The Best Travel Nursing Companies 2021

The best travel nursing companies for 2021 are here! This year, we evaluated over 350 companies by aggregating 91,240 reviews from 6 of the most reputable review sources. The result is this objective list of 20 amazing travel nursing agencies.

Every company on our list has an average review score higher than those of companies on GlassDoor’s list of “Best Places to Work”. That’s why you should consider all 20 of them. We’re certain you’ll find numerous great matches if you do.

This our fifth year compiling company reviews this way. We do this because we know it’s extremely difficult and important for travel nurses to find the right agencies to work with.

Please Note: This article was written in 2021. While it is still very useful, we highly recommend reviewing our newer articles below:

The Best Travel Nursing Companies 2024

The Best Travel Nursing Companies 2023

The Best Travel Nursing Companies 2022

It’s Difficult to Find the Best Travel Nursing Agencies

Part of the reason it’s so difficult to find the best travel nursing companies is that there are SO many. Meanwhile, the vast majority of travel nurses work for the 50 largest companies. The 5 largest companies have over 35% of the travel nurses.

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This all means that the vast majority of travel nursing companies have relatively few travelers working for them. Therefore, it can be difficult for them to receive a meaningful number of reviews.

To top it all off, there are tons of review resources. Therefore, the reviews are spread thin. Therefore, no single review source has a meaningful number of reviews for every agency.

Watch Out For Bad Information

We spend a ton of time researching travel nursing agency reviews in the process of aggregating the scores. We often come across shady and duplicitous information related to the topic. We like to share that information with you so you know what to watch out for.

Last year, we found several websites that engaged in “review seeding”. When a website launches a new review feature, they will naturally have no reviews. “Review seeding” is when they add a ton of fake reviews to get the ball rolling.

The idea is that visitors are more likely to leave reviews if the site already has reviews. Unfortunately, you can’t trust fake reviews!

This year, we found that a bunch of click-bait “content farm” websites had published articles on “the best travel nursing companies.” These are websites that publish massive numbers of articles on a wide range of topics with one goal in mind, to generate traffic by ranking high on Google’s search results.

These websites often hire inexpensive overseas writers with no knowledge of the topics that the website tells them to write about. Why is this a problem?

Well, we found one article that listed companies that haven’t existed in over 3 years. We found another article that listed several companies that have absolutely horrible reviews. And we found several articles that had flat out copied the work of others. In fact, we successfully filed two DMCA takedown requests against websites that had copied our work.

The saddest thing about this is that Google falls for it. As a result, these articles often sit atop Google’s search results.

We urge you to seek out reputable resources to ensure that you aren’t being led astray.

Our Process for Determining the Best Travel Nursing Companies for 2021

This is why we compile review scores for every company we can find on 6 reputable review websites. We enter the scores into a spreadsheet. We’ve done this annually since 2017. Here are the review sources we used this year:

The spreadsheet calculates the aggregate average score for each company. Then, we compare the scores for the current year to the scores for the previous year. We award bonuses for score increases and penalties for score decreases.

This way, we recognize great companies that had a great year. We strongly encourage you to review our lists from prior years. Nearly every company on those lists continues to have amazing scores.

Our scoring system is much more complex than we’ve described here. We like to be as transparent as possible. Therefore, we provide a highly detailed scoring example at the end of the article.

2021 Insights from Travel Nursing Company Reviews and Ratings

This year, we collected all the scores between May 23 and May 29, 2021. Each year, we like to share interesting stats and tidbits of information we recognized while compiling the numbers. Here are some from this year:

Highway Hypodermics

We tallied 3,122 total reviews on Highway Hypodermics this year. The aggregate average score for all companies on HH was 17.70. That’s an increase from 17.54 the year before.

That’s equivalent to an average score of 88.5 out of 100! This indicates that healthcare staffing agencies are providing travel nurses with excellent service.

Travel Nursing Central

We counted 11,173 scores on Travel Nursing Central for 2021. That’s an increase of 806 reviews from last year.

