The Future of Travel Nursing: Trends and Predictions (2025)

Contracting travel nurses is no longer merely a strategy for surviving an acute staffing crisis, as it was decades ago. Incorporating travel nurses is now considered a standard, year-round approach to safe staffing, and the future of travel nursing promises to be influenced by the same demographic shifts affecting many other segments of the healthcare workforce. Travelers help healthcare facilities fill gaps due to chronic staffing shortages and handle predictable, seasonal surges in demand.

Unprecedented demand for healthcare workers during the pandemic created a spike in the use of travelers, but — despite a post-pandemic decline — they’re here to stay. In this look at future trends in travel nursing, we’ll examine healthcare staffing trends and give you insights into how travelers may fit into your staffing strategy over the next 5 to 10 years.

Snapshot of Travel Nursing’s Past

Travel nursing, defined as contracted nurses taking on temporary assignments in other areas, can be traced back to New Orleans in 1978, when nurses relocated to fill a Mardi Gras season staffing crisis. The strategy gained prevalence during the nationwide nursing shortage of the 1980s, as travel nursing agencies connected nurses with hospitals and clinics in dire need of clinicians.

In the 1990s travel nurses were often utilized to cover for nurses on maternity leave, giving rise to the 13-week assignment (a standard duration for maternity leave). By the early 2000s over half of the hospitals in the U.S. were using travel nurses, not only as a way to get through a crisis or acute staffing need, but as a permanent piece of the staffing puzzle.

Is Travel Nursing Going Away?

Travel nursing reached a peak in the pandemic years, due to an unprecedented exodus of 1.6 million healthcare workers from the workforce between February and April of 2020. With so many clinicians unavailable, facilities had to rely heavily on travel nurses and per diem staff to meet patient demands. For example, data from the American Hospital Association shows that while travel nurses accounted for about 5% of total nurse labor expenses pre-pandemic, this reached 39% by 2022.

The post-pandemic years saw a steep decline in the use of travel nurses and a decrease in average compensation per assignment, raising the question, Is travel nursing going away?

The short answer is no. The market is stabilizing, but travel nursing remains crucial to the healthcare system. Let’s look at the policies, demographics, and industry trends that predict a continued demand for travel nurses in the U.S.

3 Key Trends Shaping the Future of Travel Nursing: 2025 and Beyond

Effective, sustainable nurse staffing requires an alignment of resources with patient needs to provide safe and productive patient care. It often involves employing a mix of per diem, full time, and part time employees. As resources that facility leaders call on to meet patient needs, travel nurses remain crucial to safe staffing. The future of travel nursing at your facility may be influenced by the following three trends:

1. Increased Focus on Safe Staffing Ratios

A growing body of research consistently shows that adequate staffing levels are closely linked to positive patient outcomes. California’s nurse-patient ratio law has been linked to decreased hospital acquired infections (HAIs), reduced readmission rates, and improved patient satisfaction scores.

While Massachusetts and Oregon also passed nurse-patient ratio laws, other states (such as Nevada, New York, and Ohio) require facilities to have staffing committees. More states are considering laws and regulations to promote safe staffing ratios.

Prediction: The increased focus on safe staffing (and potentially additional legislative activity) will lead to sustained travel nurse demand as facility leaders work to stay compliant and provide optimal patient care.

2. Rising Demands for Healthcare

The U.S. population is aging, due in part to a longer life expectancy, resulting in increasing demands for healthcare. The fastest growing segment of the population consists of individuals who are 85 and older. Older adults account for a disproportionately large share of healthcare utilization due to the accumulation of chronic conditions, increased rates of comorbidities, and functional limitations.

This trend will continue, and 2030 will mark the year that all baby boomers are over age 65, meaning that 1 out of every 5 Americans is an older adult. By 2034 there will be more older adults than children in the U.S. for the first time in history.

Prediction: As the aging population puts increasing demands on the healthcare system and intensifies the nationwide nursing shortage, the future of travel nursing will include increased opportunity and compensation for travel nurses who can help facilities meet those needs.

3. Generational Shift in the Nursing Workforce

As baby boomers retire, millennials and Gen Z nurses make up a larger portion of the nursing workforce. This trend means that facility leaders and managers can expect some staff to have distinctly different values and priorities than nurses from older generations. Millennial and Gen Z nurses may see flexibility as a nonnegotiable, and choose work environments based on lifestyle preferences rather than monetary compensation.

These nurses may not sign up for permanent positions, but instead favor per diem or travel nurse assignments that allow them to work when and where they want. Their preference for flexible or remote work decreases the number of permanent and full time staff and increases the demand for travel nurses.

Prediction: Leading up to 2030, facility managers can expect to see a shift in the values of staff members. While millennial nurses may accept travel nurse assignments based on opportunities for learning and development, Gen Z nurses might make assignment decisions based on the perception of control over their future. More nurse positions may be filled with per diem and travel nurses.

Solve Your Staffing Needs With Qualified Nursing Professionals

The future of travel nursing will reflect changes in the healthcare industry, such as an increasing emphasis on safe staffing. Find the right nurse staffing solution for your facility so you can meet your staffing goals with ease and and continue to deliver high-quality patient care.