 
• Have a variety and abundance of travel nursing jobs all over the country for your specialty.

Make sure to ask if they are Joint Commission credentialed. Agencies that obtain this certification must complete a strict qualification process, and it helps ensure that the company is upheld to the highest standards in the industry.

What to Look Out for When Working With Travel Nurse Recruiters

Travel nurse recruiters play a vital role in connecting nurses with suitable assignments. A skilled and honest recruiter advocates for the nurse's best interests, secures desirable contracts, and provides transparent and accurate information in a timely manner. 

Conversely, nurses should be cautious of unprofessional recruiters who submit them to assignments without consent or make false promises. In many cases, travel nurses build long-time friendships with their recruiters! You want to find a recruiter with whom you can connect quickly and establish a bond. They should be someone who helps put your mind at ease, has your back, and actively listens to what you want instead of pushing their agenda.

Don’t be scared to interview recruiters to find the right one. Working with a recruiter whose personality, values, and humor complement yours will make your travel nurse experience even more worthwhile.

We encourage you to work with travel nurse recruiters who have been vetted and highly recommended by fellow travel nurses or with our trusted partner, travelnursing.org.

Certifications for Travel Nurses

While there are no specific national nursing certifications for a Travel Nurse, having advanced RN certifications can make an individual look more desirable to hospitals. There are a plethora of nationally recognized certifications including, 

• CCCTM - Certified in Care, Coordination, and Transition Management
• CDN - Certified Dialysis Nurse
• CMSRN - Certified Medical Surgical Registered Nurse
• CNN - Certified Nephrology Nurse
• CNOR - Certified Nurse Operating Room
• CPAN - Certified Post Anesthesia Nurse

The most common certifications for travel nurses are,

• CPN - Certified Pediatric Nurse 
• CCRN - Certified Critical Care Nurse
• CEN - Certified Emergency Nurse

What Are the CEU Requirements for Travel Nurses?

Continuing education is essential for all registered nurses, including travel nurses, to maintain their active licenses. Each state has specific continuing education requirements that nurses must fulfill to remain compliant.

Examples of continuing education requirements for RNs are as follows: 

• Washington - 8 contact hours every year
• Texas - 20 contact hours every 2 years
• Florida - 24 contact hours every 2 years
• California - 30 hours every 2 years
• Hawaii - 30 contact hours every 2 years 
• Arkansas -20 contact hours every 2 years
• Florida -24 contact hours every 2 years
• Illinois - 20 contact hours every 2 years
• Iowa -36 contact hours every 2 years
• Pennsylvania -20 contact hours every 2 years

Some states do not require CEUs to maintain an RN license. Examples include Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, and Maryland. Several states also require HIV/AIDS education such as New York, Minnesota, and Kentucky. It is important for nurses to check their state’s RN credentialing body for exact CEU requirements. 

Nurse.org has a comprehensive list of CEUs by state for RNs here .

Brandy Pinkerton's Journey to Becoming a Travel Nurse

Brandy Pinkerton shared with us why she decided to become a travel nurse and what her journey was like.

Why did I decide to become a travel nurse ? I was burned out in my staff job and needed to renew my passion for nursing. After finding a great company and a trustworthy recruiter, I embarked on my first assignment solo with my two doggies in tow and never looked back! 

Since pursuing a career as a travel nurse and completing over 15 assignments, I’ve had adventures in Florida , Colorado , Nevada , South Carolina , Texas , and Montana . Becoming a travel nurse was the best decision I could have made for myself! While I’m grateful I made the decision to become a travel nurse, I also know that there are a lot of logistics involved in getting started. I’ll tell you all there is to know about travel nursing, so that you can feel prepared to take the leap into this exciting, rewarding profession!