The aggregate average review score on TNC was 86.04 out of 100. That’s an increase of .65 points. Again, this indicates that travel nursing companies performed exceptionally well in 2021.

Facebook

We counted 6,616 total reviews on Facebook this year. That’s a decrease of 723 from the previous year. That’s not a typo. The number of reviews on Facebook decreased last year as well.

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This year, we had to manually count scores for several agencies. That’s because Facebook was showing that some companies had no reviews even though Facebook displayed the reviews right next to the count.

We also saw some companies with a negative number of reviews. How is that even possible? Facebook’s review tracking is so bad that we’re certain it had an impact our rankings this year. We chose to press ahead and count the reviews.

Facebook is a mess. We wouldn’t even use them if weren’t for the fact that the travel nursing industry is highly active on Facebook.

Indeed

We counted 20,250 reviews on Indeed this year. That means employees added 2,292 new reviews for healthcare staffing agencies this year.

The aggregate average score for all companies on Indeed was 3.75 out of 5 this year. That’s equivalent to 75 on a 100-point scale. That’s unchanged from last year.

Glassdoor

The total number of reviews on GlassDoor was 20,756 this year. That’s an increase of 4,704 reviews from the previous year.

The aggregate average score for all travel nursing companies was 3.81 this year. That’s in increase from 3.66 the previous year. Moreover, it’s much higher than the average company rating on GlassDoor which is 3.3.

Google

We counted 6,926 reviews on Google this year. That’s an increase of 2,239 reviews from the previous year.

The aggregate average score for all travel nursing companies was 4.46 on Google this year. That’s an increase from 4.42 the previous year. It’s equivalent to 89.2 on a 100-point scale.

Why You Should Consider All 20 Companies

As we do every year, we included 20 companies on our list of the best travel nursing agencies of 2021. Many people think the list is too long. We actually think it’s too small and here’s why.

First, every company on this list has amazing review scores. As I mentioned above, every one of them has review scores high enough to be in GlassDoor’s annual list of the best companies to work for.

Second, travel healthcare professionals MUST work with multiple companies in order to gain maximum exposure to the job market. That’s because different companies work with different hospitals. No single company has access to every job.

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We urge you to consider every company on our list. If you do, we’re certain you’ll find 3 to 5 that can cover all the bases that are important to you.

Contact the Best Travel Nursing Agencies on BluePipes

We know this sounds like a lot of work. However, BluePipes can help you simplify the process. 19 of the 20 companies on this list have an active company page on BluePipes. That means you can join and communicate with them via our messaging system. Nine of the companies on the list publish jobs on our website.

Discover why travel nurses call BluePipes, “their secret weapon”. It’s free and easy!

BluePipes Best Travel Nursing Companies 2021

Here are the best travel nursing agencies of 2021:

About the Best Travel Nursing Agencies 2021

Below we provide some basic information about each company on our list.

1. Advantis Medical

Advantis Medical continues to shine like a superstar. They’ve been on our annual list of the best travel nursing agencies since their inception in 2018.

According to the reviews, travel healthcare professionals absolutely love Advantis Medical for all the right reasons. Advantis’s reviews have several recurring themes. They are quick to respond to traveler inquiries. They provide thoughtful and thorough information. They work tirelessly to land assignments travelers want. They offer highly competitive pay and benefits.

The result is that Advantis has the highest aggregate average score of all the companies on our list at 97.72592593 out of a possible 100. That is an increase of over 1.2 from last year’s remarkable average score.

Please don’t let their relative newness fool you. Advantis was founded by a highly experienced team of staffing industry experts. Their parent company, Advantis Global, is one of the nation’s leading IT staffing agencies. They have world-class leadership and they’re doing an excellent job at hiring an amazing team.

Advantis Medical places nurses and allied healthcare professionals in travel assignments nationwide. They also provide some help with permanent placements. Be sure to contact them to discuss your next career move.

