Registering with AMN and its Brand Agencies

NedRN · Jun 1, 2014

The one take-away that I can state with any certainty is that all have access to the same jobs. It used to be the different brands all had distinct characters and recruiters to appeal to different subsets of travelers, and had different compensation schemes. No idea of how it works in practice now, but it would be a great question to ask a couple of different AM recruiters before you (potentially) get locked into the wrong brand for you.

wanderlust99 · Jun 1, 2014

AMN has a poor reputation for a reason.

NedRN · Jun 1, 2014

American Mobile is the largest travel company by a good bit. Larger agencies will have more unhappy travelers just by simple math. Every other agency has unhappy travelers, just fewer so you don't read so much about them. On the plus side, AM has more resources and assignments than any other agency, and this works especially well for travelers who don't want to be bothered with working for multiple agencies, and smaller specialties like psych and case management. Such large agencies may also be a good place for first time travelers to get their feet wet with a turnkey experience.

Mind you, I don't have any direct experience with AM (and it sounds like you don't either), but I did start my travel career with several years at Cross Country, then the largest agency. I'm not a big fan of large agencies as a seasoned traveler (I'll cite their generally lower pay), but they do have their advantages.

PacoUSA, BSN, RN · Jun 1, 2014

I've been quite overwhelmed with all the travel nurse agency info out there, and have spoken to several recruiters. I am motivated to try an AMN assignment to get my feet wet, even if it means that I will break even with my current take home salary (which is fine for now, but I will always try to negotiate over that). A former colleague of mine now travels with AMN and she has been quite happy for over a year. I also want to work at certain hospitals and I understand AMN or its brands have exclusive contracts at them. Looking forward to it all! I also don't like the idea right now of hopping from agency to agency, especially if I intend on returning to a perm job to change specialties. Thanks for all the advice, been most helpful!

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NedRN · Jun 1, 2014

Your plan is fine but there are a couple of things you should be aware of. AM does act as a vendor manager at some hospitals, notably Kaiser hospitals in California, and while they do give preference to their own in-house travelers, they cannot staff fully on their own. They have lots and lots of subcontracting agencies to make up the difference so you can work at their managed hospitals quite successfully without working directly for them. Having another agency in-between AM and you can have several benefits - your agency is more likely to help resolve conflicts and paradoxically you may get paid more money. There is also the complex issue of blacklisting. If you have a problem at a podunk hospital traveling with AM, you may be blacklisted from any hospital that AM manages vendors. If you have the problem with the podunk hospital working for another agency, that can't happen. On top of that, let's say you work at a Kaiser hospital directly with AM. They can now prevent you from ever working through another agency at any Kaiser as they "own" you.

These scenarios may not happen to you, but it does indeed happen regularly.

The most important part of your travel experience is going to be your recruiter. If you don't click, request another one. If that doesn't work out, consider another agency, perhaps Cross Country since you want a large one.

If you get a straight answer about any functional difference between different AM brands, please tell us. I'd like to know.

wanderlust99 · Jun 2, 2014

I'm just offering a friendly warning that's all. Same goes for Kaiser. Kaiser has a poor reputation amongst travelers as well. Unless you enjoy floating every 4 hours I would stay away.

I did work for AMN when I started traveling. I even received a check this year from the class action lawsuit against them. I would recommend cross country over AMN.

imanedrn · Jun 2, 2014

I was talking to a recruiter with Medical Express for some months. I didn't like her method of communication (she didn't like email and insisted on talking to me on the phone every other day or so). After I asked that we sever ties, I was contacted by someone from American Mobile. It turns out Medical Express is a part of American Mobile. Apparently, after things didn't work out with the first recruiter, they passed my info onto a different recruiter. That recruiter explained to me that they're (technically) the same company, they just realize people work better with different recruiters, so they try to facilitate that. I'm not sure how the name differentiates any potential contract.

So, to answer your first question, yes.

