Currently a Travel Nurse - feel free to ask me anything about it.

Specialties Travel

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I am a PICU travel nurse, with many friends who also do travel nursing inside and outside of my specialty. ? here to answer any questions I can about being a travel nurse.

Specializes in PICU, CTICU.
On 12/7/2020 at 1:16 PM, NedRN said:

Aya, formerly Access Nurses, has a historically bad reputation with travelers (but any agency has their fans). Fastaff I'd only recommend to experienced travelers ready for difficult assignments. Indeed, an experienced traveler is likely to do OK with any agency so the brand is less important that the specific assignment.

What is important for a first time traveler is a successful first assignment. This involves finding a recruiter who shares that goal and is interested in helping you become a successful long term traveler. You need a traveler friendly facility and an assignment well within your current clinical abilities. There are plenty of other issues you will face on a new assignment, such as new to you charting software, new workplace culture and policies and procedures, likely different patient census and local culture, and workflow.

You are most like interested in Aya due to marketing, and Fastaff because of reputation for good pay. In fact, good pay for an inexperienced traveler is a huge red flag. Chase money later.

Personally, I think large agencies are a good place to start, such as American Mobile or Cross Country (yes, Aya now fits that category but I'd still suggest avoiding). They have a wealth of assignments and can easily find a good fit for you. But if you don't click with, or think you can trust your recruiter, move on! Trust and good communication are key to a good business relationship with a recruiter.

As long as you're 50 miles away from that address you should be fine. However, I would really try to avoid doing a contract in a city where you own a property because that could be confusing specially if you live there and will be reporting that in your taxes as well. If you have any questions I recommend you speak to anyone from traveltax.com it's a tax preparer who specializes on travel nurses taxes and other international travelers they can answer it the best. I use them for my taxes. But in my opinion I would think it may cause you trouble to have a property that you own in the same city that you're doing travel nursing. 

7 hours ago, Bear26 said:

I do have a temp address with another travel nurse where we have a rental agreement and I pay her rent. I’m just trying to not get audited by the IRS as I am currently receiving the stipend pay. Any help on the matter would be greatly appreciated :)

So it sounds from your description that you are doing things right. Generally a 3 hour round trip does not lend itself well to a daily commute so remote housing is required (a key aspect of determining if you have a valid tax home). Things do get tricky though because if you say work 3 stacked shifts and go home for four days, you probably should claim those 4 days of per diem as taxable income. A free consult with an expert such as TravelTax will clarify your position.

Distance is not a primary factor, you could be 40 miles away and required to be on call at hospital within 30 minutes of being called in. That would require local housing. Lots of different circumstances. While a number of tax professionals not familiar with our industry may cite a "50 mile rule" (which appears in IRS regulations only in regard to the deductibility of moving expenses), but it won't hold up in an audit. Complete and long running myth, often cited by recruiters unfortunately for those travelers who are audited (sometimes caught because their agency is audited).

None of this really matters much for audit risk, doing things correctly only matter if you actually get audited, usually for another reason. Still worth doing things right as getting audited and having to pay back taxes, interest, and penalties is a life changing event. Not worth even the minimal risk of cheating.

 

Hi, where would you find your housing? Thank you!

Specializes in PICU, CTICU.

Furnished finder or airbnb or short term rental apartments unfurnished. And when I got an unfurnished place I would just throw cheap furniture from ikea and stuff to save money. I bought a small sofa bed from ikea and a huge thick topper from Amazon prime and boom nice little bed. And basic stuff for kitchen and a small table from ikea LOL 

1 Votes

@TRAVEL.RN,

Is there a set dollar percentage that the recruiter can take from contracts offered by a hospital?  I ask this because I recently saw the exact same job at two different agencies, and one agency offered $420 more weekly salary. The stipends were the same.

On a personal note, I was a traveler twice, pre-Covid rates, and I'm actually still paying off that debt. I stayed in cheap rentals, and spent less on food and gas. However, I was still paying rent in my home state. 

I met lots of wonderful nurses and other staff on those travel opportunities though!

Specializes in PICU, CTICU.

what I've noticed is that usually the companies with direct contract with the facilities/ hospital could either pay more or less. I personally will pick whoever pays more and can give me guarantee pay /hours meaning that if you get a shift canceled you still get paid. some agencies such as AMN will have a minimum requirement of canceled hours before they start paying all your canceled shifts. for example with AMN I needed to be canceled a total of 36 hours without pay before they would start paying my canceled shifts. so after I got a total of 36 hrs canceled by facility without pay then they started paying all my canceled shifts after that. when it comes from the recruiter im not sure how companies go about their commission or what they get from each contract. I was with a friend at the same facility same unit same hours per week contract same contract length and she made like 600/week more than me and had guaranteed hours from the first shift that she was canceled. she had a different agency then me at he same hospital. my agency was the direct contract her agency was a subcontract agency meaning her agency had to go through mins in order to get the contract for her. so its a very confusing system where after 3 years of traveling I still don't know how they run things between agencies and sister companies is a real hot mess to follow and try to figure it out. therefore whichever company pays me the most and gives me the best benefits will win my signature. my favorite agency to travel with so far has been flexcare. my least favorite even tho they are a monster agency in the industry AMN. hopefully this helped in anything LOL 

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note: 36 hrs within your entire contract whatever that is 13 weeks 4 weeks etc.

