huntfishwv

Been traveling for over a year now and we rent but do not own. The trick to traveling is maintaining that tax residency, so if you have a home thats paid for thats awesome and would be perfect. You could pocket the extra stipend money you dont spend on rent and not have to worry about using that to pay a mortgage also. If you're making payments on the house I would HIGHLY suggest renting it out. Traveling as a single person the pay is pretty good but paying for a place while you're traveling and the place you live in back home can get pricey unless you have a good setup thats cheap back home. If you end up moving you would still have to maintain that tax home to keep the tax free money ...tax free. I know people who travel in RV's but you still have to have a permanent home. RV would make you an itenerant (think thats spelled wrong) worker meaning your like the apple pickers that move around the country from job to job never having a permanent home. You can do it but if you get audited now you're talking paying extra taxes on the 20000-30000 you made in stipends for the year. Hope this helps. Best of luck.

So my wife and I are with Night**%ale travel nursing and have been working our new job for 2 weeks now. Whats funny is you expect the hospital to be the bad part but honestly we both LOVEEEE the hospital and the people, but are not thrilled with our company. In the beginning they told us " we have great health insurance and prescription plans," somewhere in the 100+pages of paperwork there was a page with the info on it but we (being naive) didn't go over it thoroughly. After signing our contract and starting work we had to get a script......funny story...." they pay $250 a month per person MAX with a $50 deductible....so for nexium and sleeping pills (gotta love nightshift) I will spend $400+ dollars of my own money with this wonderful prescription plan. Next, with health insurance if we're hospitalized, heaven forbid, they pay a max of $300 a day. LOL!!! wow, so thats a breakfast and lunch? The private furnished apt and house they claim on their website is an extended stay hotel. What's even more funny is before we got here I found the place they were going to put us up and it was going for $34.99 a night with hookers and cops around all the time. I found a better hotel minus the hookers but they booked the smallest room in the hotel WITHOUT a living area. The one bedrooms with a living room here go for $10 more a night, guess that was too much to splurge. So now we have a bed, a recliner thats 10 feet from a small sink and a full size fridge.......HAPPY 3 months!!! LOL. The icing on the cake is they told us we'd get our first weeks wages the week after we started.....after calling today they told us its really 2 weeks behind and that they, " Really don't hold a week.....but they kinda do." HAHAHA that's funny when i haven't had a pay check in over 3 weeks. I just feel frustrated and want to scream. I hate that I gave up smoking because now would be a great time for about half a pack of cigarettes. LOL We were talking to another company but the recruiter was submitting us for jobs without even talking to us about pay or location then sending me emails and calling me several times ( along with his supervisor) wondering why I hadn't talked to anyone. We left him a lone in fear of not trusting him and him not listening to a word we said in our conversations. Are there any company's that offer decent health insurance, good housing, and have experience working with husband and wife teams. I don't want any companies that are affiliated with 10 other travel companies and this will be asked if you send me your info. Be small enough to be real, helpful, and human. This is all we've wanted to do for the past 5 years when we were gaining experience, but this industry is not what it seams. I guess you live and learn and with a contract you're just stuck sometimes and as my friends back home say, " it is....what it is."