2. TotalMed Staffing

TotalMed had an exceptionally strong year in reviews. Their scores increased year-over-year on 4 of the six review sources we measure. Their average aggregate score increased from 86.18 to 88.82. These increases resulted in over 10 bonus points under our scoring system which catapulted them to number 2 on our list. The fact that TotalMed was able to accomplish this during the pandemic, with all its challenges, is extra impressive.

TotalMed is no stranger to annual lists of the best travel nursing companies. Travel Nursing Central listed TotalMed as one of the top companies every year from 2015 to 2020. They made it on Highway Hypodermics’ list in 2014-2017 and 2021.

TotalMed was founded in 2005. They staff Nursing and Allied professionals nationwide. They have access to a high volume of jobs via direct relationships, VMS contracts and by virtue of their own MSP service.

3. Triage Staffing

Triage Staffing has been in the top 5 on our annual list every year since 2017. No other company can say that.

Triage comes in at number 3 this year with an aggregate average score of 96.49. That is up from 95.83 last year. That’s amazing given that Triage has over 1,200 total reviews!

This past year, Triage acquired another highly reputable healthcare staffing company, Talemed. This makes Triage one of the largest healthcare staffing companies in the nation. That’s a great thing for travel healthcare professionals because it means Triage has access to high volume of jobs and also provides exceptional service that is well documented in their reviews.

To top it off, GlassDoor named Triage’s CEO, John Maaske, a top 20 CEO in the Small and Medium Sized Business category. Triage Staffing places Nursing and Allied professionals nationwide.

4. Stability Healthcare

Stability Healthcare comes in at number 4 on our list of the best travel nursing agencies with an aggregate average score of 94.96 on 102 total reviews. They received 62 new reviews in the last year.

Stability Healthcare is an industry trailblazer. They were among the first, if not the first, to build web-based software that we could truly refer to as “recruiterless travel nursing”.

However, don’t let the term “recruiterles” fool you. Stability Healthcare does provide human support. And, according to Stability’s reviews, that support is world-class.

Instead, Stability’s software provides healthcare professionals with detailed job information, including pay. It also provides a user-friendly profile builder and credentialing features. Essentially, the software provides nearly everything healthcare professionals need to submit themselves for a job.

Stability offers PTO, day 1 health coverage, extra-shift bonuses, guaranteed stipends and 401K benefits. Staffing Industry Analysts recognized Stability as one if the fastest growing healthcare staffing agencies in 2018. They have access to a high volume of jobs and place travel nurses nationwide.

5. Axis Medical Staffing

Axis Medical Staffing has been on our list of the best travel nursing agencies every year since 2017. They ranked number 2 on our list last year. They routinely make the lists of both Highway Hypodermics and Travel Nursing Central. Axis is on all three lists for 2021!

Axis’s aggregate average score this year is 95.63. That’s an increase from last year’s 94.97. Axis’s scores increased on TNC and Google during the past year.

Travel healthcare professionals absolutely love working with Axis Medical Staffing. The reviews describe Axis as accessible, honest, knowledgeable and transparent.

Axis Medical Staffing is based in Seattle, Washington. They staff Nursing and Allied professionals nationwide.

6. AHS Staffing

AHS Staffing debuts on our annual list of the best travel healthcare agencies at number 6! They made Highway Hypodermics’ list in 2019, 2020 and 2021.

AHS Staffing operates four divisions, NurseStat, RenalStat, PharmStat and MedStat. We actually aggregated the scores for all their divisions. The result was 423 total reviews with an aggregate average of 91.02.

The NurseStat division had an exceptionally strong year with score increases on 3 of the six platforms we measure. They also increased their aggregate average score from 85.49 to 90.94. We aggregated their total scores as well.

AHS Staffing is based in Edmond, Oklahoma and was founded in 2009. They place Nursing and Allied professionals in travel healthcare jobs nationwide.

7. Core Medical

Core Medical is number 7 on our list for the second straight year. They had another exceptional year in reviews.

