Confused

If you are going to do per diem only, that is just like taking a staff position - similar open-ended job. You need a contract with an end date to be able to keep your existing tax home (it shifts otherwise) and to be able to deduct expenses. I would not recommend doing per diem instead of travel assignments - lots of issues. Doing per diem in addition to a travel assignment at the same time is OK.

"The options are few" If that is how you meant to write that, why are there few options? Your experience? If you are not happy with your choices, talk to some more agencies.

Yes, my experience is limited to a little over a year. This position is strictly per diem for three months but apparantly there's enough work to get overtime. I've been working with five companies for about a month and this is the first one with an actual offer. My thought is after this first travel assignment it will be easier to get an assignment.

What makes per diem hard? It seems to me that it would be like a float pool. But i would be traveling to another state to do it. It's set up like a travel job with a contract and housing.

I didn't say per diem was hard, I said there were issues versus regular travel. If you have a contract with an end date, your tax home is safe and the housing will be tax free (assuming you have a tax home) so that removes several issues. Even if your shifts are not guaranteed, hopefully there is enough work to keep you busy.

With only a year of experience, you may be setting yourself up for failure. If you should get terminated (it happens fairly often for temp staff and you are increasing the odds with multiple facilities and units), you may find it very challenging to find another job of any kind. Just a word of warning. Everything could go smashingly, but travel assignments may still be hard to find after one year of staff and three months of per diem. If you do this and things go well, you might want to stick with Parallon and HCA for a year.

A final word of warning, Texas is tough, and HCAs are very tough. It would be almost the last place I would recommend for someone with your experience unless your staff job is at a for-profit hospital. I would recommend the travel assignments and other agencies first, even if they pay less. You are much more likely to have a good outcome and enjoy it. One more word to the wise, if you work for Parallon, you may not be able to work for any other agency at HCA hospitals (which I think of as a good thing, but you may not).