New Traveler with a Husband and 70 lb Lab

NedRN · Jun 20, 2021

So let's get this over with first: there are no best agencies. Nor are agency recruiters your friend. This is a business and if you remember that first, you will do fine. Your ability to communicate with your recruiter is important (all is lost if you don't communicate). So call lots of agencies, and sign up fully with say 3 of them whose recruiters seem trustworthy and don't just make stuff up - lots of calls will help you learn the business and separate out the BSers. Then you will have a plan B and a plan C to cover you if agency A with your preferred assignment falls through.

So housing with pets is hard but doable. Expect high non-refundable damage deposits. Try regular housing first (most agencies will provide considerable help) until you find out if the travel nursing is for you. That said, there are a number of travelers who like RVing. It won't save you any money, but it can reduce the hassle of traveling with a pet - RV parks are almost universally pet friendly. However needing a reasonable commute to the hospital can limit your assignment options. Wi-fi can be bad at some parks though, so you may need a mobile hotspot generally and perhaps your husband's job will require reliability. Possibly an iPad a with a SIM card could work for internet needs.

NurseKristen82, BSN · Jun 24, 2021

Thank you so much for your feedback. My, maybe naive vision, is that I use this as an opportunity to travel to all the places in the US I've wanted to visit. I know I'll be working a lot of hard hours and it won't be every day or even every week, but, with licensing being the process it is, is it possible for me to practically move from state to state every 3 months or so?

Also, we were thinking of selling our house, it's a good time for that right now, but do I have to have a permanent "home base"? I've read a lot about that on some of these posts? Thanks again.

NedRN · Jun 24, 2021

Licensing should not be an issue. You can proactively get them when you know you want to work in a state say within a year, or should you not have quite enough time before your 13 weeks are up, it is usually easy to extend a few weeks at your current assignment.

Tax home is very important and too big a subject to discuss sufficiently in a single post. I'd recommend reading articles on PanTravelers or TravelTax.

That said, maintaining a tax home is financially worthwhile generally (do some math). A significant portion of your compensation such as housing stipends and per diem are paid tax free if you have a tax home. One easy way to get there in an efficient manner is to have a roommate to help pick up expenses and take care of your home base. As long as you keep a room in the house for exclusive use and and return at any time (and at least once a year or so), you are good.

To extend that thought, sell your home and buy a home in an income tax free state such as South Dakota (cheap), Texas (also low cost generally), or Florida and establish residency. These three states are also members of the nursing compact which will gain you access to 28 (?) states on just a single license with no additional bureaucracy.

Epidural, BSN, RN · Jul 23, 2021

The Compact has grown; 37 states and Guam are now members. Implementation dates for the new states are:

Vermont: 2/1/22
Ohio: 1/1/23
New Jersey: soon, but if you are a resident of a compact state you can take a travel assignment in NJ, using that license
Guam: soon
Pennsylvania: 6-12 months

Good luck with your plans!