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Cruise Ship Nurses Mix with People from All Over the Globe

What it takes to Get on Board an Ocean Liner

Unlike other forms of travel nursing, cruise ship jobs are hot commodities and nursing personnel are culled from the most highly trained. Cruise ship medical staffs are self-contained, self-sufficient crews of personnel. They handle everything from migraine headaches to seasickness, heart attacks and other life threatening emergencies. In some cases guests/patients may need to be stabilized before emergency transit can be arranged or between ports of call.

Nursing Skills Needed in the Middle of the Ocean

Emergency and trauma, critical and acute care nurses, as well as advanced Nurse Practitioners, are the most sought after for cruise nursing positions. These specialties prepare staff to manage all types of medical conditions the kinds of which could crop up at any time on the high seas. Also emergency and critical care nurses already have certifications in Basic Life Support, Advanced Cardiac Life Support, and Pediatric Advanced Life Support, all typically required out in the middle of the ocean.

Other job requirements include independence and the ability to think for oneself in an emergency. Some cruise nurses report that you don’t always have a doctor by your side making decisions; nursing personnel must be confident in their skills in the event of a medical emergency where no one else is around. And speaking of no one else around, nurses must become familiar with technical clinic skills that lab technicians and radiology specialists would traditionally handle. That backbone staff is not available on cruises.

Ethnic Background and Language Skills Benefit Cruise Nurses

Outside the requirements of medical specialty, cruise nurses from minority backgrounds and with bilingual and multilingual skills may also have job advantages. The potential patient population is diverse; all cultural backgrounds are represented. It makes good customer service sense to provide a well-rounded and diverse medical staff, as well, in order to make all patients and guests comfortable.

Given the fact that crew and ship guests come from far-flung corners of the Earth, it’s no wonder that nurses and other on board medical personnel must be sensitive to the beliefs and foreign cultures of people from all over the world, even people whose healthcare is distinctly different from Western medicine. Nurses with experience treating a cross section of patients again have a leg up in this field.

Cruise Ship Nurses Forego Big Money for Cool Jobs

Nurses that work on cruise lines automatically have rooms and meals. They work shifts and have time off like their land-based counterparts. They go portside and enjoy all the local activities and adventures they can manage. These jobs are so sweet that cruise lines can afford to pay less. If you understand how travel nursing works then you can see how this type of popular patient care setting could come in at the bottom of the cash rung for nursing jobs. Nurses on cruise lines don’t do it for the money; it’s fun, challenging, and takes you to faraway places other jobs just cannot.