Travel Nurse Friendships: Why They Mean So Much
“One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood.”
- 5th Century Roman Statesman, Lucius Annaeus Seneca
A lucky few manage to truly embrace the importance of friendship throughout life…including old Italian guys who lived 1500 years ago! (See quote above.) But nurses, well they understand what it means to be a friend.
Nurse friendships are special. RNs “get” each other in ways that mere mortals (non-nurses) couldn’t possibly understand. From patients abusing the call button to the utter frustration of doctors “borrowing” their pen, nurses share similar experiences, both good and bad.
PICU traveling nurse Lacy Holevis explains how she turns to colleagues to handle the tough days:
“PICU nurses understand each other. We have a special bond because we deal with so much stress every day. When a child passes away, no one questions you when you say you’re having a rough day and no one judges you. They’re always there to support you and provide the emotional relief that you need, because they understand.”
Friends outside of the healthcare profession try to be sympathetic to their nurse friends, but the truth is, they don’t get how you can face trauma every day without going slightly bonkers. They can’t understand how you can go 12 hours straight without going to the bathroom, sitting down, or taking a lunch break. And chatter involving bowel resections, weeping wounds, and physical abuse can prompt them to recoil and abandon the friendship altogether.
But nurses get it. They understand that a patient’s safety and well-being trump their own needs or want. And they understand what it really means when a fellow nurse says they’ve had a bad day.
Five years ago, nurse Janae Jones’s teenage patient passed away. After work, she and the other nurses went to dinner. They discussed life, friends, and love. “It was a sad day,” explains Jones. “It really helped to have friends with shared experiences, without the need to explain why my day was bad.”
All Friends Make a Complete Life, But Travel Nurse Friends are Special
Travel nurse friendships are particularly special. Travel nurses are a special breed of RNs who don’t mind moving from location to location. They embrace change and they’re comfortable stepping into a room full of strangers and making themselves at home. It’s not a lifestyle for everyone, but for travel nurses, it’s a lifestyle that they can share and enjoy with other travel RNs.
Travel nurses on assignment make friends all across the country. They say hello and they’re O.K. saying goodbye because they know that true friendships will last no matter how much time has gone by. Wherever they go, travel nurses create special bonds, often making friends for life--even if they’ve only known each other for a short time.
Think about all the neat people you can meet in medical surgery, emergency room, labor and delivery travel nursing jobs around the United States! Tour your dream destinations while gaining the skills and experience to master your profession.
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Additional Nursing Resources:
- AMN Passport: Our all-in-one nursing app for booking nursing jobs.
- Nursing Salary & Benefits: AMN Healthcare offers our nurses some amazing salaries and benefits. Find out what's in store for your nursing career today.
- Travel Nurse Licensing: Find out about nursing requirements for all 50 states.
- Exclusive Facilities: AMN Healthcare has relationships with the most sought-after healthcare providers.
- Refer-a-Friend: Make up to $2,000 per referral.
