The big question that many travel nurses (and those in the nursing profession) are wondering is whether or not they need to be vaccinated. Vaccines have been an ongoing topic of conversation, especially with the COVID-19 vaccine. However, the answer falls into a gray area. While we can’t give a definitive “yes” or “no” to answer this question, we can help point you to resources that can. An Unbiased Conversation about Vaccines Please note that for this blog, we will put aside the question of vaccine safety and vaccine recommendations and instead focus on providing you with helpful resources and insight into vaccination requirements for travel nursing positions based on a survey we conducted with travel nursing agencies. Let’s dive in. Our Online Survey – What We Learned About Vaccine Requirements We took the time to reach out to several travel nursing agencies through an online survey in search of the answers to your burning questions about travel nursing, vaccine mandates and requirements, and nursing regulation. Here is what we found out. Our Survey Findings The main finding from our survey was that vaccine requirements vary on a number of levels. I know that’s not the ideal answer you are looking for, but unfortunately, that was the answer we received. Let’s Talk About All Vaccines, Not Just COVID-19 Before we unpack our survey findings further, we want to clarify that the data from our survey is not specific to the COVID-19 vaccination. Instead, our survey inquired, in general, about all vaccinations and where the requirements stem from. In our survey, we never specified that we were referring to particular vaccinations, vaccines, or specific infectious diseases. However, the COVID-19 vaccine and pandemic are hot topics in the media, which leads us to believe that most agencies filled out this survey with it at the forefront of their minds. However, we cannot say for sure. Some Travel Nursing Agencies Have Requirements for Vaccines According to our survey, 21% of travel nursing agencies have vaccine requirements for travelers. The remaining 79% do not. Some agencies, in this case, 21%, require all of the travel nurses they work with to be vaccinated for a number of diseases potentially including, but not limited to hepatitis, measles, mumps, and COVID-19 based on patient safety guidelines from the centers for disease control (a.k.a the CDC). On...