Working as a travel nurse can be an incredibly fulfilling career. Not only does it allow you to help bridge the gap in the medical field where nurses are in high demand, but it also offers you the opportunity to try out new cities, meet new people, and experience different hospital settings.
However, when you’re always on the go, jumping from one job to the next, it can be helpful to have something in your life that is more stable. For travel nurses, this stability can come in the form of being a content creator.
The Benefits of Becoming a Content Creator
As a nurse, you have a wealth of valuable educational knowledge. By sharing that knowledge in content creation, you can build a passive income for a little more stability as you travel. It can also help you build your personal brand, which is beneficial when you’re trying to establish a professional reputation that helps you land jobs. Your job itself may also be intriguing to the public, as not that many people may interact with travel nurses daily. Therefore, there’s a strong possibility you’ll build a large following as long as you dedicate more time to it.
That said, being a remote blogger or writer is not easy, especially for traveling nurses. There are a lot of things you’ll need to consider to set yourself up for success. However, once you get the hang of it, being both an educational content creator and a travel nurse can be even more fulfilling.
In this piece, we’ll offer valuable insights and tips on how to turn content creation into a successful side hustle as a traveling nurse.
Tip #1: Make Sure You Have the Right Tools
First things first, if you’re going to be creating content on the go, you’re going to need the right digital setup to make that happen. The most important thing is setting yourself up with reliable internet, which can be a little more complicated when creating content on the go, but it’s not impossible. The key is investing in a good data plan with your mobile phone, which can provide you with a hotspot no matter where you are.
Mobile hotspots provide you with access to the internet when you don’t have a modem nearby. Instead of connecting to a Wi-Fi network, you simply use the cellular data on your phone as an entry point. The exact hotspot plan may vary depending on your mobile carrier, but Verizon, for example, offers a variety of options, including unlimited hotspot plans, prepaid plans, connected device plans, and more.
Additionally, you should have a reliable laptop and a nice pair of noise-canceling headphones. With these items, you’ll be able to focus without getting distracted by your surroundings as you travel. A variety of content creation tools and platforms can also help you stay organized and productive, such as Google Docs, Trello, Canva, Semrush, and Grammarly.
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Tip #2: Determine Your Niche
When it comes to what you want to write about, choose engaging and informative topics, as this provides the most value to readers. However, it also helps to establish a niche that sets you apart from all the other health freelancers.
For example, are there areas of medical practice you’re more familiar with, such as women’s health, diabetes, or nutrition? If so, focus on what you know best. Otherwise, look into health reporting as it achieves a similar goal, or publishing educational health infographics.
You can also use your publications as more of a mental journal that documents your journal as a travel nurse. More people may understand your struggles or build empathy for nurses. This may be especially needed as more people interact with nurses in their daily lives.
Don’t feel like you need to limit yourself to these options, either. However, when first starting, establish a niche and branch out from there by trying other types of health content.
Tip #3: Create a Variety of Content
Aside from your chosen topic, there’s also a wide range of content mediums that you can use. Again, when first learning how to be a content creator, focus on one or two things so as not to overwhelm yourself. Once you get the hang of it, creating a range of content can help you expand your reach and have more success.
There are so many different kinds of content that will build a following, which can include:
- Blog posts and articles
- Podcasts
- Videos
- Infographics
- Email content
- Social media content
- E-books
- Health News reports
A blog is a good first step if you don’t know where to start. Many successful content writers start by creating a blog, so there are a lot of great examples out there for you to use for inspiration as a jumping-off point.
Tip #4: Social Media is Your Friend
Social media is the bread and butter of content creation these days. Even if you want to post blog content, you still need a way to promote your content so people will actually find it. Thus, it’s crucial that you have a social media presence as a travel nurse.
Social media not only offers you a platform to market your content, but it is also the best way to engage with your followers and keep them interested. In between making educational content posts, you can also use social media to simply show your followers what your life is like as a travel nurse.
Today, the most engaging content is often authentic. It gives viewers an inside peek into your life. This is not to say you need to share every personal detail, but getting at least a little personal with your posts can help your followers connect with you more and feel more invested.
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Tip #5: Keep Legal Concerns in Mind
It’s also important to note that as a healthcare professional, there are some legal issues that could come up if you aren’t careful. While your followers might enjoy getting a behind-the-scenes view of your world and what you do, it’s vital that you keep your patients’ privacy in mind.
HIPAA guidelines are designed to protect patients, and if you violate these guidelines with your social media posts, you could get yourself into some trouble. Stories like this are unfortunately too common. Even as recently as 2022, four labor and delivery nurses were fired for posting a disrespectful video. In any post, prioritize respect and care. Put yourself in the shoes of your patients if they ever ran across your content.
However, even if you do maintain respect and care, you may run into trouble. So before you publish anything, just ensure you aren’t undermining anyone’s trust or confidentiality.
Tip #6: Getting Started in Content Creation
The hardest step in becoming an online creator is actually starting. As daunting as it may feel, it simply starts with creating an account. Make a plan for your publishing schedule. Draft a first post. This ultimately depends on the topics you intend to publish. As a suggestion, think about how you first became interested in travel nursing. You’ll certainly have experience in the actual travel aspect of your job, which many people will be interested in. By seeing so many places and building on your experiences, there will be plenty of content that quickly translates into entertainment in a digital format.
You can also build an advice column about travel nursing or what a “day in your life” looks like for a travel nurse. People who may interested in changing careers or simply have curiosity for your life will be sure to follow along.
You can also discuss more technical aspects of your job such as how you maintain and standardize the patient experience — something that is vastly important as your assist patients from varying cultures, locations, and backgrounds that many travel nurses prioritize.
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Wrapping Up
You likely became a nurse because you enjoy helping people, so don’t forget about that when you dive into the creation process. If it feels like you are writing or posting just to get more money, you will lose that sense of enjoyment and your readers will likely notice as well. Your ultimate goal should be to help and inform others so they can live their best lives, your readers are not just a means to an end.