Here are a few things travel nursing has given me:

• A better compensation package with benefits. Because of this, I could pay most of my debt, and I no longer had to work two jobs. 
• More time off and flexibility with my schedule. You can imagine all the wonderful things that can happen when you have more time back.
• Experiences that I would never usually get to have. Through these experiences, I discovered what I like and some new hobbies.
• Less burnout – this is HUGE!
• New relationships and friendships all over the U.S.
• More confidence. I have grown both professionally & personally.
• The ability to build my resume. I’ve been able to try out so many hospitals and have great takeaways from them. Who knows? There are some I may go back to one day.

Final Thoughts on Travel Nursing

Becoming a travel nurse is a thrilling journey that promises adventure, personal growth, and unique experiences. From education and licensure to acquiring experience and embracing essential attributes, travel nurses embark on a profession that combines professionalism with exploration. With competitive salaries, a range of benefits, and the potential to make a meaningful impact on patients across various locations, travel nursing offers a gratifying and fulfilling career path like no other! 

Kathleen Gaines (nee Colduvell) is a nationally published writer turned Pediatric ICU nurse from Philadelphia with over 13 years of ICU experience. She has an extensive ICU background having formerly worked in the CICU and NICU at several major hospitals in the Philadelphia region. After earning her MSN in Education from Loyola University of New Orleans, she currently also teaches for several prominent Universities making sure the next generation is ready for the bedside. As a certified breastfeeding counselor and trauma certified nurse, she is always ready for the next nursing challenge.

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New Horizons for Nursing

By Robin Shear [email protected]

At the end of each semester, Cindy L. Munro, dean and professor of the University of Miami School of Nursing and Health Studies (SONHS), sends newly minted graduates out into the world with words of encouragement and inspiration.

She urges these future health leaders to be bold and confident, to keep learning and make a difference. This is just what Munro has done during her decades-long nursing career, from the hospital bedside to the research bench to the classroom and executive board room.

Now, on May 9, this veteran nurse leader, innovator, scientist, and educator will preside over one final awards ceremony at SONHS. But this time, like her graduates, Munro will be departing SONHS for new horizons as she steps down as dean.

During her seven years at the helm of SONHS, Munro deftly navigated the school through hurricanes, a global pandemic, massive nursing shortages, and other sweeping changes. She grew the school’s reputation in health care education by setting rigorous benchmarks for research funding, educational programs, accreditation, first-time pass rates for nursing certification, and more.

In addition, she oversaw the opening of world-class facilities such as the Simulation Hospital Advancing Research and Education ( S.H.A.R.E. ®) and Biobehavioral Research Laboratory. She hosted the XVII Pan American Nursing Research Colloquium, promoted faculty scholarship, and instituted key administrative roles, including two vice dean positions and an associate dean for diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.

SONHS is currently the 16th top recipient of funding from the National Institutes of Health to nursing schools nationwide (and the seventh top recipient among private nursing schools in the United States). In the first quarter of 2024, 97.87 percent of the school’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing graduates passed their National Council Licensure Examination the first time they took it.

Appropriately, the final days of Munro’s successful tenure coincide with National Nurses Month, established in 2020 by the American Nurses Association (ANA) as a time to celebrate the wide-ranging and significant contributions of the nation’s nearly 4.7 million registered nurses.

The ANA selected “Nurses Make the Difference” as the theme for National Nurses Month 2024 because, they explained, “Nurses make a difference as trusted advocates who ensure individuals, families, and communities receive quality patient care and services.”

Nursing not only represents the largest health care profession in the U.S., the public perennially names nursing the most trusted of major professions, according to Gallup Poll data.

Throughout May, in honor of National Nurses Month, the school and the University will spotlight some of the many ways ’Cane nurses are making a difference in the communities they serve.

