A travel nurse is an RN who has opted for a niche in the profession that provides short-term assignments at health facilities or institutions that are in acute need of additional staff. These assignments typically are between ninety days and a year; occasionally a very brief, stand-in assignment of one or two months may come along.
Part of the profession in the understanding that the nurse will be expected to do what’s described: travel. Work in locations far from home and stay there until the assignment has run its course. Travel nurses have some choice in the matter; they are always in a position to refuse an assignment in a location that, for one reason or another, is unappealing.
A travel nurse must be relatively unencumbered by family ties and hometown obligations. Further, the job is only going to work well for someone who enjoys settling into a new area for a period of time, long enough to befriend some people but not long enough to drop deep roots, and then depart.
Sources of Travel Nurse Employment
Most travel nurses work for placement agencies. The agency is a source of placement opportunities and since they are in the business, a placement agency is going to know of many more opportunities than can be found in the local newspaper. A travel nurse agency will negotiate the contract with the health provider. In some cases the travel nurse is paid by the agency; in others, directly by the place of employment.
Many agencies provide health insurance to their nurses while they are on assignment. Often these packages include dental and vision. Some agencies say they will negotiate, and others simply promise onsite housing during the assignment. They make it as easy as possible for a travel nurse to walk into an assignment that feels like permanent employment in a familiar place. Furnished housing, health insurance and a job to report to, all handed to the nurse in contractual form.
Travel Nurse Agencies and Employers
The healthcare institutions contracting for these services are paying a premium and some of that fee is going to the agency. Accordingly the salary going to the travel nurse will be towards the high end, but not over the top. Balancing this factor is the housing and insurance supplied during the assignment. If a travel nurse can find a way to reduce housing costs at home while away from home, and figure out an insurance plan that fills the gaps between assignments, the total package for the travel assignment is high pay indeed.
Some veteran travel nurses develop, over time, their own relationships with healthcare providers that need spot relief on a periodic basis. With enough of those connections, a travel nurse can do his or her own booking. Some nurses also find jobs and the locations sufficiently to their liking that they take a permanent position and leave their traveling days behind.
