Need Help Finding a Great Travel Company

Published

7/3/14 Hello to all the travelers out there! I'm a seasoned nurse and want to start travel nursing as soon as possible. I've read a lot of comments and reviews on the travel companies but I'm afraid they may be old reviews and things may have changed a lot since they were posted. Fortunately, my husband is retired and will be going with me.

I want to start in my area of Nashville,TN first before I hit the road with a company I don't know. Since some of your comments say that your needs play a role in your decision, so I'll list a couple of mine. I would really appreciate any help from other travelers out there in finding a fairly large company with a lot of listings throughout the US. Thank you in advance.

Insurance Benefits

Housing for two

401

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New reviews, old reviews, none of them will help you find a good fit (other than perhaps to rule out some bad ones). The most important thing to travel success is your ability to communicate with your recruiter. No one can tell you if that will happen for you with their favorite agency. The only way to find out is to call lots of agencies and see how the conversation goes.

Even very small agencies will have lots of jobs nationwide. Highway Hypodermics runs a top ten agency list whose criteria is primarily self-reported benefits. So those tend to be larger agencies and since retirement plans are somewhat unusual in smaller agencies, that might a good place to start contacting agencies. But it really doesn't matter because:

Insurance benefits are not a big deal anymore since you can get your own plan now easily because of Obamacare. Not only do most agency plans suck big, but they also effectively come straight out of your pay (all your compensation comes out of an all inclusive hourly bill rate for your services).

You can bring your entire family with you and it won't cost anymore for housing unless you need more bedrooms. You can also take a housing stipend in lieu of provided housing and find your own housing. Either way, just like insurance, it is coming out of your compensation. No free lunch.

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I just switched from AMN (which I wld not recommend) to Travel Nurse Across America. I also travel with my boyfriend. They offer free insurance benefits, $1000 travel reimbursement, great pay, earn points for every hour you work and cash them in for rewards, and OT bonuses. Great company. I'm having a hard time finding my own housing in Flagstaff, and my recruiter even stayed up on her own time til midnight the other night helping. Talk about dedication! Also enjoyed talking to Trinity, which is run by an ex travel nurse. My recruiter there left AMN actually bc she didn't agree with how they were doing things. PM me for info on recruiters!

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
I just switched from AMN (which I wld not recommend) to Travel Nurse Across America. I also travel with my boyfriend. They offer free insurance benefits, $1000 travel reimbursement, great pay, earn points for every hour you work and cash them in for rewards, and OT bonuses. Great company. I'm having a hard time finding my own housing in Flagstaff, and my recruiter even stayed up on her own time til midnight the other night helping. Talk about dedication! Also enjoyed talking to Trinity, which is run by an ex travel nurse. My recruiter there left AMN actually bc she didn't agree with how they were doing things. PM me for info on recruiters!
I think it would be helpful for you to post the information here so all the members could benefit from the information.
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I've seen several posts with recruiter's names removed due to TOS. Has that changed? Personally I think that would be good because that removes the profit motive from referrals by PM's. Kind of crazy fishing for referrals online, that totally subverts making personal referrals (the best kind for agencies) into fake referrals (you don't know the online person from Adam).

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

Per our terms of service we do not allow soliciting of any kind. Please report soliciting via PM. Thanks

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If fishing for a referral fee is soliciting, anyone who requests being PM'd for a recruiter name is doing just that (like the post above at 2:16 pm today may be doing innocently enough). If they mention a recruiter name here online hundreds of people will see that name in a post, it is open and they cannot obtain a fee. allnurses allows agency name recommendations, but not recruiter names, encouraging members to go to PMs. There is a bit of a disconnect there, in that your posting policy is effectively increasing solicitation.

I don't take it personally either way, just pointing this out since one admin says to post recruiter names. I get that recruiters could game the system and "advertise" here which is probably the reason for the policy.

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Lots of good info. I appreciate your time in replying to me.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
I've seen several posts with recruiter's names removed due to TOS. Has that changed? Personally I think that would be good because that removes the profit motive from referrals by PM's. Kind of crazy fishing for referrals online, that totally subverts making personal referrals (the best kind for agencies) into fake referrals (you don't know the online person from Adam).
NO...I just wasn't clear...my bad. :blink: we do not allow recruiters names....I am sorry I made it confusing. Agencies can be discussed about one having better offers etc...but the exchanging of recruiters names and referral bonuses are not allowed. I made it confusing in my post...it was however very clear in my brain....:facepalm:
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