Newbie to Travel

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Hey everyone,

I'll be new to travel nursing and after doing my research the past few weeks, there are still so many questions! Hopefully I can gain some insight from all of you. I'd like to start an assignment in February-March of next year, and I'm wondering when I should start contacting recruiters? Location preferably to be a warmer climate. I've narrowed down my list of contacts to Medical Solutions, FlexCare, USSI, MSSI, TaleMed, and Fusion. If any of these have a bad rep that I haven't heard of, please lmk! Goal is to take home the most $$ at the end of the day, while obviously exploring a new area of the country! Where should my base rate hourly pay range? Also confused on the whole "per diem" pay. I understand it's "per day" but is this on days that I'm working? Or each day that I am under contracted assignment? I've seen a wide range of numbers for per diem, and I think one was even an hourly number. A little base about myself: working in a Neuro/Trauma/SICU currently for over a year, prior 2 years on a neuroscience floor.

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Specializes in ICU.

ussi is decent lots of tax free money low hourly tax rate. the rest of those agencies are trash. keep searching the forums. look up my past post for icu guidance.

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Also forgot to add MSSI to the original post, I've combed each website thoroughly and there's not much information on MSSI's

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Specializes in ICU.

i've mentioned mssi. keep reading through the forums.

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Specializes in Peri-Op.
ussi is decent lots of tax free money low hourly tax rate. the rest of those agencies are trash. keep searching the forums. look up my past post for icu guidance.

You are one of the more negative commenters on this forum. You have had your ass chapped by your experiences apparently, I am guessing some of the problem likely lies within the complainer.

No the other agencies aren't trash, This guy just didn't like them. If they were trash, the market in general would have put them out of business.

Find an agency with a recruiter you like and a contract that fits your needs. Look at advice given for what you want in a contract, there are plenty of threads on this.

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Specializes in ICU.
You are one of the more negative commenters on this forum. You have had your ass chapped by your experiences apparently, I am guessing some of the problem likely lies within the complainer.

No the other agencies aren't trash, This guy just didn't like them. If they were trash, the market in general would have put them out of business.

Find an agency with a recruiter you like and a contract that fits your needs. Look at advice given for what you want in a contract, there are plenty of threads on this.

You the one of two, most arrogant and misleading poster with your OR RN attitude. The industry would not be so glamorous if you actually worked outside of the OR. You mislead nurses about pay because your speciality pays well in the bay area. Gloating about it and how much money you make and save living in an RV. Well Bravo to you and that RV life of yours. Step back and realize that is not the entire industry. Making what staff makes or more than staff.. whatever you gloat about is not the industry standard. You are very naive outside of your bubble. I can't take you serious because you have the slightest clue about floor nursing travel. I for one am not going to mislead a fellow ICU RN who is looking at those agencies listed. I have talked to everyone of those agencies listed and found Medical Solutions and Flexcare to be low paying but offer a high overtime rate. Medical solutions was a waste of time. They still call and bother me with those low paying packages.

What are people saying about Medical solutions From facebook

"I found them to be significantly lower pay for exact same assignment than other companies were paying. That's why I didn't go with them."

" I use to travel with medical solutions, but switched because they were significantly lower than other agencies. I loved them as a company, but I needed more $$. The company I travel with now was paying $500 more A WEEK for the same assignments..(bridge staffing)"

Flexcare is up front with no haggle we pay what we pay.

Fusion and Talemed I guess I should not have lumped them in the trash pile.

MSSI=very high paying due to only taking direct contracts with hospitals. USSI are pretty good to work with, low tax rate but max out stipends unlike medical solutions. Medical Solutions will only pay you decent if you are a high demand specialty.

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Specializes in Peri-Op.

Again, all negative retort. Not everyone is in this for the money, some actually enjoy the locations. I will note though that my specialty does pay well pretty much anywhere, not just the bay area....

There have been a number of people ask how I do the RV travel thing just because I talk about it. If you want to make the extra cash and keep you housing stipend there are ways and I share those ways. I know my way of doing it is not for everyone and don't hate on people that it isn't for....

Negotiating a contract is the primary thing you can do to increase your earnings. Every company is going to try to keep as much of their bill rate as they can. I negotiate to keep what I want and go into it knowing what the market rate is. I negotiate to get the high end of the market rate regardless of what the company is. I like to give my current company the ability to bring their pay up to meet it and not jump ship because of a low initial offer. I either end up getting what I want or I move on.

My specialty doesn't matter. Every specialty has their market rates given any moment in time. They all fluctuate through time, supply/demand... I went into nursing knowing that I wanted to do OR after following the market for years within travelling. This was one of the most stable markets and I knew I wanted to work as a traveler ultimately. Making a smart choice up front makes a big difference. Complaining about it doesn't fix it although I guess if you run people off from wanting to travel it does drop off the supply of nurses by a very small percentage. Maybe I will start complaining about how much travelling sucks as an OR nurse to keep people from doing it....