LadyTiger44 · Jun 11, 2014

I have been with American Mobile for four assignments, but I am looking to change agencies. I am trying to go to Washington, and they do not have anything really going on up there right now. I am talking to Travel Nurse Across America, Medical Solutions, American Traveler, RN Network, and Trinity Healthcare-which is run by a former travel nurse. If you are looking to make more money, I would suggest going with one of the smaller agencies. The jobs they have submitted me for with TNAA are going to be paying more, they offer points for every hour worked that you can cash in for money, and for every extra shift worked at the end of your contract you get $125-150 per extra 12 hours. You will also make more $ if you take the housing stipend. It's actually not as hard as I thought it would be to find housing. Good luck!

cblauv20 · Jun 21, 2014

I have been with American Mobile for four assignments, but I am looking to change agencies. I am trying to go to Washington, and they do not have anything really going on up there right now. I am talking to Travel Nurse Across America, Medical Solutions, American Traveler, RN Network, and Trinity Healthcare-which is run by a former travel nurse. If you are looking to make more money, I would suggest going with one of the smaller agencies. The jobs they have submitted me for with TNAA are going to be paying more, they offer points for every hour worked that you can cash in for money, and for every extra shift worked at the end of your contract you get $125-150 per extra 12 hours. You will also make more $ if you take the housing stipend. It's actually not as hard as I thought it would be to find housing. Good luck!

I was not aware of this. I currently am on assignment with AMN for over a year now. It has been an ok experience, but for sure not great. I have applied to FlexCare, Adv. Surgical, MSSI. I was looking into TNAA. But have not found a lot of reviews on them. I will look more into it today. Do you think they're honest?

NedRN · Jun 21, 2014

Generally bonus schemes for extra shifts are because the OT rate is not realistic nor rewarding to contemplate working extra. In fact, most extra hours are actually a cut in pay! This is easy enough to calculate:

Most travel assignment pay between $40 and $50 an hour when you through in all compensation such as per diem, housing, and travel. Yet on the typical base rate of $20 an hour, the usual stated OT rate would be just $30. This is a pay cut to regular hours of $10 to $20 an hour! A more reasonable OT rate should be $50 to $75 an hour, and agencies can easily afford this. Complaints from individual travelers is what leads to a shift bonus, and this has been implemented at several agencies. All the shift bonus does is bring some incentive back to work OT and make more money for the agency. Even $150 is insufficient in my view for 12 hours, that only brings the rate up to your regular hourly rate.

There is no reason not to negotiate OT rates separately from the artificially low base rate. You can even find an article on PanTravelers just on negotiating OT. That doesn't mean it is easy. The average recruiter doesn't understand the math better than the average recruiter. Large agencies are resistant to changing contract terms even though doing so is ultimately beneficial to them too (more billable hours = extra profit over and above anticipated). There are even structural problems with some payroll engines unable to enter an amount other than base plus 50%. But it can be done. I have a close friend working for Emerald that discovered the issue (it is clear if you use the PanTravelers calculator), and he made such a fuss about it that shift bonuses are now standard for all travelers at Emerald and while not as high as I'd like to see, make OT worthwhile. Emerald is a very large agency indeed so it can be done. In fact, since they have done it, even agencies such as American Mobile should now be susceptible due to competitive pressures.

LadyTiger44 · Jun 22, 2014

I was not aware of this. I currently am on assignment with AMN for over a year now. It has been an ok experience, but for sure not great. I have applied to FlexCare, Adv. Surgical, MSSI. I was looking into TNAA. But have not found a lot of reviews on them. I will look more into it today. Do you think they're honest?

Yes, I think they are very honest. Up front about everything. I've had a wonderful experience with them so far. I just accepted an assignment with them. Ended up going to Flagstaff b/c Washington was taking too long. I highly recommend them. I just spoke with another traveler at my hospital actually that was with them for 3 years. Good luck!