Travel Nurse Rates

[Annemariebb]

Travel Nurse x 8 years.  Seeing rates lower or same as staff lately.  What is going on?

I've been taking local contracts because it's so hard to find housing with the stipends provided and make a contract worth it. It seems even local contracts are down - have that many travelers gone back to staff that places are now "fully staffed"? Or just working without the extra help?

Nurse's deserve to be paid well, along with other healthcare professionals. 

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

Continuing to pay the increased rates for travel/agency nurses wasn't sustainable long term. Many hospitals are closing units or closing completely due to money. How to save money? Decrease/eliminate travel/agency staff.

[NedRN]

Travel first for the lifestyle. New friends, sights, and culture. Constant learning new ways to practice and sharing when appropriate. Lack of politics. Apparently you are worried about some threshold of compensation to make a contract "worth it". What would that look like? No doubt it is different for everyone and everyone has to make their own choices about what makes any job worth it.

Yes, non unionized hospitals (and states without staffing ratio laws) are working with not enough staff. Seems like more of the same to me, other than the pandemic staffing crisis is over.

[OverIt]

They are working short staffed and basically trying to force nurses back into low paying staff jobs.