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I've been following the travel forum for quite a bit the last couple months and I completely agree with Ned & Argo. Wolf's glass is always half empty, if not already empty. While yes they talk about their pay specialities being higher I don't think they brag- they're informing those who are asking about their experience just as wolf does negatively. I think Ned's previous posts are the most helpful. Open minded, tells it like it is, and is up front about most everything you ask.

Not every company is for every person.. that could also be applied to this job. It's not for everyone. You, and you alone, have to decide what's the most important. Especially when first starting out. I figured breaking even or more than my current salary is a win on the first assignment. Allow yourself to get into the groove before you start chasing what dollar signs may be out there. Comfort, stress in transition, and location are foremost to me when picking my assignment. Money will always come. But again, I'm not a crazed money hungry, demanding, or high expectations kinda person.

Best of luck to you! Remember, at the end of the day, week, month, assignment... it all comes down to you!

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Specializes in A variety.

@Argo and@wolf, ya'll need to chill, you're hijacking a thread to have a personal argument haha. Be nice!

To the original poster, a big thing to remember is just because one pays more than the other does not necessarily mean you TAKE HOME more. That's the most important math you can do, figure out what you take home after all travel related expenses are calculated. You have to take the NET pay and subtract the expenses you would not have had starting local as a staff nurse. Example: One agency May pay more but not include your health insurance. And then the insurance you can buy through them has a super high deductible. Another one may pay you a little bit less but the insurance is free and the coverage is better. You also have to factor in are they paying your housing or not. Depending where you are it may or may not be better to take the stipend. One agency's net take-home quote may be higher than other but Oops that's based on 48 hours/wk vs the "lower" paying agency was based on 36 hours. One agency May pay a whole lot more but then that's for position out in the rural part of the country where you can't find inexpensive housing and have to stay at a single night that doesn't offer long term deals.Don't get stuck on the first number you see. There's several Posts in here that go in to more detail about the various ways they pay and how you calculate expenses, read through them.

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Specializes in ICU.
Again, all negative retort. Not everyone is in this for the money, some actually enjoy the locations. I will note though that my specialty does pay well pretty much anywhere, not just the bay area....

There have been a number of people ask how I do the RV travel thing just because I talk about it. If you want to make the extra cash and keep you housing stipend there are ways and I share those ways. I know my way of doing it is not for everyone and don't hate on people that it isn't for....

Negotiating a contract is the primary thing you can do to increase your earnings. Every company is going to try to keep as much of their bill rate as they can. I negotiate to keep what I want and go into it knowing what the market rate is. I negotiate to get the high end of the market rate regardless of what the company is. I like to give my current company the ability to bring their pay up to meet it and not jump ship because of a low initial offer. I either end up getting what I want or I move on.

My specialty doesn't matter. Every specialty has their market rates given any moment in time. They all fluctuate through time, supply/demand... I went into nursing knowing that I wanted to do OR after following the market for years within travelling. This was one of the most stable markets and I knew I wanted to work as a traveler ultimately. Making a smart choice up front makes a big difference. Complaining about it doesn't fix it although I guess if you run people off from wanting to travel it does drop off the supply of nurses by a very small percentage. Maybe I will start complaining about how much travelling sucks as an OR nurse to keep people from doing it....

More are in it for the money. You seem to be because you constantly remind everyone how you get just as much or more than staff everywhere you go. You also have an RV to SAVE MORE MONEY..But you're not in it for the money. Oh OK.

Agencies are hungry for certain specialities ultimately due to bill rates. Don't give advice to floor nurse looking for agency or travel because they are not treated or paid the same as OR. Your exp is different because of your specialty. You can make demands others will get laughed at or just denied.

I've been following the travel forum for quite a bit the last couple months and I completely agree with Ned & Argo. Wolf's glass is always half empty, if not already empty. While yes they talk about their pay specialities being higher I don't think they brag- they're informing those who are asking about their experience just as wolf does negatively.

At this point I could care less. I am real giving real advice. If you feel voicing my opinion about an agency is negative don't go on facebook.

I ran into a lot of bad things. Traveling derailed my life for a bit and just letting people know it is not easy. I won't write a book about it online as to what happened, it happened and I have moved on. Besides too many details and I am recognized. I am staff and happy and my glass It's FULL of LIFE once again. I would NEVER do travel nursing again.

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Specializes in ICU.
@Argo and@wolf, ya'll need to chill, you're hijacking a thread to have a personal argument haha. Be nice!

You're right I'm DONE DONE!

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Specializes in Peri-Op.

Lol, no your not. You will still come in and whine about how horrible it is to travel. You went in with unrealistic expectations and got crushed. No one should go in with unrealistic expectations, research, know the business and use it to your advantage, if not you will get used...

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