5 Ways You Can Thrive As a Temporary Healthcare Worker
The good news is there are ways to cope when you begin to feel overwhelmed. When working as a travel nurse, you take on many different tasks than those of a typical healthcare worker. Here are a few things you can do to help you thrive while you are taking on the role of a travel nurse.
Take Advantage of Flexible Scheduling
Staying organized and maintaining a schedule are two main factors for balancing your personal life and career. This is especially true for those involved in travel nursing. Temporary workers often have a more flexible schedule. And if you use your free time wisely, you can organize your tasks and create a schedule that works for you. Use your free time to run necessary errands or plan your meals for the week. This will make your daily tasks a little less stressful.
Find Ways to Ignore Things That Waste Your Time
It can be easy to get distracted no matter what industry you are in. But when you are working as a travel nurse, there seem to be so many more things out there that can waste your time. It’s always a good idea to take breaks as needed, but when things start to make you less productive while on the job, it’s important to identify them and ignore them as much as possible. Try to avoid or put a limit on irrelevant conversations with patients or your co-workers. This allows you to complete your work in time so you can take care of other necessary tasks as needed.
Take Time to Take Care of Yourself
Nurses often take on the double duty of caring for their patients and their families at home. While both are very important, it is also essential that you take the time to care for yourself. You will not be of any help to others if you do not have any energy or aren’t feeling well. Make sure you are eating well, drink plenty of fluids, and visit the doctor as soon as possible if any issues come up.
Identify Your Priorities
When you are feeling stressed out and overwhelmed, it’s a good idea to take a step back and look at what is most important in your life. Balancing work and life can be stressful, but when you put your priorities in perspective, you can start focusing on completing your most important tasks first and stop worrying about things that are irrelevant. Worrying about how clean your home is for instance, could be further down on your list than making sure you stay focused on work, or setting aside time each day to spend with your family.
Take a Break
Thanks to modern technology, we are always connected to the important people in our lives. For travel nurses and others who work on flexible schedules, that could mean you are also on-call at any time. Constantly thinking about a last-minute call into work at any moment can be extremely stressful. Therefore, you should take a break and let others know that there are specific times during the day when you can’t take calls or agree to new tasks.
If you would like to learn more about becoming a temporary worker, or if you are interested in browsing current temp positions in your area, check out our job listings for medical professionals at New Direction Staffing today. We update our list constantly with the latest job postings for those with experience in the healthcare industry.
