The transition from a permanent position to travel nursing jobs can be both exciting and demanding. While you are learning how to navigate new environments, it’s natural to experience some homesickness. Luckily, we live in an evolving technological world where even the least tech-savvy travelers can tap into their smartphones and computers and reconnect with home. Let’s talk about how you can ease your homesickness once you hit the road as a travel healthcare provider.
1. What is Homesickness?
According to clinical psychologist and professor Josh Klapow, homesickness isn’t necessarily missing the physical location of your home, but is instead linked to our “instinctive need for love, protection, and security - feelings and qualities associated with home.”
When you first begin as a travel nursing or travel therapy professional, you miss the routine of home - the familiar faces, your typical restaurants, and the drive to work you had perfected. This homesickness can bring about feelings of anxiousness, sadness, or even anger when a new routine doesn’t fall into place right away. However, that doesn’t mean you aren’t ready to jump into travel nursing! You simply need to take a little extra time reconnecting with what you’re missing and shaping your new regimen until it fits your needs.
Your mind and body get a little nervous being out of their element and begin to initiate your fight-or-flight responses. But homesickness comes in waves and can be eased by merely reigniting your familiarity – like decorating your travel housing with your favorite flowers – or by using tried and true applications like Skype to chat with friends and family when you need it most.
2. Kick Homesickness with These Apps
With the rise of the gig economy, remote professionals and travel healthcare providers bring a new wave of technology to support backpackers, jet-setters and explorers. Here’s a list of 5 (okay, technically 6) great applications you and your pals can use to stay connected and beat homesickness no matter where you are.
One of Apple’s most prominent applications on their iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches is FaceTime, an audio and video chat application that allows you to chat one-on-one with your friends and family. You can also now enjoy Group Facetime with up to, get this, 32 people at once, meaning you’ll never miss a big event again!
Instagram is a great way to see what’s going on with friends and family and connect with tons of other travel nurses and travel therapists. Use Instagram Stories to document your day, share your adventure photos, or keep up with other Instagrammers. You could even launch your own live video and invite a friend to join in a split-screen conversation to share with all of your followers. With the ability to quickly search and follow hashtags, you can curate your Instagram feed with travel RNs, dog owners, local artists, and hotspots and still stay connected to your besties from afar.
It is one of the leading applications for remote interviewing for travel healthcare professionals that we use daily here at CoreMedical Group, so it’s good to become familiar with this application. Skype is available for smartphones and computers, and by using a built-in camera or separate webcam, you can join individual and group text chats or launch audio and video sessions with future colleagues and family members with the click of a button.
Google’s response to Apple’s FaceTime is called Google Duo! While there is no way to download FaceTime to an Android phone, Google Duo is fully available for download on Android, iPhone, and of course, Google smartphones. This app also has a Knock Knock feature so you can share video before the call is answered and the option to leave a video message if the person you’re calling can’t pick up.
Taking your travels internationally? Two worldwide chat, audio, and video applications – WhatsApp and Viber – allow you to keep the conversation going even when you or your pals are crossing continents off your bucket lists. Plus, these apps can transition from your phone to your computer easily, no matter where you are.
Now that you are prepared to fend off homesickness by creating a new routine and staying connected to your friends, family, and travel healthcare community, where are you going on your next adventure? Our healthcare staffing recruiters make it easy; check out the current job openings to discover more!
