MNC Articles

Seasonal demand was the original driver for health care providers to establish contract nurse positions. Since nursing is a highly trained profession, travel nurses were the next logical step in the evolution of the contract nurse. Today, many facilities around the country rely on traveling nurses to fill nursing shortages caused by population influxes, tourism, or finance departments not wanting their facilities to take on extra, long-term cost.

To keep long term overhead down, some health care service providers are willing to take on the higher costs of hiring temporary staff to fill in for seasonal demands - or the demands on an overworked staff. Health care providers that are willing to listen and learn from time -tested rules will realize that an over-worked staff will often turn into a situation where turnover is high, which in turn increases long term training and liability costs. These facilities willing to hire short term staff provide great opportunities for travel nurses who are willing to venture out of there comfort zone and experience new things.

Most people that watch the health care industry expect that the nursing shortage will continue to grow as the baby boom generation squeezes an already stressed health care system. There will continue to be a need for travelers even in the face of economic troubles. There will still be seasonal needs, and the extent and complexity of health care demands will keep good traveling nurses in short supply.

As the intermediary between a traveler and the health care service provider, a health care staffing agency will be the employer of the traveling nurse. The agency will bill the hospital for services provided The agency will pay the traveling nurse, and provide the agreed upon benefits.

To provide a little industry jargon: the term often used for a traveling, contract health professional is ‘traveler’. This term may apply to a respiratory therapist, surgical technologist, or RN.

‘Travelers’ are contract employees of the staffing agency that places them in the health care facility. They are different from per diem nurses which are employees of the hospital or car facility. The traveling nurse will have assignments of varying length. Most expenses of a traveling nurse are paid by the agency often including housing, travel, licensure costs, and car rental. Traveling nurses may get allowances for meals, parking and car rental. Benefits for traveling nurses are generally very comparable to those of full time employees including 401K, health, and dental insurance.

If you decide to pursue opportunities as a travel health care professional you should seek a health care staffing agency that fits your goals and that you feel you could have a good relationship with for an extended period of time. After a successful interview and verbal agreement to contract, details between the agency and the candidate will be established. If you do not have a license for the state where a proposed assignment is you will need to get one first. Often the agency will help you accomplish this. The state where the assignment is may have some specific CEU requirements before licensure. You will probably have to do some mandatory testing with the agency, such as OSHA, HIPAA, fire and safety, and age related competencies.

The excitement of travel nursing jobs can be very enticing. The challenges can be great as can the opportunities to expand horizons and experience. Being able to embrace change and new environments are requirements of travel nurses.