5 Signs that a Travel Nurse Needs a Vacation

The nursing profession is challenging both mentally and physically. You must take time off and take care of yourself too. One of the wonderful things about traveling is your ability have more choices such as when you are going to take vacation. You are your own boss practically. You decide where you are going to work and when. In other words, you have much more autonomy.

If you are exhibiting more than one of the following symptoms, you may have vacationitis and need some time off:

1. You are loosing patience with your patient’s

If your attitude has changed from seeing what you can do for your patient to make them more comfortable to thoughts like “gee….what do they want now.” You may need a vacation. These things make such a difference to a person who isn’t feeling well and who feels completely vulnerable in your care. Healthcare demands the most of us.

2. You are daydreaming almost all the time about being somewhere else.

I know one time, I was working too much and I began to notice myself drifting off in these daydreams a lot of beautiful outdoor scenes. At first I didn’t understand why this was happening and then I realized…..oh…I need a vacation. If your body doesn’t go on vacation, your mind might take over and go on vacation without you. That’s pretty scary.

3. Difficulty focusing

All that daydreaming can make it difficult to focus on your work. Sometimes, when you are getting burnt out, you may feel lackadaisical. You might not remember simple things that you would have remembered before. It’s that mind on vacation thing.

4. You find yourself looking at the clock all day

When you are feeling lackadaisical, you tend to look at the clock more often. Instead of looking at the clock to make sure you give someone their next medication on time, you are counting the hours until your shift ends. This is a good sign that you are not enjoying your work anymore and that you just need a little time to recharge.

5. Bad Attitude

Finally, you are now walking around with a bad attitude. You may find yourself complaining more about what is going on at the work place. When you were more rested and taking care of yourself, you may have taken those things in stride, but now you are going to kill someone over it. You want to report this person and that person. You may even be affecting other people with your attitude and not even know it. This is when your mind and your body are going on vacation without you.