Travel Nursing

[Ebony2013]

I come for advice on a big decision. Although I have only been a nurse for 18 months, with prior experience as an ER medic for 7 years. I would like to start travel nursing. With a husband, a 14 year old, and a 3 year old at home, its kinda hard to up and leave. At the very least I would like to say that I tried traveling, even if I dont like it for the long haul. What scares me the most is I am some what the bread winner of the family, and I cover health insurance for my family.

I just wanted to hear from others that have done this already. Any advice on getting affordable health coverage for the family? How does the housing work, and I am not going to be looking into craigslist for a temporary place?

Thank you in advance for all the feedback.

[Wolf at the Door, BSN]

I am going to be honest. Having a family that depends on you as the breadwinner is not wise to do travel nursing. You're contract could be cancelled at anytime. Children need quality health insurance. Housing is going to be expensive for you because of your family size. You did not state what your speciality is or what state you are traveling from. Unless you're L&D, CVOR, or CVICU in that order you are not going to be getting a lot of high paying jobs. The next trio of high paying specialties are regular OR, Cath lab and general ICU. My advice move to a high paying area to settle your family in. Areas like Houston, Texas, Outside of Atlanta, GA or Sacramento, CA have low cost of living higher pay for a RN. The 14 yr old is about to be starting HS that is not right to be doing travel nursing.

[NedRN]

ED nurse I presume? Even with your medic experience, you should gain at least 18 months of RN experience before considering travel.

If your husband depends on you for health insurance, getting family health insurance will entail a huge sticker shock, likely over $1,000 a month. You may be best off purchasing it in the healthcare exchange as most agency's health insurance sucks.

Housing for travel nurses traditionally was provided by agencies directly. Very luxurious to come to a new job, turn a key, and voila! Furnished housing with utilities already turned on. You can still do that with most agencies. However taking a housing stipend in lieu of provided housing has advantages, in that any left over money in excess of what your housing costs is yours to keep tax free. But you do have the stress of finding and financing housing upfront (often on Craigslist) and it shifts certain risks to you rather than the agency to get that extra money.