Starting Your Missions Journey as a Traveling Nurse: A Guide to Combining Nursing with Medical Missions
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Medical Missions
Traveling Nurse
As the name implies, a traveling nurse doesn’t work for one hospital or clinic. Instead, these nurses move around from place to place as assigned, meeting the needs of patients on a short-term basis. The practice of traveling nurses, which continues to grow in popularity, grew out of a shortage of nursing professionals in a variety of settings.
But the mobility and flexibility demonstrated by a traveling nurse also have much in common with the world of medical missions. For example, traveling nurses aren’t restricted to working in domestic settings. Many invest their lives working outside the United States. As such, travel nurses can make a difference at home and abroad.
How to Start
The first step toward becoming a missionary traveling nurse would be similar to other nurses. As you might expect, you need the degree. Most medical missions agencies require four-year nursing degrees for their personnel, though some might accept a two-year program with experience.
While this is a huge step, it also can be helpful for individuals seeking to become traveling nurses. Many schools and programs, especially at Christian universities, specialize in combining medical studies with missional studies. In addition to receiving a solid medical missions education, these institutions may be able to connect you with sending agencies that fit your skills and calling.
Identifying the Right Approach
As mentioned, many medical missions agencies serve nurses who are called to the mission field. But finding the right organization for you will depend on where you feel God is leading you. Three primary questions you need to consider are location, duration, and vocation—along with the options included in each area.
• Location: When it comes to deciding where you want to serve as a traveling nurse, you’ll need to pick between domestic and international opportunities. While each of these options would have a variety of choices in themselves, answering the broader question is incredibly important.
As noted, many traveling nurses work in domestic hospitals and clinics. They may move from city to city, but they never leave the country. In contrast, other traveling nurses serve overseas, transitioning from station to station. Both have their advantages. You just need to identify which plan is God’s plan for you.
• Duration: This is a matter of short-term missions versus long-term (or career) missions. Again, there is no “right” or “wrong” answer here. Both short-term and career missionaries fill an important role in supporting medical missions, and each plays a vital part in fulfilling the Great Commission. So, as a traveling nurse, you would be a part of God’s work in the world.
As with other missions-related questions, prayer is the key to figuring out what’s right for you. You also can benefit from talking with friends or family members who know you well, as well as other traveling nurses who have served as missionaries in such contexts. Get all the information you can, filter it through prayer, and see where God opens doors.
• Vocation: You’re called to be a nurse, and you’re called to missions. So, it might seem strange to talk about questions of vocation. But, in reality, this is vital because medical missions—including nursing—is unique.
Here’s what we mean by that: You can be a professional missionary who serves as a nurse or you can be a nurse who also serves as a missionary. Put another way, you have the choice of traditional medical missions or being a marketplace missionary. You can sign up with a Christian organization, or you can live a missional life while working for a “secular” agency.
Again, it’s a unique opportunity. So, your focus should be on identifying God’s plan for you as a traveling nurse.
Learn All You Can
Whatever direction your nursing mission takes, you will need to be flexible. Medical missionaries—both doctors and nurses—treat all kinds of illnesses and injuries. This is especially true for traveling nurses.
As a traveling nurse, you will be moving from one clinic or hospital setting to another. Not only will the faces of your co-workers and patients change, but so will the specialties and skills you will need. So, it makes sense for you to learn all you can about as many kinds of nursing contexts as possible.
This will make you a more effective traveling nurse and a more effective missionary.
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