So my wife and I are with Night**%ale travel nursing and have been working our new job for 2 weeks now. Whats funny is you expect the hospital to be the bad part but honestly we both LOVEEEE the hospital and the people, but are not thrilled with our company. In the beginning they told us " we have great health insurance and prescription plans," somewhere in the 100+pages of paperwork there was a page with the info on it but we (being naive) didn't go over it thoroughly. After signing our contract and starting work we had to get a script......funny story...." they pay $250 a month per person MAX with a $50 deductible....so for nexium and sleeping pills (gotta love nightshift) I will spend $400+ dollars of my own money with this wonderful prescription plan. Next, with health insurance if we're hospitalized, heaven forbid, they pay a max of $300 a day. LOL!!! wow, so thats a breakfast and lunch? The private furnished apt and house they claim on their website is an extended stay hotel. What's even more funny is before we got here I found the place they were going to put us up and it was going for $34.99 a night with hookers and cops around all the time. I found a better hotel minus the hookers but they booked the smallest room in the hotel WITHOUT a living area. The one bedrooms with a living room here go for $10 more a night, guess that was too much to splurge. So now we have a bed, a recliner thats 10 feet from a small sink and a full size fridge.......HAPPY 3 months!!! LOL. The icing on the cake is they told us we'd get our first weeks wages the week after we started.....after calling today they told us its really 2 weeks behind and that they, " Really don't hold a week.....but they kinda do." HAHAHA that's funny when i haven't had a pay check in over 3 weeks. I just feel frustrated and want to scream. I hate that I gave up smoking because now would be a great time for about half a pack of cigarettes. LOL We were talking to another company but the recruiter was submitting us for jobs without even talking to us about pay or location then sending me emails and calling me several times ( along with his supervisor) wondering why I hadn't talked to anyone. We left him a lone in fear of not trusting him and him not listening to a word we said in our conversations. Are there any company's that offer decent health insurance, good housing, and have experience working with husband and wife teams. I don't want any companies that are affiliated with 10 other travel companies and this will be asked if you send me your info. Be small enough to be real, helpful, and human. This is all we've wanted to do for the past 5 years when we were gaining experience, but this industry is not what it seams. I guess you live and learn and with a contract you're just stuck sometimes and as my friends back home say, " it is....what it is."

Anybody know anything about st Agnes hospital in Fresno California? My wife and I are talking to them about accepting a 6mos assignment starting soon. Hers will be on the med surg tele floor and my specialty is in the ICU...I'm guessing medical or surgical. Any info is greatly appreciated..ie*pt ratios, services, getting hours in etc. They stated 36 hrs wk for each with a nice pay package with optional overtime. Thanks

My wife and I have applied to two companies, fast staff, and RN network. We are both wanting to work in California but both companies keep telling us they have jobs and "someone will call today" ....3 weeks later after calling the recruiter daily we have yet to get a call from a nurse manager. My wife has a specialty in MS tele with cardiac emphasis and I have SICU/MICU/NICU experience with 3.8 years experience. At this point we just want to get out there. Our house is in boxes, we sold our second car 3 weeks ago, and my boss has ruined my schedule due to "thinking" we were leaving a month ago and now we have tons of help on the unit. I just want a good recruiter/company who has jobs in CA. I wanted to stay away from American Mobile d/t horror stories I have read but are they really that bad? We want good housing/health insurance and a pet friendly spot. It seems the smaller companies keep telling us they can't get us placed together but i've read that its not impossible. Any help or advice will do. PVT messages with some info would be nice. I would love to have someone who can help us get through this. Any info is greatly appreciated.

My wife and I were talking to faststaff for the past month getting all the paperwork submitted, but after getting all of the hoops jumped through they tell us there are NO JOBS and we're on a hotlist for california. This was a bit aggrevating as we have sold her car and our house is in boxes. I'm keeping my name in the hat though in case theres a good strike at some point we can jump in on. We called RN Network and submitted an application and in 1 day the guy landed us a job in san diego. I think it really depends on who you go with for the job, and i'm already learning you need to keep your name in the hat for a few companies not knowing who might have the jobs on your next stent. I liked the people I talked to at faststaff and they have jobs in the new england area but out west it seems a little dry right now in the pot. Best of luck.

