As a travel nurse, you are usually going from state to state, city to city, and facility to facility and as a nurse, you could do and contribute in countless meaningful ways to their own communities. Do travel nurses get to pick their schedule? There are a ton of questions pertaining to travel nurses, but lucky for you, there are also a lot of different travel jobs for registered nurses that you could always choose from and volunteer for in your free time. You would be able to benefit from this important community engagement and help more people than you already here. Travel nurses engaging local communities are always appreciated in any and every state that you may be assigned in.
7 Ways that you could find community engagement opportunities:
1. Calling a nonprofit organization directly
It could be as simple as picking up the phone and asking to speak to the volunteer coordinator. Though bear in mind that there are some organizations that do not advertise service opportunities, that does not mean that they do not have them. It could never hurt to reach out and tell them of your situation since there are a lot of nonprofit organizations and travel nurse agencies that would welcome a nurse volunteer for a few months.
2. Chapter of a familiar organization volunteer
You could find out if your new community has a chapter that could use your help while you are on an assignment if you already volunteer for the YMCA or the Ronald McDonald House back home.
3. Check out all other volunteer sites
There are a ton of websites that could offer you opportunities to browse service opportunities that may appeal to you like JustServe.org, GivePulse.com, and the like. You could just plug in your location and a few keywords and see what pops up since there are some organizations that would allow you to register for skilled volunteer opportunities.
4. VolunteerMatch
Seeing as VolunteerMatch is considered one of the largest databases that you could go to when you want to volunteer for service projects, you would be able to see more opportunities that are there to get a sense of whether one of those volunteer jobs would be the perfect fit for you. There are more than 85,000 volunteer opportunities that you could choose from and could boast more than 130,000 participating organizations.
5. Check out local websites
You could do some research on local organizations that could coordinate and place volunteers when you start making plans for your next travel assignment. This could allow you a chance to do proper research on communities that even have regular service days and are willing to welcome any help that they could get.
6. Pursue idealist
Idealist is another major resource for matching with volunteer opportunities that have more than 120,000 organizations represented on the site.
7. Ask your colleagues at work
There may be other nurses and staff at your travel nursing assignment that may have ideas that they could share with you, especially if they are from there or had been staying there for a long time now and their insider information would be able to give you an insight on all of the hidden gems the community has that only locals know and places you would not be able to discover on your own.
How do nurses choose travel agencies?
- Check the missed and canceled shift policy
- Recruiter
- Travel nursing destinations that are available
- The nursing company’s reputation
- Travel nursing pay
- Service organizations of the travel nursing company
- The travel nurse housing options
- Benefits you want
- Travel nursing extra hours pay
- Guaranteed hours policy
- Ease of onboarding
Nurse volunteers are very useful for many organizations, but so are regular volunteers who are available to pitch in and help out in other ways so you do not have to use your professional nursing skills eerie time you serve as a short-term volunteer.
Especially outside the holiday season, there are a lot of local good banks and soup kitchens that are always looking for volunteers since there are many organizations that need assistance with youth sports leagues during the summer months and you could always coach and be a trainer, umpire, or referee. An amazing place to look for all of the possible opportunities is the local community centers.
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