Any experienced travel nurses to Hawaii?

[lovescape44]

Hi! I am seeking advice from experienced travel nurses going to Hawaii.

I have an active license in California with 3 years of experience in med surg. I would like to pick up a travel assignment particularly in Oahu. This is my first time going through this experience so I need some guidance. I gave a call to a rep at at a travel agency today and this is what they told me-- I do NOT need an active Hawaii license. Instead after I get interviewed and i accept the job assignment for 13 weeks, I can go to hawaii and obtain a permit or some sort in a 1 day process.

now from my own research, i'm kinda confused by this process. My understanding is that I have to apply through the Hawaii board of nursing, and also have a verification of license by my own state of california. which both process may take months.

so if any of you have done hawaii assignments, did you obtain a license first on your own? and then went ahead and apply?

what is a good considerable rate for Honolulu during this time? they are offering $1500-1700/ week after tax compensation, even will have multiple bonuses. from reading other threads, people are getting offered $28 per hour. why is there such a big difference?

thanks in advance!

[NedRN]

Aloha!

To receive your permanent license, you will need to get your license verified, an expensive and slow process from California. But to get a temp, you just need a copy of your current license and a signed form from your assignment hospital. It will take you longer if you try to get a license before landing the assignment.

Compensation for travel assignments include hourly pay, housing, per diem, travel pay, license reimbursement, and may include car rental and bonuses. When all the compensation is added up, it could/should total between $1,500 and $2,000. But there are a dozen ways to describe the compensation, possibly even describing it as the gross amount you would have had to make if it was fully taxed (like a staff nurse total check before taxes). None of the descriptions will be completely satisfying to you probably, as you have to pay for housing, transportation, high food cost in Hawaii, so your bankable amount if any will be much lower and it will be difficult to compare to other travel assignments.

Two thoughts: one, don't worry about the money too much. You are not going to Hawaii to earn a lot of money, right? If you were, forget about it! You do it for the experience, in fact that is the primary reason to be a travel nurse anywhere full stop. Second, if you want to do some compensation analysis for Hawaii between different agencies, get full quotes and plug the numbers into PanTravelers calculator. Then you will at least have all quotes displayed on a level playing field and then you can apply your own preferred analysis on top of those standardized numbers.

[lovescape44]

So helpful!!! Thank you!!!!