Travel nursing without the agency?

[livingkennedy]

I often see a lot of job postings by travel agencies for specific hospitals. Has anyone had any success in directly contacting the hospital that the travel agency is trying to recruit for and then negotiating a high paying temporary contract as an employee of that hospital? Do hospitals like to avoid this because of training/liability issues or....? It doesn't seem like this happens much. Also, I'm not sure how it looks for tax purposes to appear to be a hospital employee but claim you're traveling. I would assume this is all possible, and would probably make more sense to just be your own company, but there are headaches involved with that, such as coming up with contracts and tax issues.

I would think it would be possible for the hospital itself to produce some sort of contract that covers length of employment, hours, etc....but I just don't seem to see this utilized much. I don't know any nurses that have done this.

Appreciate any info you can provide!