Core Medical’s score increased on 3 of the 6 platforms we measure. Their aggregate average score increased nearly 3 points. Core Medical has a total of 419 reviews and 69 new reviews in the last year. Therefore, they had a large percentage of very strong reviews in the last year.

Core Medical started in 1989. They staff both contract and permanent positions for healthcare professionals of all types.

8. Atlas MedStaff

We’re excited to see Atlas MedStaff back on our list this year! Their aggregate average score came in at 91.23. Their scores increased this year on Highway Hypodermics, Indeed, Facebook and Google. Atlas was on our list in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Atlas MedStaff is highly regarded as a fun-loving, honest, transparent and inspiring organization. They have a huge presence on social media. Their YouTube channel has over 1,600 videos!

Atlas MedStaff was founded in 2011 and grew quickly under expert leadership. They staff both Nursing and Allied professionals nationwide. They have access to a very high volume of jobs.

9. Medical Solutions

Medical Solutions is one of the largest healthcare staffing companies in the nation. We say that because it’s extremely difficult to scale the type of world-class service that traveling healthcare professionals deserve. Yet Medical Solutions has accomplished just that.

This is Medical Solutions’ second year in a row on our list. They have an average aggregate score of 92.21 on nearly 1,500 reviews.

Medical Solutions is truly delivering exceptional service at scale. They have tons of jobs and a beautiful website to help you find them!

10. Host Healthcare

Host Healthcare has become a fixture on annual lists of the best travel nursing companies. They were number 1 on our list last year. They’ve been on our list every year since 2017.

They were number 1 on Highway Hypodermics list for 2021. They’ve been on HH’s list every year since 2017.

Host Healthcare has outstanding leadership. Their CEO, Adam Francis, has a 99% approval with 46 ratings on Glassdoor. They do an excellent job at hiring and have amazing recruiters as a result.

Host Healthcare staffs both Nursing and Allied professionals nationwide.

11. LiquidAgents Healthcare

LiquidAgents Healthcare has over 1.200 reviews across the six services we track. They have an aggregate average score of 93.61. That’s an increase from last year’s 92.12. LiquidAgents staffs Nursing and Allied professionals nationwide.

12. Emerald Health Services

Emerald Health Services comes in at number 12 on our list of the best travel nursing agencies for 2021. Their aggregate average score came in at 90.48, an increase of over 5 points from last year. Their scores increased from last year on Glassdoor and Google.

Emerald was one of the founding members of NATHO, an organization that seeks to set service standards in the travel healthcare industry. That commitment to service shines in Emerald’s reviews where travelers gush about their recruiters’ responsiveness, thoroughness and friendliness.

Emerald Health Services was founded in 2002. They staff Allied and Nursing professionals nationwide.

13. Hamilton Staffing Solutions

Hamilton Staffing Solutions debuts on our list at number 13. A Registered Nurse founded the agency in 2015, so they’re relatively new. That’s why they just reached our minimum threshold of 50 reviews this year.

Those reviews are absolutely glowing. They describe a team that is patient, responsive, honest and forthright.

Hamilton Staffing Solutions’ aggregate average score was 94.65 on 57 reviews. 47 of those reviews came in the last year. That was during the pandemic which shows that Hamilton is capable of delivering great service during peak times. Hamilton staffs Nursing and Allied professionals nationwide.

14. FlexCare Medical Staffing

We’ve referred to FlexCare Medical Staffing as, “the most decorated company in the history of travel nursing.” They make it on all three industry lists nearly every year.  They’ve been in the top Gold Tier every year since 2014 on Travel Nursing Central. They’ve been on our list every year we’ve done it.

There’s a lot for travel healthcare professionals to love about FlexCare. They’re a larger company, so you get access to tons of jobs. At the same time, your recruiter is your single point of contact for everything which maintains service continuity. They offer their best pay rates all the time as a matter of company policy.

FlexCare was founded in 2006. They staff Nursing and Allied professionals nationwide.

