Travel Nursing: Celebrating the Holidays Away from Home

Thanksgiving is fast approaching and many travel nurses won’t be able to join their family on turkey day. Being a travel nurse on Thanksgiving, or any holiday really, can be a challenge. The loneliness that one normally feels on a regular day somehow gets magnified on holidays if you’re not surrounded by family and loved ones.

The worst thing you can do is to nurture this maudlin feeling. Holidays are supposed to be about celebration and having a great time. Just because you’re on a travel assignment or maybe even working on Thanksgiving doesn’t mean you can’t have some fun.

Here are a few of suggestions you can do to make the upcoming holiday something worth celebrating.

Prepare your very own Thanksgiving dinner.

Chances are, you’re not the only one at work who is away from family. Even if you’re the only travel nurse working at a facility, surely some of your co-workers are single people whose families are out of state.  Instead of waiting to get invited to someone else’s Thanksgiving dinner, why not arrange for one yourself? Use the holiday as an opportunity to bond with your new co-workers and form friendships.

Go on a mini-vacation.

This really depends on your schedule. If you don’t have to report for duty for a couple of days, you might want to go out of town and explore. Make sure that you look out for holiday deals at bed-and-breakfasts.

Make side dishes to share.

If you’re on duty Thursday, there’s no reason to pout. Travel nurses know that working some holidays is what the job calls for. So instead of moping about it, change your energy from negative to positive by getting excited about work. One way to do this is to cook side dishes that you can share with your fellow nurses and patients. The holiday shift doesn’t have to be a bad thing.

Watch a movie marathon or just chill out at home.

Finally, when all else fails, if you’re not feeling all that sociable and you don’t have to work on Thanksgiving, then take advantage of your down time and watch classic films on Blu-ray in your jammies. Instead of pouting about being alone on Thanksgiving, the time to reflect on all the things you got in the last year that you should be thankful for and you’ll feel a lot better about yourself.