Dialysis Travel nursing

NedRN · Feb 8, 2017

Both Frenisius and DaVita offer direct travel nursing in their clinics but I believe other agencies also staff both. Foundation Medical Staffing, New Directions Medical Staffing, Quik Travel Staffing, Renal Reserve, and Fortus Group are the agencies I know about dialysis you might try (some may be owned by Frenisius or DaVita by now). For acute care in hospitals, I think regular agencies may have more opportunities and those can happen at just about any agency in small numbers.

For pay, shopping around is the only way to find out what you are worth. Stay away from job boards, mostly fake jobs. Call agencies directly.

Harley Rn · Jun 5, 2020

Hey, any updates on this topic?

I'm becoming more interested in doing travel acute dialysis. Wondering if it's stable? Considering Fresenius travel. I need to provide insurance coverage for family. Seems like any agency doesn't provide quality insurance? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Money is important.

NedRN · Jun 5, 2020

Travel nursing gives you a whole new perspective on how the economy works. While well hidden from permanent employees, benefits such as health insurance, PTO, vacation, and so on are actually employee pay. Your pay would be far more without those benefits - usual benefit packages are about 25% of pay.

With contingent labor agencies getting a flat hourly from facilities to pay for all your compensation as well as their profit cut, you can really see first hand that you are really paying for everything. Yes, you will be hard pressed to find a good health insurance package from an agency - in part because insurance from such companies are optional. Insurance companies charge less when there is mandated insurance. Good insurance from agencies can be found, but at similar cost to exchange plans (Obamacare) or to Cobra your existing insurance. Cobra is the law that allows ex-employees to continue their existing plan for up to 18 months for actual cost plus a small administrative fee of 2%. Ask your benefits person what the cost of Cobra is and be prepared for serious sticker shock if you have never explored these costs before.

Frenesius has an in-house traveler pool. They might well have good insurance so good place to start inquiries. They should be able to provide better transitions to new assignments as well if job stability is important to you. They might have large employer downsides too that could be part of the reason why you are looking to travel to escape and may require you extend a particular assignment before moving to another (pure guessing here).

No matter, travelers have to envision themselves as hired guns and self sufficient in every regard. That includes professionalism on the job - a very different perspective for a traveler than a staff member who can act out on occasion with less risk.

Harley Rn · Jun 5, 2020

Thanks for the response. I have been working for the big 2 dialysis companies for many years, all I feel with them is that I am a hired gun anyway. Professional behavior and patient safety are paramount in importance to me.