Travel Nursing - What do people think?

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Specializes in ICU.

Worked at a local hospital 20 years; 10 on the floor and 10 on the unit.  Got my RN, BSN then CCRN.  Went to the County hospital for more of a challenge but that didn't work out; they met me when I came in one day and just let me go.  Wouldn't say why, I had been struggling with the charting, but thought I was on top of it. Wasn't really getting challenging patients, which they pointed out to me (?)  Im thinking a couple more years and I am going to call it a career, and maybe getting into another hospital would be pointless and unfair; I think it takes a year to really get used to a facility.  Someone suggested Travel nursing, but you can stay local and just work as a Registry nurse.  What do people think?  Do you get insurance as a travel nurse?  Is it very difficult to work different hospitals?  Any thoughts are welcome.   Thank you.

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Specializes in Home Health.

Travel nursing pays wonderfully higher rates, much higher than you would be able to get just being a regular staff employee.  You get paid for your housing costs provided you are a certain distance from the facility you are assigned to.  Yes, you can get health insurance, usually a PPO and also you can get a healthcare savings account.  The downside to travel nursing is that your contract can be cancelled at any time and without warning.  Just like when you were called in and lost that job, the travel nursing facilities hold all the cards.  I did two tours of duty at a large HMO facility, 2 separate locations.  They were very difficult to work for, both facilities.  Here in California, employment is considered at will, so that means leaving a job is mutual between worker and employer. Just keep in mind that the employer can always change their mind for no reason.  Both times this happened, I was placed by two different employment agencies.  Both employment counselors received NO complaints against me, yet I was let go.

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I tried a local contract some years ago (well before covid, so I can't speak for currently) and the health insurance (in my opinion) with travel companies is pointless. I was also the first to be called off at the local hospitals if they were able to find in-house coverage...which was pretty much every shift I signed up for. I did a covid assignment out of state which was great pay (I didn't get the insurance). More recently I've heard from other people that contracts are now back to being sub-par. But there's no harm in reaching out to a few companies and seeing what they have to offer...just be ready for a barrage of calls from every single company out there afterwards LOL. 

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I wouldn't mind a travel gig again in the future. I am 20+ years a second career nurse. Have about 6-7 years of more full time work ahead to be where I want to be financially. I would be very selective about it. And my focus would not be the money, but the location and the role. And another nurse posted she was always called off first, that is not true in my experience. The travel nurse contract should say they are paid whether they work or not, so the primary staff are called off first. They don't like that. Should realize it is not the travel nurses' fault. They may start flip flopping your schedule around to fill holes, so they don't have to call anyone off. 

I work with hospice as an on-call overnight nurse. It really matches my skill set of being really good at physical assessments when there are unexpected changes in condition that are not diagnoses related. I do a lot of death visits, but hospice nurses in home hospice are rarely at the death itself. I have been at a few over the years as symptom management was intense due to a disease process excelerating decline with discomfort. I love that my job is not case management. I am aware that if my ability to drive at night in rainy weather becomes an issue, I will have to change jobs before I can retire. Though many at hospice our hospice are able to shift into other roles within the company, at this time I don't know what other role would fit me well. That may change. I am 99% sure I could not go back to hospital nursing. I wish there was more private duty nursing that wasn't pediatric. I would try that. 

My last travel gig was in 2013-2014. I needed a job quickly, and most places were taking months or more to hire permanent staff at the time. The hospitals and everyone were finally recovering from the housing crash in 2009. Yet it took a long time to get through the process of interviews and hiring. 

I was more than 50 miles from my permanent address so qualified for the housing stipend. Technically the way the money is paid out, your hourly wage is super low. I was at $20/hour or so, even though regular non-travel wage was over $45/hour at the time. You have cash because you pay less income tax, since it is a lower hourly wage. 

Also the housing stipend is a big part of the travel compensation package. That is not taxed. So you can have the travel company find your housing, so they manage that chunk of money. Or what I did was find a super cheap monthly rental option and then had lots of housing stipend left over. It depends on what you need the money for. I still had rent on another place to pay. 

I lost my job due to bankruptcy at a small critical access hospital in CA in 2012. There were no other nursing jobs within a half hour drive. I put together a travel resume, which wasn't hard since I had just been hired at the critical access hospital 6 months prior. And I had graduted from a good BSN program within the five years prior and had worked at the teaching hospital for a few years after. 

If you struggle with EMR charting, every hospital might have a different system now. They did when it was paper charting too, but it was easier to figure out. Even if hospitals all have something like Epic, they can have different packages. I sat in a new hire orientation charting class at a major hospital in 2014. I had finally been hired on permanent. There were a lot of travelers in the room who thought they had good Epic experience at the time, but then kept saying things aloud that indicated the way it was done at this hospital didn't match what they knew. Same with Cerner. Back then it depended on if the hospital had all the upgrades or the latest version. 

Would you consider any of the remote jobs where it seems you evaluate care and give an experienced opinion? They don't always pay great, but it would be a way to keep doing something. There are also remote telephone triage jobs, though I think the demands of those can vary a lot per company and shift. There are registry nurse jobs where I live, but mainly get called for SNF shifts and sometimes seasonal things like vaccines. 

Good luck!

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I don't think you should consider travel nursing at this point. Staff nursing is safer by a good bit, typically you have a family get out of jail free card if you screw up. You have zero safety as a travel nurse so your goal is to be an above average nurse before making such a move. You are expected to hit the ground running on arrival at a travel assignment  with minimal orientation which is why you need breadth of experience in your specialty, good technical skills, and great organizational skills.

Most travel nurses are from the South where wages are low. Travel allows a pretty big bump in compensation (in lieu of benefits) and allows you to continue your permanent residence but only if you are from a low wage area. Over the course of a career, there is little financial difference between staff and travel. The best reason to travel is (usually) not about money but about lifestyle.

20 years is already a long career. You could consider taking less challenging jobs as many nurses do as they get closer to retirement. You didn't describe your specialty, but there are often related jobs that are less stressful. For example, lots of ED and ICU nurses go to PACU, and in general teaching hospital nurses move to a community hospital. I could name more examples but I'm sure you get the idea.

You really don't want to put up with the crap you are getting now whether no matter where the fault lies. I had to bail from my specialty in my first (and only) staff job and it was indeed beyond my abilities right out of school. What they didn't tell me is that two out of three nurses accepted into my program also failed. So at least I knew that it was more likely a failure of their program than me. And the hospital didn't even consider firing me but offered me a choice of a couple other areas. Which turned out great and a 9 month precept program gave me plenty of time to work on my organizational skills which were sad initially. Worked well in school, not so much in real life. And the joke goes that as a guy, I had zero organizational skills as I had never been a housewife or secretary. No offense intended.

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Specializes in ICU.

Thanks everyone for the feedback.  I think I'm going to finish making my profile with a recruiter and at least talk to someone honestly about my thoughts and feelings.  A lot of the problem I think, was I went from a little backwoods community hospital where we did what we had to do to get the job done; to a fairly top-end hospital that did things by the book absolutely.  But what I am actually looking for at this point, Im not sure of.  Just not ready to give up yet, and don't want to end that way.  It was very discouraging (and that may be a big part of my problem now) but I wrote some journaling notes after it happened, so maybe it was just a lesson.  Thanks again.  

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It sounds like some good insight for yourself. The little rural hospitals are often looking for travelers. You might find one in a spectacular setting that you would love a work-vacay to see. 🧡

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