Take Your Social Work Practice on the Road
Exploring the Emerging Field of Travel Social Work
By Heather Rose Artushin, MSW, LISW-CP
Travel social work has been gaining popularity in recent years.
A travel social worker operates in much the same way as a travel nurse – social workers assume short-term contracts, typically around 13 weeks in duration, in order to help solve an organization’s staffing crisis. Social workers are employed by a staffing agency, and work directly with a recruiter to locate assignments and arrange interviews for roles of interest. The agency also can assist travel social workers in getting to and from assignments, securing housing, a rental car, and even booking flights during the contractual period.
Agencies like Allied Travel Careers, AMN Healthcare, and TotalMed Staffing handle travel social work contracts, and most travel social workers collaborate with recruiters from multiple agencies to find the next opportunity that is the best fit for their interests. The Military Family Life Counseling program provides free, confidential counseling to service members and their families, and is an opportunity that travel social workers can get involved in through agencies like Magellan Federal, Leidos, and Zeiders Enterprises.
Most travel social work assignments take place in medical settings, such as outpatient clinics, mental health hospitals, acute care hospitals, long-term care hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and home health agencies. While less common, placements may also be available in non-medical settings, like schools, jails and prisons, and government entities. Contracts in non-medical settings may last longer—for example, a placement in a school setting may last the duration of the school year.
Social work students interested in pursuing travel social work in the future should consider specializing in medical social work, school social work, or a related field. At least two years of experience is required before pursuing a travel contract, and most positions require a license. While regular full-time employees might enjoy up to six weeks of training in a new role, a traveler may only get one or two days to orient themselves before being expected to fully step into their responsibilities. Understanding insurance, medical terminology, and other specific skills related to the assignment is crucial to success. There are times that travel social workers are let go if they are unable to work independently from the start.
While some social workers are experienced in working PRN (as needed) roles, most often in hospital settings, travel social work allows for professionals to assume local contracts, less than 50 miles away from your home address, or travel contracts, more than 50 miles away from home. “Travel social work took PRN work and made it broader so you can travel across the country, not just hopping from hospital to hospital in your area,” explained Makeesa Johnson, DSW, an experienced travel social worker.
Many social workers are enthusiastic when they first learn about travel social work. Tashara Robinson, LICSW, was working as an in-home family therapist and found herself going to the hospital regularly to visit clients in the midst of mental health crises. After obtaining a medical social work position in the emergency department, performing psychiatric and psychosocial assessments, Robinson met a travel social worker and was intrigued. “One day I decided that I wanted something new, which included relocating,” she said. “I initially decided to try travel social work as a means to an end, but ended up traveling for three years!”
For Johnson, when a colleague ventured into travel social work, she made plans to follow suit. “I was teaching at the time and couldn’t leave right away,” Johnson explained, “but I made a plan and eventually took my first assignment.” The conditions were right in Johnson’s personal life and career to transition to work on the road. “My daughter at the time had started law school, so I had finished that parenting stage and didn’t need to be home,” she said. “I had worked per diem for many years and was used to working a flexible schedule and adapting to whatever the placement needed. I think ultimately it was the possibility of adventure that drew me in.”
Benefits of Travel Social Work
According to Robinson, the benefits of travel social work are plentiful. The flexibility to work as much as you want, and take time off between contracts, is particularly appealing for social workers seeking a solution to compassion fatigue and burnout. “I took a three-month sabbatical between contracts, which is unheard of at a regular full-time job,” Robinson said.
In addition to taking control of your time, travel social work also boasts higher pay, as much as $2,000 – $3,000 per week, though this varies by assignment. Additional costs also may be covered by the agency, depending on the contract. “In general, the pay package includes your hourly rate and your non-taxed stipend, which is for housing and food,” explained Robinson. “You can also ask for parking, a rental car, flights to and from home, and other things to be included in your pay package.”
Johnson cites an increasing sense of pay transparency as one of the driving factors growing the field of travel social work today. Whereas comparing salaries and benefits may have been taboo in the past, many social workers are now opening up about how much money they make in an effort to increase accountability and fair wages in the field. “I think that the profession has changed, and people are starting to share information personally and on social media about how much money they make and what opportunities are out there,” Johnson said.
Travel social work also provides a unique opportunity to grow and develop in the field. Taking on new roles and responsibilities frequently offers on-the-job professional development. Working with different supervisors and colleagues can help travel social workers gain new perspectives and build a valuable network of friends and mentors all over the country.
