One of the top growing job niches in the healthcare field is that of traveling CNA jobs. A lot of people, including certified nursing assistants may not have heard of this job niche before but those who have become traveling CNAs are enjoying a nice period of demand. However, the life of a traveling CNA isn’t perfect for everyone so don’t just try to get in to this niche until you understand what you are getting yourself in to. In the following article, we will be looking at what are traveling CNA jobs and what are the pros and cons of becoming one.
What is a Traveling CNA?
A simple definition of a traveling CNA job is a certified nursing assistant who is not working in a single healthcare facility everyday and most likely they are providing basic nursing aide in a patient’s private home. Occasionally, traveling CNAs will find themselves working in a long term care facility on a temporary basis to help overflow or a labor shortage. Normally traveling CNAs work for a nursing agency that specializes in home healthcare, but every once in a while you will find a CNA working as a private contractor. Most traveling CNAs do start out by working in a healthcare facility to hone their skills and get a better grasp of the working fundamentals.
Advantages of Traveling CNA Jobs
There are quite a few advantages of traveling CNA jobs. Most of these advantages are personal in nature but still important for those looking to make changes in their daily regimen. One of the first advantages is not necessarily being stuck working in the same location day in and day out for your entire shift. Since you will be working for an agency, you may find yourself with a different assignment everyday or possibly multiple locations. This is a great way to break up the monotony of your daily work since some travel will be involved and day seems to go by much faster.
Another set of advantages is the focus of care to be given. Unlike most healthcare facilities, traveling CNA jobs normally deal with one or two patients at a time so they are able to give a more personal care and attention to their patients. This more one-on-one treatment can greatly aid your patient when it comes to recovery, emotional support or even boosting their self confidence. Plus, the emotional relationship you will build help you predict what they may ask for or understand in better detail their needs or personal habits they may have.
Another area that can serve as an advantage is the possibility of world travel. Every once in a while traveling CNA jobs will have you go to other areas of the country or even to other countries. This might come about as part of the agency fulfilling a request or it might be due to the care provided to a patient that is traveling on vacation or business.
Patients seem to respond well to being around familiar settings and they will be slightly easier to keep them comfortable. Currently traveling CNAs are growing more in demand since patients are opting to be more comfortable at home rather than a healthcare facility. So the job outlook is bright and should continue this trend for years to come.
Disadvantages of Being a Traveling CNA
One of the major problems of having a traveling CNA job may be the benefits you would receive. In the past traveling CNA jobs were not really offered much in the ways of benefits outside of traveling or mileage costs, but more recently the major traveling CNA agencies have started to include competitive benefit packages to compete with healthcare facilities. This does include life and health insurance, vacation, retirement accounts and so on. Those who are still not offered these types of benefits will be compensated with a slightly higher salary to make up for the lack of benefits.
Another area of disadvantages that may show up would be your CNA license if you have to go to another state or country. You will have to follow the state or country requirements which may include taking their exam. This can be a pain that some CNAs do not want to deal with. In a lot of cases, you will find the traveling CNA agency will cover the cost of the recertification but may not be the case if you have to also attend a class in order to qualify for the exam.
The last disadvantage to mention would be your hours. Traveling CNAs can work some real goofy hours and sometimes are on call 24/7. They will find themselves working on holidays in most cases. It all really depends on what the overall demand is for your services.
How Much Do Traveling CNAs Make?
As you may guess, traveling CNAs do have a slight edge when it comes to their salary but this has a lot to do with the nature of the job. You will most likely receive some compensation for traveling as in milage or housing expenses which is paid by the CNA travel agency. Plus, you will be able to rack up a lot of overtime if you so desire which only increase your overall salary by leaps and bounds. The pay is good enough that some traveling CNA jobs earn enough work and overtime and any hours that the CNA can find for a period of time then take an extended vacation.
As you can see there are both pros and cons to traveling CNA jobs. While there are some disadvantages as we have mentioned, the advantages may be more than enough to pique your interest to consider a traveling CNA job.