15. Tailored Healthcare Staffing

Tailored Healthcare Staffing has been on our list every year since 2017. This year, they came in with a total of 650 reviews with an aggregate average score of 92.56. That was an increase of 1.51 from last year.

Based in Cincinnati, OH, Tailored Healthcare was founded in 2004. They refer to travel nurses as “Super Nurses” and strive take care of them as such. They staff Nurses nationwide.

16. Republic Health Resources

We tallied 464 reviews with an aggregate average score of 90.36 for Republic Health Resources. That’s an increase of 2.36 from last year. Their average score increased on Glassdoor which gave them a bonus in our scoring system.

Republic Health Resources is based in Irving, Texas. They staff travel nurses at over 1,500 facilities nationwide.

17. Travel Nurse Across America

Travel Nurse Across America, also known as TNAA, is a regular on lists of the best travel nursing agencies. They were number 4 on our list in 2018. They were also on our list in 2019. TNAA has been on Travel Nursing Central’s list every year since 2014!

TNAA has lots of unique options for travel nurses. For example, they offer paid sick leave in every state which begins accruing from day 1. You’re able to use it after day 90. They also offer a guaranteed pay option that ensures you get paid if the hospital cancels a shift.

TNAA has an excellent website that is very user friendly. They publish jobs with estimated pay quotes on their website.

TNAA is a larger sized company so they have access to a high volume of jobs. They staff RNs, Techs and Respiratory Therapists nationwide.

18. Fusion Medical Staffing

Fusion Medical Staffing is another highly decorated and larger sized healthcare staffing company. They were number 3 on our list in 2017 and number 7 in 2018. They’ve been on Highway Hypodermics’ and TNC’s lists numerous times.

Fusion has a top-tier website that makes it easy to search for and apply to jobs. They also publish jobs with pay quotes.

Fusion has a very high volume of jobs. They staff Nursing and Allied professionals of all types nationwide.

19. Chesapeake Medical Staffing

This is Chesapeake Medical Staffing’s second appearance on our annual list of the top travel nursing agencies. They were number 10 in 2018.

A Registered Nurse founded Chesapeake in 2001. They focused primarily on PRN staffing in the early years. They’ve been providing travel nursing services roughly a decade. They now staff Nursing and Allied professionals nationwide.

20. Gifted Healthcare

Gifted Healthcare returns to our with a aggregate average score of 91.76 on 405 total reviews. Gifted was number 3 on our list last year and is routinely recognized on other lists.

An RN founded Gifted in 2006. Nearly all of their entire top management team are RNs.

Gifted staffs travel nurses nationwide and has a high volume of jobs. They also staff a lot of PRN in Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas.

Background Info on Best Travel Nursing Companies List

Now that you’ve perused the list of best travel nursing companies, let’s take a detailed look at how we scored it.

Our scoring system is more tedious than it is complicated. Nonetheless, we’re big fans of transparency so we’re going to share exactly how the system works.

Review Sources and Score Collection

First, we use scores from 6 trusted review sources. We find every travel nursing agency we can on these websites and enter their scores into a spreadsheet. The websites we use are listed below:

Internal Staff and Travel Nursing Reviews

Highway Hypodermics and Travel Nursing Central accept reviews from travel healthcare professionals only. The other review sources accept reviews from both internal employees and travelers.

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We have several reasons for counting reviews from the both travelers and internal employees. First, the other sources get much more traffic than niche websites. Therefore, more people see them and they have more reviews. By counting them, we get a much clearer picture of how people perceive travel nursing agencies.

Perhaps more importantly, we strongly believe that happy internal employees are good for travel nurses. Happy employees have lower turnover which means a more cohesive and experienced team for travel nurses.

Fake Reviews and Review Solicitation

Everyone knows that fake reviews exist. That includes us. We check the reviews of every company that qualifies for our list. We look for fake reviews during that process. Over the years, we’ve discovered fake reviews for several companies. We disqualify those companies as a result.