The opportunity to travel to new places is one of the biggest draws for most travel social workers. “You have the ability to explore different parts of the country that you probably wouldn’t ever go to,” Robinson reflected. While 13 weeks is the standard commitment for travel contracts, a contract can often be extended in 13-week increments, up to 12 months, allowing for more time in preferred locations. After one calendar year of employment at one site, the IRS considers the social worker a regular employee, which has tax and benefit implications.
While Johnson traveled the world extensively prior to becoming a travel social worker, she discovered something special in the opportunity to live and work in a new region of the country. “I had a contract in Silicon Valley in California for six months, and really integrated myself into the community during that time,” she said. “If I stay around my hometown, I’m not seeing anything different, or understanding how other people live. I met people I never would have met in my area, gaining exposure to other groups and cultures. You see yourself grow.” The opportunity to explore your own identity in the context of new communities and cultural norms is a valuable personal and professional experience for the travel social worker.
Perhaps one of the most meaningful benefits of pursuing a career in travel social work is knowing that you are making a difference by meeting provider shortages in understaffed areas of the country. “I like to think of travel social work as a job whose function is to specifically fulfill staffing crises,” said Robinson. “You’re providing much-needed services to patients and clients. If you weren’t there, they may not be able to be assisted in a timely or effective manner.”
Travel Social Work Challenges
While the benefits of a career in travel social work are drawing more professionals to the field, there are some unique challenges of working on the road. Leaving home for an extended period of time may not be practical for families with children who attend school, or adults who play a role in caring for aging family members. Frequently starting over in a new place can pose its own set of challenges, from finding your way around a new city, to battling loneliness, to the discomfort of living out of a suitcase.
Travel social workers also may find themselves feeling ostracized from the rest of the team on assignment. Some full-time staff members might feel envious of the higher hourly rate being paid to travel social workers, or worry that their job security is being threatened. “There are few travelers who want to take anyone’s full-time job, we want to come and leave,” explainedJohnson. “You are not always made to feel a part of the team, because sometimes they don’t really want you there. You have to be okay with eating lunch by yourself, and not being invited to everything. I tell everyone, ‘I’m a guest in your house.’ If I socialize and connect, that’s good, but I don’t expect that.”
To combat loneliness and isolation in the field, Johnson encourages aspiring travel social workers to get connected to others working on the road through travel social work groups on Facebook. “Recently people started to connect on Facebook groups you can join,” she said. “Sometimes you’ll even end up meeting each other on assignment.”
The logistics of working with an agency as a contractual travel social worker can also pose unexpected difficulties. Work is not promised, and contracts can be canceled at any time, leaving social workers without job security. Social workers are responsible for obtaining licensure in the states they are assigned to work in, and must navigate the application process and fees. “Some travel agencies are inexperienced with social workers,” explained Robinson, “and are no help when it comes to applying for new licenses.” Most agencies will reimburse social workers for licensing fees related to a specific contract. If you happen to already hold a license in another state, the agency likely will not reimburse you for licensing or renewal fees.
Negotiating travel contracts is essential to success in the field of travel social work, but does not necessarily come naturally to new travelers. “Contracts are all about negotiations,” explained Johnson. “Travel is appealing to a lot of people, but many are not good at managing their contracts. What my first contract looked like, compared to what they look like now, are different. Negotiation skills are very valuable. There are some recruiters that are like used car salesmen—they’ll sell you a lemon, and you won’t know it until you’re 1,000 miles from home.”
While the higher hourly rate is an often-cited benefit of travel social work, thoughtful money management is key to making funds last between contracts. “If you don’t know how to manage your money, you’re not going to have any money,” Johnson said. “You can make $2,000-$3,000 a week, but there are some travel social workers who don’t have any money when they’re done because they’re in this great area and having fun going out. I know people who paid off debt with their earnings, bought houses, did great things with travel money, but that money can be a curse when you’re not used to getting that much money weekly and end up mismanaging it.”
In addition to the logistical challenges, travel social workers can be at increased risk for exhaustion and burnout. “You’re almost embarrassed to say it to the people who are working 12 months, but I’m tired,” shared Johnson. “The expectation is greater for travelers. We get higher caseloads, maybe the worst assignments, and we tend to be the ones that float around between departments, so it can be a lot of stress.”
