A little over 2 years ago when I started this adventure of travel nursing I was uneducated about the system/process, looking to land a job quickly, and went with the recommendation of a friend for the agency I used. I have absolutely no complaints about the agency, my recruiter, or my first assignment. But there are some things I have learned since then that I think every traveler should know.
Contract Hierarchy
If a recruiter ever tells you all agencies pay the same call bullshit immediately!! The expression of nursing needs, advertisement of openings, recruitment, and contracting of travel nurses is a multi level, nested, contractual and subcontractual nightmare if you don’t have some idea of how things work and how you can be affected. Generally a hospital has one of two options when they decide to seek staffing assistance from travel nurses. First, they can contact a recruiting agency on their own. Another method for them is to hire an agency (not sure what they call these organizations) who will receive their needs, put them into some type of industry acceptable advertisement form, and then approach recruitment agencies. Know this; every organization that puts their fingers into the pie is going to take a piece. The more levels of contractors and/or subcontractors involved in the contracting process the less you will get as a travel nurse. Your goal is to get as high up the food chain as possible. You want to try and find, as an ultimate goal, the primary contract holder for the hospital where you want to work to ensure for yourself the highest pay possible.
So with that in mind, if an agency texts you or in some other way contacts you regarding a position your initial reaction should be to do an online search to see if anyone else is advertising that position at that hospital and compare the advertised pay. Never be afraid to shop around.
When to be Loyal
This will be short and sweet. The only time I would recommend loyalty to an agency, in contrast to the advice I provided in the previous section, is when you are in need of benefits. Whether it be health insurance, retirement contribution, or something else, if you don’t have a source of benefits outside of your employer then you want to consider tenure with an agency so that you can qualify for their benefits. The one piece of advice I would offer here is make sure you do some due diligence and shop around to find the agency that has the best benefits for you.
Hourly Rate vs Tax Frees
So many nurses I have run into, when beginning their journey as a travel nurse, are hyper-focused on the hourly rate that they can get. This usually results from them having been a staff nurse and the only basis of comparison is hourly rate. This is not what you want to concentrate on primarily. Instead, you want to look at your tax free stipends. This is where you can make bank. In the following section I will show you how to double check that you are getting the maximum allowable lodging and meals stipends allowable by law.
Verify the Tax Frees
Do yourself the absolute biggest favor you can by going to the site listed below and checking the allowable tax free stipends when you’re negotiating your contract.
State Income Taxes
If your tax home and place of employment are in different states you’ll want to pay attention to your state income tax withholding and be aware of what your state tax liability will be. Generally, the income tax is withheld by the state in which you are employed and then when you file your tax return with your home state you will get credit for the tax paid to state in which you are employed. Communicate with your tax professional for the details on your specific situation.O
Here’s a useful cite to reference the income taxes for each state:
One place where this can get a little difficult is if the state in which you are employed does not have a state income tax. In this case, you will not have any taxes withheld unless you direct your employer to withhold income tax for your home state. Again, please talk to your tax professional so that you don’t get yourself in a financial bind come April.
Compare Notes
Don’t be afraid to share, in private, the amount of your contract with other travel nurses. When multiple agencies are filling vacancies at a hospital there can frequently be a disparity in pay between nurses. Sharing of information between travel nurses is a great way to take care of yourself and take care of your fellow travel nurses at the same time. Don’t be afraid to help each other!
Referrals
Another great way for travel nurses and nurses considering traveling to take care of each other is through referrals. Please consider leaving your contact info with your comments – if you choose to respond to any of the future posts I cite in the next paragraph. If you’re looking at a particular agency and don’t know anyone who has traveled with them consider reaching out to and using one of the people in the post as your recommender. An extra couple hundred bucks from a referral can go a long way sometimes.
The next four posts will only become a resource if you, the reader, contribute. These posts will be continually updated based on comments received and will be for evaluations and suggestions regarding travel nursing agencies, travel nursing recruiters, hospitals where travel nurses have worked, and places to stay while traveling.
As always, please share below on the platforms of your choice, hit that like button, leave a reply if you’d like to share your thoughts, and check the boxes if you would like notifications of new comments and/or posts. Finally, if you are moved to support my efforts in publishing this blog you are free to make contributions via Venmo @nursinginthetrenches. Thanks! See you next time.
Nursing In The Trenches 