My wife and I are heading to San Diego it seems like. She does M/S cardiac tele, and I do SICU/MICU/NICU. We were supposed to travel with fast staff but after months of them telling us we could get to San Fran, they tell us now there are no jobs. I called RN network and in 1 day the recruiter lands us a job in San Diego at Palamor Palmorado ( I'm sure i spelled this wrong lol). The recruiter has already called a nurse manager for us and has things going. He said my job will be ICU with a float to MS Tele when needed. A couple questions here: Has anyone traveled to this hospital and how are the ICU's and your view of the hospital all together? and has anyone traveled with RN Network? The only thing i'm uncertain about is how our hourly rate will be a good bit lower than my staff job I will be leaving but with the weekly incidentals ($250 tax free) and the housing stipend of $2000 a month tax free I'll be bringing home an extra grand a week. Shes getting the free housing, and the incidentals....I'm getting the incidentals and a hefty stipend. Just wondering if anyone has traveled with pay like this and what their view on this was. I talked to a seasoned travler and she tells me this is a good deal and we should take it seeing how this is our first travel assignment and those are hard to land.

We are going with Fast Staff and I have already heard the horror stories about american mobile. DEFFFFFFF staying away from them. We tried to talk to multiple smaller companies thinking that they would be better to go with but they actually laughed at me when I asked them about my wife and I getting placed in the same location. So far fast staff has been very easy to get a hold of and are quick to respond to any questions. Actually got all the hoops cleared this past week and are going to talk to a recruiter this morning when I get home about getting our assignment. Are there any hospitals in Northern Cali. that frequently use travelers or better yet fast staff that come with a good recommendation. I know kaiser hospitals are crap and I want to avoid them at all costs. We're hoping to be near san fran/sac. area but are there any jobs? Any info would be greatly appreciated. They quoted us at $36.00 base pay with my wife receiving the free housing and I would get a hefty (in my opinion....but i'm from WV lol) housing stipend. I know in Cali you get time and a half from 8-12 hrs. but i have also heard that facilities are bad about calling you off and then trying to call you back in for a 4hr shift to make up the difference so they won't have to pay you the overtime. Is this a big problem out there? Any little tricks or trends that you guys know would be greatly appreciated.

My wife and I have been RN's for 3.5-4 years and are getting ready to head to California at the end of this month. Her experience is in Med/Surg tele with emphasis in open heart recovery stepdown, my experience is in SICU but also have worked in neuro and med ICU. Just a little nervous as we are traveling from WV to California to start this crazy adventure. Is there any advice for a first time traveling couple? We are going with fast staff and are planning on residing in the northern california area. Are there any hospital's we should absolutley stay away from or areas we should avoid for work or any advice from someone who's been in the same boat. Appreciate any info.

Ok so.....it's now the 17th......anyone heard anything? I'm thrilled I got this award but this is rediculous trying to figure out when we're going to get our monthly payments....if any at all? If anyone finds out anything please keep posting for the rest of us. It's sad we have to rely on strangers for answers because we can't get legitimate answers from the government.

I received this award for this year. I got one payment and its now NOV 3rd and i still have yet to receive my payment this month. The number they gave me and the number on the website now no longer works. Is anyone else having this problem or have a number that works for the NELRP? PLEASE HELPPPPP!!!! -Joey

Hey how do you log into the website. I keep going to the NELRP website and i can't find a place to even put in a username. Can anyone send a link? Thanks. Joey

I'm from WV. My ratio was at 200%. I would say you'd get it. My girlfriend woke me up with the mail this evening and said i had one from govt. lol. I freaked. If you even get a letter before October that means you got it; they don't send out the denials until October. Don't stress you have a few more days. If your in Indiana i bet you'd get yours tomorrow. :-) -Joey

Just letting you guys know I got it. WHOOOO HOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! I just now got the letter. I feel so excited and so blessed right now. The bad news with these high loan balances is that the taxes really hurt the payment. Its going to pay about 47% in 2 years instead of the 60 but hey....not complaining AT ALL. This is cash I don't have to pay and it helps more than anyone could imagine. Good luck to the rest of you guys and i'll keep burning up the prayer lines.

My ratio is right at 190% with you guys. No news but they did call about a month or so ago. Still waiting and freakin out everyday i see the mail man. This sucks. lol. But i'm hoping and prayin it all works out.