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mskate · Sep 25, 2008

its hard to compare them because so many different things get factored in.

as a staff nurse, you get hospital benefits, retirement packages, additional training, the option for advancement, guaranteed hours, etc...

as a travel nurse, you get some orientation to the unit, with the understanding you are going to be there short-term. your benefits are not through the hospital, but rather through your travel company and are generally not nearly as good as what you would get as a staff member. as a traveler, you are not going to get trained (generally speaking) on special hospital equipment, get floated frequently and have a certain number of hours you are allowed to be cancelled by the facility. a lot of times travel nurses dont make much more money per hour than staff nurses do, but they get their housing covered as well as other things if they are able to negotiate that into their contract. people often see it as a trade off - worse benefits, transient, generally the bad assignments, floating.. but your housing gets covered, so it can balance out. if you choose your assignments well, you can come out making a lot of money but usually it runs even if not slightly less on the take-home pay and with the benefits packages.

agency or registry nurses, depending on their agency - are a different breed. they usually will make more hourly wage - but they dont have training to that particular hospital and have to be expected to go anywhere and just jump right in. they dont have gaurenteed hours and may go weeks without work, they get cancelled frequently and may or may not have any benefits at all. in return - they set their own schedules.