If travel nursing has been in the back of your mind for a while now, then 2016 is your year.

Opportunities for nursing will continue to expand over the next decade, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and they are anticipating an increase of around 19 percent by the year 2022. This means that the nursing shortage will likely continue in many areas of the country. Filling those slots with travel nurses is a win-win solution for hospitals and nurses.

Consider more reasons you should make travel nursing one of your goals for 2016.

You Want to Pay Off Loans

There is no question that nurses often have student loans they’re working towards paying off. Taking one or multiple travel nursing jobs can create a large influx of money that can be directly applied to your student (or other) loans.

You Want to Travel This Year

What better way to see the country from shore to shore than by taking travel assignments. As a travel nurse, you have the chance to work in and experience new cities while you earn a top wage doing the thing that you love.

It is more than a change of pace; it is an adventure – one that you wouldn’t have time for as permanent staff at your local hospital or clinic. While on assignment, you spend your off hours doing the tourist thing in the host city. When the assignment is over, you move on to the next destination of your choosing.

You Want More Experience

If you are feeling stuck in your career, then working as a travel nurse allows you to get new experiences on the job. Gain clinical hours in departments that are unavailable to you at your current facility. You also get to learn procedures that you never see at home. For added skill sets and more clinical experience, it is time to travel.

You Want to Specialize in Something

Maybe you are looking to specialize in a specific field, but you are not sure what? As a travel nurse, you can spend 13 weeks working in OB and the next 13 weeks in the ER. Keep rotating around until you find your niche. You can continue taking working assignments in that field as you study to get the certification to advance to a permanent position.

Make Friends in All the Right Places

Travel assignments take you to some of the top facilities in the country. While working there, you get to know new people. That type of networking opportunity is not available to nurses in fixed job positions. As you stack up new contacts, you are making friends and opening doors along the way.

You are also showing your skills to people at facilities that you may someday want to call home. The nurse you worked with at your last job may be in charge of hiring sometime in the next 10 years. That would be a good friend to have when you want to put down roots in that city.

No matter where you are in your career, travel nursing offers a distinctive opportunity to grow, so why wait another year? Start your life as a travel nurse in 2016.