We also know that “review solicitation” exists. We do not think this is a problem unless the company is paying for reviews. We believe it’s normal for companies to ask customers and staff to leave them reviews. If we see that companies pay for reviews, then we disqualify them.

Sample Size and Minimum Requirements

We also have minimum requirements for companies to make it on the list and receive bonuses or penalties. These requirements help solve problems related to sample size.

First, we require a minimum of 50 reviews to make it on the list. We also require a minimum of 15 reviews from healthcare professionals within the last year. We have similar requirements for bonuses and penalties.

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We do this to ensure that we have adequate sample sizes. For example, if a company has ten 5-star reviews, then they would have a score of 100 which is really high. However, ten is a very small sample size so it doesn’t necessarily tell us that the company provides 5-star service to their travelers.

Sample Breakdown of our Best Travel Nursing Agency Scoring System

Let’s take a look at a sample score. We’ll use Atlas MedStaff’s scores. Atlas is number 8 on our list this year.

Meeting the Minimum Requirements

First, we collect the number of reviews and review scores from the 6 review services and enter them into our spreadsheet. We add the number of scores together. This gives us the total number of scores. At this point, our minimum requirements are as follows:

Again, these requirements ensure that we have an adequate sample size.

Atlas MedStaff has 369 total reviews. Therefore, they meet our minimum requirement of 50.

They had 65 new reviews in the last year. They had 42 new reviews on Highway Hypodermics in the last year. They meet our minimum requirement of 15 reviews in the past year from travel nurses because Highway Hypodermics only accepts reviews from healthcare professionals.

Calculating the Aggregate Average Score

After we enter the scores for each review source into the spreadsheet, we’re ready to calculate the aggregate average score.

In doing so, we must convert all the scores to a common scoring scale. That’s because the review sources use three different scales between them. TNC uses a 100-point scale. HH uses a 20-point scale. The others use a 5-point scale. We convert them all to a 100-point scale.

Here are the scores we collected for Atlas MedStaff this year:

Next, we add the number of reviews to arrive at the total number of reviews.

Next, we calculate the weighted total for each review source. This is also where we convert all the scores to a 100-point scale. To do so, we multiply the scores by 20 for the rating services that use 5-point scales. We multiply by 5 for the rating service that uses a 20-point scale.

Here is how that breaks down for Atlas MedStaff:

Finally, we divide the weighted aggregate total by the total number of reviews to get the aggregate average score. Here is Atlas MedStaff’s calculation:

Aggregate Difference Score

With the aggregate average score for 2021, we can now calculate the “aggregate difference score’. This score rewards or penalizes a company based on the difference between this year’s average score and last year’s average score.

We use the following guidelines for the aggregate difference score:

Let’s take a look at this score for our sample company. Atlas MedStaff’s aggregate average score for 2020 was 90.14013158. Their aggregate average score for 2021 is 91.28888889.

So, we subtract 90.14013158 from 91.28888889. We are left with + 1.14875731.

Therefore, Atlas MedStaff receives a bonus of + 1.14875731. We add that bonus to their aggregate average score for 2021. 91.28888889 + 1.14875731 = 92.4376462.

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And yes, all those decimal places are necessary. For example, our number 4 and 5 companies are separated by less than .06 of a point.

The Individual Difference Score

Finally, we calculate an “individual difference score” for each rating service. This score is similar to the aggregate difference score. However, in this case, we give bonuses or penalties based on the difference between last year’s score and this year’s score for each rating service.

The Individual Difference Score has several guidelines and qualifiers. We choose to keep this scoring mechanism private to ensure that our scoring system cannot be easily copied.

However, please contact us if you are a traveler our staffing agency who would like a full breakdown of everything. We’ll gladly reveal and discuss all the calculations, guidelines and qualifiers.

Wow, that was a lot of nerdy number crunching! Are you still awake?! If so, then you’re probably ready for a nap!! But, you’re an expert on our scoring system.

As always, we hope you found this information useful. Please contact us with any questions or concerns about our ranking system. And, join BluePipes for free so you can manage your travel healthcare career with ease!