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9 hours ago, grad2012RN said:

@TRAVEL.RN,

Is there a set dollar percentage that the recruiter can take from contracts offered by a hospital?  I ask this because I recently saw the exact same job at two different agencies, and one agency offered $420 more weekly salary. The stipends were the same.

The agency yes: about 18-40% typically - pre-covid industry average was 24%. But there can be dramatic bill rate differences between agencies which more likely accounts for such an experience. Between regular bill rates of say $70 an hour and rapid response (or crisis) rate of $130.

Specializes in Med-Surg Nursing.

I'm so excited to see this! I am a BSN, RN with almost 15 years of experience in med-surg, step-down and formal leadership roles. I recently came back to the bedside and am loving it and would love to travel as a way to increase my income and travel the country. However, I plan to do it with my husband and 70 pound black lab. Is it possible? What are the best Agencies for new Travel RNs? Of note, most of my time as a Clinical RN, has been on a Float Team. Thanks in advance! 

Specializes in PICU, CTICU.
7 hours ago, NurseKristen82 said:

I'm so excited to see this! I am a BSN, RN with almost 15 years of experience in med-surg, step-down and formal leadership roles. I recently came back to the bedside and am loving it and would love to travel as a way to increase my income and travel the country. However, I plan to do it with my husband and 70 pound black lab. Is it possible? What are the best Agencies for new Travel RNs? Of note, most of my time as a Clinical RN, has been on a Float Team. Thanks in advance! 

hi! so excited for you! I am not going to lie it is a challenge to find short term places such as Airbnb, furnished finder and so on with a dog. I traveled almost 3 years with my dog and my husband and it was alway a bit of a challenge. we would just give up other things that we could live without to book a place with him. I had a 16 lbs shih tzu. if your husband is a travel nurse as well and you guys travel together then its more than perfect because you will find many short term places that will allow your dog it will usually just be a bit more expensive. my technique with traveling was to go to big cities that had many hospitals with my specialty and like that I would have more chances of getting another contract if I got canceled for whatever reason low census ect. then I would find apartment buildings that would offer 3-12 months lease and attempt to lease with them. also I would have it as a rule of thumb to book an airbnb or a hotel until my orientation week is over. just to make sure the contract was secure. sometimes you can start at a contract and just by looking at the census of the unit you feel like unless they float you everywhere else your contract will be canceled. needles to say my favorite company so far has been Flexcare medical Staffing. I also did AMN but was not happy with their pay or the way they handle things. I used AMN for my first year and I had everything go wrong as soon as I saw the chance I left them. when looking for an agency make multiple accounts with them ( all are free), once connected to a recruiter because you liked the pay, city and so forth of a position, ask for the details on the contract. I would not give them a SSN just a resume at most and make sure you get it in writing(email/text) that you do not wish to be submitted to so and so position until you're sure you want to go there and have explored all your options. No No rule, do not submit to the same hospital with multiple companies you might still get the job but you will be put on the spot by a recruiter or a hiring manager from that hospital and depending on the agencies they might make your file a Do not hire/do not return flag. when it comes to interviews I personally like to have an actual interview with the managers of the floor or the hiring manager to get all the details that the recruiter can not answer such as uniform specs, lunch break system, floating to units and so forth.  I tend to plan vacations around my schedule once I have the job, but travel nurses do request vacation before submitting to the hospital as well it will all depend on the hospital. they may decline to hire you just because they don't want to grant such vacations since they are usually understaffed and need you for a reason. if you would like to learn the taxing and stipends work, please visit Traveltax.com the page will have a little jeep crossing from one side to the other they are travel tax professionals who know all the ins and out of what you need to do to have in order to qualify for your tax free stipends with each contract. I have done my taxes with them and do not regret it. they have an information section just for travel nurses ? hope this bible of a reply helps! good luck! feel free to private message me on here. 

Specializes in Med surg.

Any experience with the agency Medical Solutions? Thanks 

I am going to be traveling for the first time in a few weeks (and am quite excited about it!).  How do you make sure that you're going to get reimbursed for everything that you file for? Is it all spelled out in the employee handbooks of the various travel companies? Say you're going to use Uber/Lyft to get to and from your housing and the workplace. You want to make sure that the allowance is covering your mileage there to offset your out-of-pocket costs for travel.  Also, I heard that it's traditional for travel companies to pay $300 in travel reimbursement each way, so should I buy plane tickets now and just keep the passes as receipts?

If you are paying rent in the assignment city for your entire assignment and mot just by the night you need it, you should be good. Save proof of arrangements and receipts or checks that show payment. It does not need to be similar to the stipend you actually receive. 

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