Travel to Clearwater, Florida... Bay Care?

Silverdragon102, BSN · May 3, 2016

Moved to the Travel Nursing forum

nrcnurse · May 4, 2016

The Tampa Bay Area is beautiful, hot and humid during the summer. BayCare is a good group with lots of different opportunities. I am from Tampa, so have not worked there as a traveller. However, my hourly rate has been $28-30 as a per diem nurse without benefits. Just calculate your stipend on top of that. Housing is easy to find. The recruiter at BayCare should advise you of options.

Julius Seizure · May 4, 2016

Baycare is a good system, and pays well for the area. You can apply directly to their seasonal positions sometimes. Might get a better rate that way. Last I heard, they paid hourly in the low-mid $40s. They provide housing when you work through them. I think they often use travelers as mobile float pool - working at several hospitals in the area. Maybe not always.

Tampa Bay is a great area :) I would say the best time to go there is Nov-feb. They have seasonal needs, and there are lots of fun festivals going on at that time of year. Summer is great for the beach too of course!

Keep in mind that my info might be outdated. For up to date info and more help, you might want to search Facebook for one of the maybe FB groups of travel nurses. They are very helpful.

catsmeow1972, BSN, RN · May 6, 2016

I am a Baycare employee and my little hospital was purchased by them at the beginning of this year. it is probably one of the best things that could have happened. I have always preferred the nonprofit setting. The benefits are pretty comparable to anywhere else as health insurance goes. One nice thing is that if you make under a certain amount per hour, generally like unlicensed and ancillary staff) your insurance premiums reflect that by being half of what they are otherwise. Nice benefit for the CNAs and such. They came in with great plans for more staff and upgrades on equipment and so forth and boy have they followed through. I am in the OR and for the first time since i have been there we are actually decently staffed. It's only been like 4 months and we are almost ready to go live with EMR (they use Cerner).

They do have what is called the Baycare Mobile pool. These folks are travelers and are paid as such (housing, higher rate and so forth) but you are a Baycare employee and your contracts (13wk etc.) are with the 10-12 hospitals around the area, which now extends from a couple of places out in Polk County through Tampa and to several in the Clearwater/St.Pete area.

As the above poster said, it's a good company and i am happy to be a part of them.

bayportsunny · May 19, 2016

I have done 7 contracts with BayCare! The current pay is $50/hr and $5/hr shift diff for nights. They offer housing, which is $5/hr...or they offer a housing stipend which I believe is $1500/month. They do not offer M&I stipend. They also do not offer insurance until you have worked 26 weeks. They do however offer a matched 401K from the start of your contract. It is a good company and I have enjoyed my contracts. They guarantee 60 hours per pay period (they pay bi-weekly) and I have never been floated to another facility. You are contracted for a specific hospital and there is a possibility that they will float you to another facility for low census...but they don't make you go to a facility that is far away from your home facility...but like I said...I don't have experience with floating. Kerry Holt is the recruiter and her email address is [email protected]. Best wishes!