Contracts in Midwest

Getting onboard with several agencies is a great way to check fair market rates for your specialty and experience in a given location. Unless you are in a hot specialty, and it sounds like you are not, trying to get California rates in the Midwest will be an exercise in futility. Travel!

There are around 400 agencies, with perhaps only 20 being huge or good sized. So your odds are good to find some with random calls. Unless the agency is a publicly traded company, all such information on size is proprietary and they are not going to tell you directly. There is a simple workaround to find out though, most will tell you how many people work in their office (assuming a single location). Multiply that number by 10 and you will have a decent idea how many travelers they have. Now you have some point of reference to compare agencies.

I don't have much information on specific recommended small agencies but I'll throw out two names to get you started. Medical Staffing Solutions in WI (MSSI) has a great reputation and doesn't usually have assignments that pay less than $40 plus housing, including some in the Midwest. They perhaps are growing rapidly so I don't know how big they are currently, but certainly below 100 travelers I think. Valley Health in Sacramento CA is another agency I admire. Never worked for them but I know the owner. I stopped by their office last year and it looked like perhaps 20 office staffers, so perhaps 200 travelers on assignment. That is still fairly small. They can also help you with a CA license and are located just a few blocks from the BON (which is why I stopped by the agency for fun). I believe their focus is CA but they are certainly a national agency.

Nothing else really comes to mind for smaller agency brands. 15 years ago, I could have told you of 10, but things change yearly as agencies that do good business expand or merge. Do remember that the brand is a much less important factor in travel success than your relationship with your recruiter.

Thanks Ned... I do ER nursing so I feel like it should be a fairly good paying speciality, probably not at well as OR and labor and delivery:).

ED is bread and butter. Nothing special for pay, except you probably have access to more location options than any other specialty. But exercise that awesome range of choices and get out of the Midwest.