National Nurses Month Message from Dean Cindy L. Munro  

To kick off National Nurses Month, here are a few key dates for the coming weeks at SONHS:

May 2: Public health seniors present their final community health field practicum research posters

May 6-12: National Nurses Week is observed

May 8: National Student Nurses Day is observed

May 9: The Spring 2024 Awards Ceremony recognizes individual awardees and 270 graduates; S.H.A.R.E. hosts a “Day in the Life of a Nursing Student” Open House for middle and high schoolers

May 11-26: SONHS leads students on a global health practicum in Madrid, Spain

May 12: National Nurses Week concludes on the birthday of nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale, and marks the annual observance of International Nurses Day

May 13: A new 12-month Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing cohort begins

May 15: SONHS welcomes new participants to the NIH-supported Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Training Program, with research sites at the University and global partner sites in Brazil, Jamaica, Costa Rica, and beyond

Meanwhile, as Munro paves the way for her successor’s arrival and smooth transition, she exudes optimism for a bright future at SONHS. “The school is exceptionally strong,” she said. “It is poised to become a national leader in a way that very few schools of nursing or health studies are able to achieve.”

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ABSN Student Connects Dermatology and Mental Health During Poster Presentation

Duke School of Nursing ABSN Student Alexandria Inthavanh’s research highlights the need for mental health screenings in dermatology to enhance patient care and address health disparities.

Inthavanh said her inspiration for the poster came from the high volume of new nurses entering the cosmetic and dermatology industry who do not consider mental health when consulting patients about their expected outcomes. “Mental health is one of the many reasons why patients decide to undergo any cosmetic procedure and providers oftentimes overlook the screenings when there may be an underlying cause that may need other psychiatric treatment.”

She added, “I hope individuals who work in the dermatology and aesthetic industry will consider using the Peak Consultation Method and the Body Dysmorphic disorder screening when treating their patients. By taking the extra step to screen patients, we can help prevent unnecessary cosmetics procedures or treatment.”

Inthavanh said the conference was spectacular and extremely educational and led her to realize the Duke School of Nursing has an opportunity to enhance its nursing education when it comes to teaching students about the skin. “I was able to sit on lectures about T-cell Lymphoma, Pediatric Dermatology, Psoriasis, and so much more.”

She has worked with Associate Professor Amie Koch , DNP, FNP-C, RN, ACHPN on the importance of screening for mental health concerns while in a dermatology setting and breaking the negative stigma behind mental health screenings in the Aesthetic and Dermatology fields.

Inthavanh said she was amazed by the magnitude of peers who informed her that mental health is not heavily spoken about in Dermatology or Aesthetics. “I hope to further my research and provide more primary prevention methods and awareness to this unspoken topic.”

She hopes to share this experience with her colleagues and believes it can pioneer a greater change for Duke in filling healthcare gaps. “Specifically, through my experience and continuing this research, I believe I can help fill gaps in mental health awareness in dermatology and nursing dermatology education in higher education institutions,” Inthavanh said.

A major part of Inthavanh’s work at DUSON is centered on conducting mental health screenings before a cosmetic procedure and she said she hopes to help eliminate associated health inequalities by doing so. “Many patients do not fully understand the benefits and risks of procedures and there is often a gray area. While presenting at the conference, I asked each individual ‘have you ever been screened at a dermatology office, MedSpa, or plastic surgeon’s office for mental health,’ and every single individual answered no,” she said.

She continued, “this is a cause for concern as patients who have mental health conditions may need other psychiatric measures. One argument is that there is a negative connotation when asking patients about their mental health in the dermatology and cosmetic industry as it can deter clientele and limit revenue.”

Inthavanh said as industry nurses, it is imperative that they break the negative stigma about losing clients and money and make mental health consultations a normality. By doing so, nurses can prevent unwarranted procedures, prevent addictions, and treat other concerns patients may have.

“In my work to reduce these inequities, as a fourth semester student in the ABSN program, I created the Aesthetic and Dermatology Students organization. This organization aims to bridge schooling and the professional industry and support students in their education in Aesthetics and Dermatology,” she said. “The organization provides educational resources, trainings with professionals, and conference opportunities.”

Inthavanh is a native of Atlanta and resides in Charlotte, N.C., with her husband Nash and their 2-year-old daughter, Desa.