I'm an AZ nurse who is planning to relocate to CO next spring. We are planning to live in Longmont, and I've given myself a 30-40 mile radius as to what hospitals I'll look at. On a whim, I contacted a travel company to look into doing the traveler nurse thing. She was not able to give me exact salaries, but she said that I should expect to be paid $25-30/hour. I was shocked, as that seems so low! She said that CO is a "high demand" area, like HI, FL, and NY, and so hospitals know they don't have to pay the travelers as much as they would in other states that are harder to fill.

So I'm wondering what the hospitals in the area are paying their experienced nurses. I'm wondering if it may just make more financial sense to try to get a permanent job directly through a hospital, rather than go the travel nursing route.

TIA

Kerry

I've heard Colorado is pretty bad overall in terms of what they even pay their permanent nurses, however I'm not an RN yet, so I can't tell you for sure...but what I know is Denver Health is one of the top paying hospitals and they post their salaries online (I checked out an ER RN posting and it said: Salary: (Min, Mid, Max) $24.91, $32.39, $39.86). My guess is with experience, you'd probably be making in the 30's no matter where you go, depending on the level and shift of course. You might try calling HR departments anonymously to see if they can give you a range for experienced nurses, I bet they'd give you a better idea!

Good luck!

Travel contracts in northern CO (and surrounding areas) are few and far between unless, perhaps , you are in a highly specialized area. Not so sure there are alot of permanent positions either in the towns that you listed.....I would make sure in getting secure employment before making the move.

I'm in L&D/OB. I've been watching the job openings at the hospitals in the area, and there always seems like there are a few available. Thank you for the suggestion, though - I'll definitely keep it in mind.