Questions regarding Travel Nursing - Soon-to-be traveler!

NedRN · Nov 28, 2015

3) What travel agencies do you recommend, and which ones should I stay away from? (Thus far I've talked to Cirrus Medical Staffing and FlexCare Travel Nursing - Cirrus has better benefits BY FAR but FlexCare has awards for being an awesome travel agency, etc).

Flexcare has an award? How silly! Awards are just marketing. Your hospital has won awards. If you think the hospital is a better place to work in because of those awards, you have fallen for marketing. Brands are relatively unimportant, be they hospitals or agencies. Here is an analogy:

You've just been admitted to a nationally known hospital. You get assigned a primary care nurse (for the sake of this example, let's say she has you 24 hours a day). She has no observable empathy or bedside skills, makes medication errors, and wakes you several times an hour at night for trivial reasons. What is important here, the nurse or the hospital?

Similarly, the best predictor of your success as a traveler is your relationship to a good recruiter. You don't get a good recruiter by picking agencies with benefits. You get them by talking to lots of recruiters and picking five that you actually communicate well with, are responsive, and instead of marketing crap (won awards) appears to be honest. A great recruiter at a crappy agency is far better than the other way around as hopefully my analogy made clear.

Benefits? Well, it is remotely possible that Cirrus has such great benefits that you will try hard to work for them. But you are not understanding how employment works. Benefits are part of your compensation. If you get better benefits, your hourly will be less. This is true but somewhat obscured in ordinary staff jobs. In agency work, it is crystal clear. Agencies bill hospitals a fixed bill rate for every hour travelers work. All compensation comes out of that fixed pot of gold. There is no more. So if they give you some benefit, perhaps a week's vacation, or an annual loyalty bonus, it is coming out of your pay.

Health insurance is the most costly benefit usually, and most agency plans are far worse than you are accustomed to. You can COBRA your current plan for up to 18 months (be prepared for sticker shock as most of the real cost of insurance is hidden from view for most employees), or shop agencies by their plan (which you may not know the value of until you have to use it but ask for the COBRA value - above $350 a month may indicate a plan with some value), or you can get private insurance direct from an insurance company or through a state or national exchange. A good one will cost you real money and you are now required to have one. An important point would be coverage in other states.

4) I plan on taking the housing stipend, but am unsure of the best way to find lodging. What are your recommendations?

I'd recommend not even thinking about looking for housing your first assignment. Instead, let the agency do it. You will have enough stress adapting to a new hospital. It is important that this first assignment be a success (a high paid assignment offered by a recruiter should be a red flag that it is difficult). Your limited experience CV and none as a traveler will be greatly improved once a successful travel assignment is under your belt.

5) Do you find that the hospitals that you work at are mostly friendly/welcoming and helpful to travelers? I've heard horror stories about how permanent staff hate travel nurses/mistreat them.

Good recruiter is the key here and will know that a new traveler needs a traveler friendly facility for their first assignment.

6) How do I know if I'm getting a good pay package? Cirrus is offering me about $1450/week for Colorado WITH the housing stipend (haven't heard from FlexCare yet d/t the holiday), and of course I still have to buy insurance.

Remember all the legwork I suggested in finding and retaining five good recruiters? The only way to find out your market value in a given locality is to get different quotes. For what it is worth, Colorado is a low paying market for travel nurses. Should still beat Georgia pay though, even on a first assignment.

NurseLexx · Nov 28, 2015

@NedRN so for insurance purposes you would suggest purchasing a private plan ?

NedRN · Nov 28, 2015

No, my advice is to shop around. That could include COBRAing your existing insurance for 18 months, picking an agency based on their insurance plan and either staying with them or COBRAing their plan, or shopping insurance company direct, or on the healthcare exchange.

Burphel · Dec 2, 2015

1) What are your favorite things about traveling?
2) What are your least favorite things?
3) What travel agencies do you recommend, and which ones should I stay away from? (Thus far I've talked to Cirrus Medical Staffing and FlexCare Travel Nursing - Cirrus has better benefits BY FAR but FlexCare has awards for being an awesome travel agency, etc).
4) I plan on taking the housing stipend, but am unsure of the best way to find lodging. What are your recommendations?
5) Do you find that the hospitals that you work at are mostly friendly/welcoming and helpful to travelers? I've heard horror stories about how permanent staff hate travel nurses/mistreat them.
6) How do I know if I'm getting a good pay package? Cirrus is offering me about $1450/week for Colorado WITH the housing stipend (haven't heard from FlexCare yet d/t the holiday), and of course I still have to buy insurance.

I just started traveling about a year ago and have only been around the NW so far.

1-I love exploring during my time off. Just getting on my motorcycle or hopping a bus/train and wandering around/getting lost (use my phone GPS to get back to the apartment).

2-The night before my first shift. Still feel nervous. My current assignment allows for floating between group hospitals - which kind of sucks because I only got orientation at the one I was hired for. Getting dropped into a teaching hospital ICU where you don't know the people, the layout, phone numbers, or door codes and taking 2 busy patients made for a very long 12 hours.

3-I've only worked with Cross Country thus far. I really should shop around. But I've been happy with pay/lodging/service thus far.

4-For your first gig, I'd let the agency take care of housing. I looked into doing it myself with my current assignment, but finding a place that'll let you do a short lease, then handling the deposits/utilities/etc over the internet/phone adds a lot of hassle. Stick with doing the job the first time around and if you feel like you weren't stressed out enough in the first week and need even more money, arrange it yourself next time. I'm told there's a lot of money to be made if you are willing to find a cheap place and/or a roommate. But I'm getting spoiled staying alone in nice, big apartments.

5-I've met a few individual nurses who were skeptical of me initially, but none who weren't friendly. The skeptics usually turn around after they see you get a busy assignment and manage to plow through it. Some people will give you the benefit of the doubt, others you just have to earn their respect.

6-I'm not the best person to answer that. I'm not entirely sure I couldn't be doing better myself. That said, I'm taking home a *lot* more than what I did at my old job and overall have a lot less stress.

On a side note, every traveller I've spoken to has said that the southeast is absolutely the worst place to work, both in terms of work environment and pay. If what I'm hearing is true, you're in for a breath of fresh (albeit slightly thin and pot-scented) air in Colorado.