When we put the words “nurse” and “traveler” together, those in healthcare will immediately think of nurses who choose to take assignments in far-flung cities, towns, and states.

Nurses and other healthcare professionals who take travel assignments provide an invaluable service by helping staff hospitals (and a smattering of non-acute facilities) that need to strengthen their ranks.

However, the value of another kind of nurse traveler, the nurse world traveler, is also worthy of our consideration.

Unlocking Doors as a Nurse Traveler

St. Augustine once said, “The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.”

Nurses work with humans, and humans are complex creatures. When we consider that culture, language, food, religion, and other practices can make people seem even more complex when we’re trying to understand them, then travel is a key that can unlock many doors.

I recently traveled to Cyprus, Greece, and Turkey. While the people I met were, in essence, just like Americans in terms of the fact that they eat, drink, sleep, have sex, and do their best to avoid pain and experience pleasure, it was also apparent that the people I observed do things considerably differently than folks back home.

It’s instructive for healthcare professionals to serve patients of various cultural backgrounds. In doing so, we learn to adapt our approach, including our manner of communication. However, when treating a patient, we still hold the power in the dynamic.

But the shoe is on the other foot when we travel, and we must adapt. If people take a siesta in the afternoon and no restaurants serve dinner before 9 pm, we simply do what locals do. If there’s no such thing as ice for your drink, you accept that reality. And if, like in Turkey and Greece, street cats in the thousands are not only tolerated but also looked after and even revered by the people they live amongst, we observe, or even participate in, that way of being, and perhaps even learn something from experience.

Nurses generally like order and control, and being out of our comfort zone while traveling is precisely the opposite: it’s about letting go of control and giving in to how things are wherever we find ourselves.

Stranger in a Strange Land

When we remove ourselves from our comfort zone, we shed the barriers that keep us from experiencing life in some more challenging forms. Being out of our routine shakes us up and puts us just a little off balance.

Not being able to easily get exactly what we want when we want it changes the dynamics. While we can now (disturbingly) find Starbucks and McDonald’s almost everywhere, travel still allows us to avoid our usual habits and maybe go where locals prefer. Do you want a mocha latte instead of a traditional Turkish coffee? Who might you meet if you, as a foreigner, duck into a local cafe and simply order exactly what the man next to you orders?

Being away from our normal routines and unable to fulfill our usual habits can make us uncomfortable. Still, it also allows us to see ourselves with new eyes. And when we’re out of our comfort zone, we learn to relax, observe those around us, and see what makes other people tick.

Nurses treat patients when they’re out of their comfort zones. When a patient with a new cancer diagnosis begins treatment, they’ve entered a foreign land. The words healthcare professionals use can seem like a different language, and the loss of control and the inability to have things the way they usually are can be extremely disorienting.

Travel is like that, too: we don’t necessarily understand what people are trying to tell us, many things feel foreign, and we’re not exactly sure how to meet our needs. In essence, traveling gives us perspective on losing our moorings and being strangers in a strange land. Our patients do it every day, and travel is another way in which we can train ourselves to embrace being uncomfortable.

Finding Ourselves

The writer James Baldwin knew a thing or two about life. He has been quoted as saying, “I met a lot of people in Europe—I even encountered myself.”

Travel indeed allows us to get to know other cultures, but it ultimately provides a fascinating window into our psyche. When we dive into a new culture, we open ourselves up to fate and magic; what we learn about ourselves in that context is priceless.

Sure, being a traveling nurse and working in a strange hospital is a valuable experience, but other types of travel open our eyes and stretch us in different ways.

If Helen Keller was correct in saying, “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” We nurses can be adventurers who do all we can to learn about other people, cultures, and societies and, in the process, learn a great deal about ourselves. The value of traveling speaks for itself, and the well-traveled nurse is a richer human being for it.

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