Ethical Considerations
It is important for social workers to be transparent about their skillset and experience when pursuing a travel social work opportunity. Adequate prior training in the social work modality related to your travel contract (e.g., medical social work) is necessary prior to assuming a temporary position as a travel social worker. If a social worker is inexperienced, they may be unable to alleviate the placement’s staffing burden, requiring supervision or training that is beyond the scope of the placement’s resources, potentially increasing the burden on a system that is already experiencing a crisis.
While it is critical to become licensed in the state you will be working in as a travel social worker, it can take one month or more to go through the application process and receive a license in another state. Robinson recommends that social workers interested in travel apply for licenses in states that tend to have many travel social work opportunities, including California, Washington, and Massachusetts. “Doing so will allow you to be more marketable and start work a lot quicker since you won’t be waiting on the social work board to approve your license,” she explained. However, this leaves the burden for funding additional licenses on the social worker, which can be a costly out-of-pocket expense.
On a macro level, it is important for social workers to be aware of the systemic factors that play a role in the existing gaps of care that need to be filled by travel social workers. Inadequate compensation for full-time staff or disorganized leadership may contribute to staffing crises that warrant the support of a travel social worker. While hiring a travel social worker may be more costly in the short-term, in regard to a higher rate of pay and agency fees, employers are absolved of paying long-term costs like benefits, paid time off, or retirement investment contributions.
“It is a crisis because hospitals have to be staffed,” said Johnson. “The medical industry has no choice; they must have someone there to meet your needs when you get sick and have to go to the hospital. Even doctors are often travelers—there are many staff members in hospitals across the country that are contracted because there’s just not enough to go around. The goal is to never have long-term travelers rebuild a department.”
Ultimately, the increasing need for travel social workers prompts a call for widespread systemic reform, particularly in U.S. hospitals. Medical social workers, especially in acute care settings, often face severe burnout, inadequate compensation, and a need for stronger leadership and peer support. The lack of these resources has contributed to high turnover and an urgent need for social workers to quickly fill vacant positions across the country. Social workers can play a role in advocating for improved working conditions, compensation, and support in order to ameliorate the crisis occurring in our country’s medical system today.
Future Directions
In the near future, travel social workers hope the licensing process across state lines will become more streamlined for ease of meeting the needs of communities across the country. The Social Work Licensure Compact supports the mobility of licensed social workers through the development of a new interstate compact. A partnership between the Council of State Governments (CSG), the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB), with support from NASW, the compact will make travel social work easier in the future, allowing for multistate practice among member states and reducing the barriers to licensing portability. While the compact has been enacted in at least seven states and has reached activation status, multistate licenses are not yet being issued. NASW continues to advocate for the expansion of the Social Work Licensure Compact to support social workers in pursuing opportunities like travel social work, and filling provider shortages across the country (See p. 6 for more on the status of the licensure compact.)
While specific courses or certificates in travel social work may not be a consideration for the immediate future in terms of preparing travel social workers through educational opportunities, Johnson, who serves as an adjunct professor in New Jersey, believes the conversation must broaden about what opportunities are available to social work students. “We need to start talking about the vast amount of career options that are available for social workers,” she urged. “We’re not just social services or nonprofits—there are so many things you can do with a degree in social work.”
Through all of the benefits, challenges and complexities of a career in travel social work, the memories and skills gained along the way have made it worthwhile for Robinson. “I will always appreciate my experience as a travel social worker because it’s allowed me to travel to parts of the country that I would’ve never gone to,” she said. “Travel social work has allowed me to meet people that I probably would have never met. Every day I channel the skills I’ve developed by working in different settings in hospitals across the country, which positively influences my work and allows me to better serve the patients I work with. Travel social work has also given me some semblance of financial freedom, as I was able to pay off my car and travel the world. I’m not sure I would have been able to do these things if I was working at a regular, full-time job.”
For Johnson, it’s the personal and professional growth she’s gained that stands out most in reflecting upon her experiences as a travel social worker.
“I’ve learned that I can adapt very well, you can drop me in any situation and I can figure it out,” she said. “In the travel world we have a mantra: We say, ‘You can do anything for 13 weeks.’ It showed me where I’m at with my career and skillset, and I’m proud of it.” Johnson sees travel social work practice as “closing a circle” on her professional career. “This is the grande finale, the final bow, and it makes me proud to be a social worker and to have selected this field.”
Heather Rose Artushin, MSW, LISW-CP, is on a mission to make a difference, one word at a time. Learn more at heatherrosewriter.com.