The History of Modern Travel Helathcare and Travel Nursing
Traveling healthcare professionals have been around in some form or another as long as there have been people with a passion and desire to care for the health and well being of others. However, in this article we’ll focus on the modern supplemental healthcare staffing industry in the United States. Depending on how you define the beginning, it’s fairly common for industry insiders to place the genesis of this now massive industry sometime in either the 1970s, or 1980s.
General Background of Travel Healthcare History
If you were to take an all inclusive approach to the industry, then you might begin in the 1970s. This is when the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation provided a Health System Research Institute (HSRI) with a grant aimed at determining how to get doctors to practice medicine in underserved rural areas. The study found that physicians would be willing to practice in these areas as long as they were assured scheduled time off. As a result, the institute founded a group practice of physicians who were willing to work short term assignments in rural locations as needed. The “Locum Tenens” industry sprouted from there.
Travel nursing specific background
If your focus is strictly on travel nursing, then you might begin in the late 1970s and early 1980s. As the story goes, a hospital in New Orleans enlisted the services of a Registered Nurse on a temporary contract to meet a census spike resulting from the city’s Mardi Gras celebration. Others took note and when the nation was faced with a serious countrywide nursing shortage in the 1980s, the travel nursing business took off.
Driving forces behind travel healthcare
These two scenarios exemplify two of the main reasons that the travel healthcare industry continues to flourish today. First, there is a nationwide shortage of health care professionals of all types.
For example, even at the peak of the recession in 2009, reports indicated that there was a 4% job vacancy rate for Registered Nurses nationwide. Things have only gotten worse in the post-pandemic era. A report from 2024 found that the national RN vacancy rate was a whopping 9.9%.
The United States Bureau of Labor statistics forecasts that the labor market will need 6% more RNs between 2023 and 2033. Additionally, they estimate the country will need to add 194,000 RNs annually in order to cover the openings left by those exiting the profession.
There is similar dilemma for physicians, with reports showing that we currently graduate 50% of the number of physicians we’ll need to keep pace with increasing demand.
Moreover, underserved rural regions are still having difficulty getting healthcare professionals to come work there. The shortage compounds this problem, but it would exist in any case.
Meanwhile, there are several other reasons that tend to bolster demand for supplemental healthcare staffing. For example, healthcare providers prefer to maintain an optimal level of staffing. However, many factors disrupt those optimal levels. If an employee goes on maternity leave or sabbatical, hospitals would prefer to utilize supplemental staff. When a hospital experiences seasonal census spikes, they would prefer to use supplemental staff. And if undertaking an Electronic Medical Record conversion that will tie up its staff in training, the hospital would prefer to utilize supplemental staff.
Given the demographics of the county’s population and the current trends in health care, it’s safe to say that supplemental healthcare staffing will be in demand for the foreseeable future.
