14 Loose Ends To Consider Before Leaving For A Travel Nursing Job
Travel nurses often spend 13 weeks or longer away from their homes. That’s much longer than the average vacation. Therefore, travel nurses must cover many more details in order to ensure they’re not leaving any loose ends behind. So, here are 14 loose ends to consider before leaving for a travel nursing assignment.
Before we begin, it’s important to remember that everyone’s situation is different. Some people are leaving their permanent home for their assignment. Some people live with family or friends and others are leaving their own apartment or single-family home. Still others are leaving one assignment to head to the next. Depending on your situation, some of the items on this list may or may not apply to you. However, all of them will probably affect every travel nurse at one point or another.
Also, we’ve recently published articles on packing tips for travel nurses and road trip tips for travel nurses. You may be interested in checking those articles out given that they cover related subject matters.
Loose End Considerations For All Travel Nurses
1) How To Handle Mail During Your Travel Nursing Assignment
One aspect of maintaining your tax-home for tax purposes is to keep all your personal business associated with your tax home’s address. Part of doing so is to make sure all your personal mail is delivered there or somewhere in the same municipal area. That includes things like voter registration, credit card bills and other related items.
Of course, you’ll need access to your mail while you’re away from home on your travel nursing assignments, so here are several options to consider:
Consider a Personal Mailbox with UPS
When I was recruiting, I worked with many travel nurses who used UPS’s Personal Mailbox service. Select the link I just provided and then select Store Locator. Enter your tax home’s address to find the options nearest to it.
When you open the account, request that they forward your mail to your assignment address. Of course, you’ll need to update all the services sending mail to your tax home address with your new Personal Mailbox address. Alternatively, you can have the USPS forward all your mail to your new Personal Mailbox address.
Put a hold on mail for shorter absences
If you are going to be gone less than 30 days, then you can simply place a hold on your mail with the USPS.
Request a temporary forward
Alternatively, you can have the USPS forward your mail temporarily. To have the USPS forward your mail temporarily, you’ll need to fill out a “Change of Address Form” and select the “Temporary” option. The USPS will let you do this for 6 months at a time and up to one full year.
Consider the premium forwarding service
You can also use the Premium Forwarding Service offered by USPS. They will package your mail weekly and send it to the address you designate. This service is quite expensive though. It has a one time enrollment fee of roughly $20 plus $23.90 per week!
Rely on friends and family
Finally, you could have a friend or family member collect your mail and ship it to you. This option is probably the least efficient and reliable, but at least you’ll have someone stopping by your house on a periodic basis.
2) Put a Hold on Newspapers
If you’re the person still receiving the newspaper, then it’s a good idea to put a hold on it before leaving for your assignment.
3) Notify Your Bank And All Credit Card Companies
Banks and Credit Card Companies take security very seriously these days. When they see charges from unusual locations, their default reaction is often to suspend the card. Be sure to contact them and let them know about your travel assignment itinerary.
Also, if you use a small local bank, then it might be a good idea to designate a cosigner or guardian on the account. This has to be a highly trusted individual of course, but it can save you tons of time if you ever run across a situation where the bank requires your presence and/or signature for whatever reason.
4) Pay Your Bills
Most people have automatic payments setup for all their bills. However, there is still a substantial number of people who don’t. If you’re one of those people, then you must plan ahead to make sure you don’t fall behind.
5) Figure Out Your Travel Nursing Healthcare Coverage
Fortunately, your travel nursing agency will remind you to at least think about what you plan to do about health coverage when you discuss compensation with them. The important thing to remember is that a significant percentage of travelers change agencies several times during their careers. This often requires you to change health insurance companies, which can affect continuity of care. So, you might want to look into securing your own health coverage.
Either way, it’s important to know how this will affect your ability to stay with your primary care physician. Also, it’s important to understand how your health coverage handles your moving from state to state. Different states have different rules and not all plans work in all states. As a result, it’s a good idea to get all this figured out prior to hitting the road.
6) Take Care of Prescription Medications
Dealing with prescription medications can be a nuisance while on assignment. Make sure that you stock up on as much as you can prior to leaving home. Also, prior to obtaining medical coverage, make sure your new health plan covers the medications you’re currently taking. Here again, health plans don’t all cover the same medications.
7) Notify Family and/or Friends of Your Itinerary
Make sure that you provide family and friends with a detailed description of your itinerary. Also, be sure to let someone know that you’ll be checking in daily during the migration portion of the assignment. Please do not underestimate the importance of these safety precautions.
8) Confirm all Reservations
Prior to leaving, be sure to confirm all hotels, car rentals, apartment rentals and any other accommodations and services that you’re counting on.
9) Program Needed Phone Numbers Into Your Phone
It’s best to program numbers into your phone for all the services you’ll be relying on throughout your trip. Also, program the phone numbers for your recruiter, your agency, and the hospital where you’ll be working.
10) Check the Weather On Your Route
Be sure to check the weather along your route just to be prepared for anything unusual.
11) Carry some Cash
You never know when you might need cash, especially if you’re traveling through remote parts of the country. Be sure to carry some small bills and change as well.
12) Check Your Mobile Phone Plan
It’s becoming increasingly rare for mobile phone plans to charge roaming fees for domestic travel. However, please be certain that your mobile phone plan won’t result in massive charges while you’re on the road. Work with your carrier to find the plan that’s right for your situation.
When I was a travel nursing recruiter, I had several travel nurses tell me about shockingly large phone bills. Please don’t let that happen to you.
Considerations For Travel Nurses Leaving Their Home Behind
13) Don’t Tip Off Criminals
Criminals are crafty little devils. It probably seems cliche to say that criminals use social media to help them with their crimes. However, a study conducted in the UK found that 78% of burglars said they used Twitter, Facebook, and other social media applications to plan their burglaries. Moreover, in the United States, everyone from the National Crime Prevention Council to State Farm Insurance strongly advises against posting your travel plans on social media.
Facebook, Instagram and Reddit have become exceedingly popular for travel nurses. It’s important to remember that many of the groups on these platforms are completely public. Anyone and everyone can view the content you post. It’s important to remember that if you’re posting on these sites.
14) Consider A Timer For Lights
Some people like to turn their electricity off when they leave their house for long periods and that’s okay. However, if you’re of the mindset that a little light around the house could ward off potential burglars, then consider putting some of your lights on timers. Timers are easy to use and many law enforcement officials recommend them.
The rest of the considerations are pretty much a check list of things to do before leaving the house behind. Rather than waste your time with a bunch of obvious explanations, here’s the list:
- Discard perishable food items
- Take out all the trash
- Run the dishwasher
- Lock all windows and doors
- Clear the garbage disposal
- Set the thermostat to a proper setting
- Close the blinds and curtains
- Turn off the main water supply
- Check the sump pump
- Let the police know you’ll be away if its’ for more than 30 days
- Sprinkle baking soda in toilets and sink drains
- Switch off gas
- Switch off alarm clock
- Switch off electricity if you don’t need or want to use it for anything else
As always, we hope you’ve found this information useful. Please contact us if you have any questions or have any recommendations that would improve this article!
