What Every Travel Nurse Should Know About Negotiating with Bottom Lines

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One of the top advantages of travel nursing cited by both travel nurses and agencies is the pay. It’s true that travel nursing pay packages are higher than permanent pay packages in many cases. However, this is not always the case. Sometimes, travel nursing compensation packages aren’t all that lucrative.

As a result, many travel nurses maintain “bottom line” requirements. If assignments don’t meet the compensation requirements, then they are passed over until an assignment that meets the requirements is offered. In this blog post, we’ll discuss some considerations for adopting this strategy and some of its advantages and disadvantages. Read more

Travel Nursing Pay: Overtime Bill Rates

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As we’ve noted time and again on this blog, bill rates are the single most important variable in determining travel nursing pay. The bill rate is the hourly rate that agencies can charge their client hospitals for the travel nurse’s time.

There are many different categories of bill rates. The overtime category is one of the more complicated bill rate categories and we’ll cover it in detail here. Understanding the issues at play with overtime bill rates will help travel nurses understand the limitations faced by agencies when determining “extra hours” pay which will help travel nurses with their compensation negotiations. Read more

The Pros and Cons of Managed Service Providers for Travel Nurses

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Over the past decade, more and more hospitals have turned to one of the various Vendor Management Service models to meet their travel nursing and other contingent staffing needs. In this blog post, we’re going to take close look at one of the more common Vendor Management Service models utilized in the healthcare staffing industry, the Managed Service Provider (MSP). In doing so, we’ll discuss the pros and cons of this model for travel nurses. Read more

7 Potential Start-Up Costs for Travel Nurses

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Whether you’re just getting started as a travel nurse or taking on your next travel nursing assignment, there are potential start-up costs that you will most likely be responsible for covering. Many of these costs may be reimbursed as part of your travel nursing pay package, but travel nurses should always anticipate the need to cover some costs up-front. In this blog post, we’ll discuss some of the potential up-front costs and offer some tips for dealing with them so that you can formulate a plan. Read more

5 Things that New Grad RNs and Experienced RNs Should Know About the Job Market

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A New Grad RN recently shared their frustration with us regarding the difficulties they encountered while searching for their first job. Having spoken to many New Grad RNs over the years, we know how frustrating it can be for them to land their first job with an acute care hospital. These days, many people point to uncertainty surrounding the Affordable Care Act as the cause. However, our experience indicates that New Grad RNs have been having this difficulty since at least 2006. While the problem has certainly been magnified since 2008, we’re not sure how much of it can be attributed to the Affordable Care Act. The poor economy and an overall misunderstanding of the “nursing shortage” are more likely causes. Understanding the issues at play can help New Grad RNs formulate a strategy for landing their first job in an acute care hospital. Read more