Travel nurse vs staff nurse Reddit

I own a small medical staffing agency. Nope. I’m not cheaper than a staff nurse.

Off the top of my head I know at 1 facility I get $48/hr for an LPN. The same LPN would get paid $22/hr by the facility. Benefits and insurance has a significant cost for facilities so let’s call it $10/hr? (That’s a guess. Could be more or less.) someone with more knowledge of facility based staffing costs would have to chime in.

It’s not that admin wants to pay me more. They just think that they will be able to hire someone within a few weeks.

They can’t! Especially when their LPN that’s making $22/hr meets my LPN that makes $30-$32/hr. It starts a cycle where staff nurses quit and look into agency work.

It’s a complex problem. Hiring nurses has become harder than ever. If you don’t use agency then you either work short or cut back on patients.

Admin thinks they are better temporarily paying agency than they would be with just raising wages across the board. Most of the facilities that I serve couldn’t afford to give everyone an $8/hr raise.

Nurses are really good at thinking a facility is just raking in cash. And while to some extent they are/can be. It’s not usually nearly to the extent that a lot of us think.

Full beds keep shareholders and admins happy. It keeps revenue up. Short staffing threatens that.

Recently like many others, I've been thinking seriously about travel nursing. I guess I just need a second opinion or confirmation that I should pull the trigger on it. I currently work in an ICU at a level 1 academic medical center in a large metropolitan area. I have a year and a couple of months of experience and I'm taking the CCRN next month. My goal has been to apply to CRNA school but seeing the rates right now makes me want to put that on the back burner and travel. What do you guys think?

Have you ever left your FT staff position to travel, then went back to a FT staff position, only to realize you don’t like being a FT staff nurse anymore? Is it crazy that I want to go back to the flexibility and spontaneity of travel nursing? I also miss the money haha. I just worry that I need to maintain a FT staff position if I plan to buy a home in the next few years. I heard it is more challenging to get approved for home loans as a travel nurse because they don’t consider your income as stable.

What agencies should I look at to travel as an OR nurse? Are some agencies better at staffing the floor than the OR? I am a male nurse currently working as one of two CVOR nurses in our OR. I only circulate those cases. I do scrub total joints and can cheat my way through a few other cases. What’s the deal with call? I have had a few travelers in my 6 years in the OR come through and not have to take call while a few others have. I would imagine it’s much more costly to have a traveler take call rather than a staff nurse. If we do take call is the pay to just be on call low($4.50/hr for example) like it is as a staff nurse(time and a half for being called in). Do they put you in what ever cases they want? Or do they still try to play to your strengths? Are there any other questions that I’m forgetting haha. TIA!

So… I can work as a travel nurse and make $5k a week, or I can be a staff nurse and make, I dunno, a fifth of that? Obviously I’m going to keep traveling.

Should staff nurses be paid more to close this gap? Should all RN’s be private contractors? Should all nurses across the country go on strike all at once, killing thousands, and force our politicians and corporate overlords to abolish health insurance, set reasonable pharmaceutical prices and patient / healthcare practitioner ratios, and move our society toward a more holistic, caring, healthy ideal? Discuss.

Hey everyone. I'm a nursing student set to graduate in October with my ADN. My plan is to then start working in an emergency room setting as that's the area I feel most drawn to, and I want to get a lot of experience and get my feet wet before eventually traveling.

My question is in regards to requirements to start traveling. I know most agencies ask for 1 or 2 years of experience in that department before you begin traveling, but does it make a difference if I work as a PRN nurse or a full time staff position? I want to work PRN for more flexibility with my schedule and to ease into things slowly once I graduate, but I don't want that to interfere with my ability to travel later down the road, especially if agencies expect 1-2 years of full time staff experience.

Is travel nursing stressful?

What are the disadvantages of being a travel nurse?

Is it hard to date a travel nurse?

Is it lonely being a travel nurse?