Kenora1982

Thanks for the information! That's interesting that they make you sign a waiver to get around paying time-and-a-half after eight hours- a lot of the travel agencies pay considerably less per hour to begin with to get around this, so you end up making an "average" hourly wage of around $32-$35 per hour since your regular hourly is in the mid-$20 ranges. Do all hospitals in the area do this waiver with hourly rates for staff nurses?

Hi! I am new to this board and am trying to figure out something that initially sounded crazy to me, but with the little information I've gotten so far, seems like may be true- I am about to move to San Diego with my husband for a year while he trains at the Naval Medical Center, and though I have previously been travel nursing and taking care of all of our bills with the extra housing money travelling pays, I am considering going staff out in San Diego because it SEEMS, as far as the quotes that I've gotten from a few agencies, that staff nurses may actually make way better wages! I've been travelling, and we probably wouldn't have been able to pay our bills up until now if I hadn't- we've been living throughout the midwest and staff nurse wages aren't fantastic. However, out in San Diego, the quotes for most staff nurses that I've seen so far are around $30/hr or more for experienced ICU nurses- is this true, and if so, is this not including the time-and-a-half you get in California after eight hours (so would you make $45/hr for four hours each day)? If this is the case, the monthly take-home will probably work out to as much, if not more, than contracting- and without the sacrifices in expendability and benefits that you give up as a traveler. Just curious, because I'm starting to wonder if it might be worth it just to relax and actually be permanent somewhere! Any advice or input on the hourly wages out in San Diego would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Hi! I am just about to move to San Diego for a year while my husband trains at the Naval Medical Center, and though I previously have been travel nursing, I am reading about the hourly wages and am wondering if these hourly rates people are quoting are not including the time-and-a-half you guys get in California after eight hours? Just trying to figure out whether it may actually make a few more dollars to just go staff instead of travelling again. I'm an ICU nurse with about three years of experience- if the hourly rates people are quoting are indeed around $30/hr plus time-and-a-half after eight hours, this rate blows even some of the better agencies including a monthly housing stipend out of the water!