Travel Nursing Agencies

Allied Resources Medical Staffing, 4949 Liberty Lane, Allentown, PA 18106, (610) 841-0210 – Great organization to work with – especially if you are just starting out. They were a subcontractor agency on my first assignment. After they had submitted my name for my first contract, I found an advertisement by the primary agency where I could have received more pay. This is how I discovered the differences in pay depending on which agency you go with. They weren’t able to make up the entire difference for me, but they did bump the pay slightly to help me out. Also, when I needed some employment verification for insurance on short notice they were extremely accommodating. Referral bonuses of $500.

Concentric Healthcare Staffing, 4250 North Drinkwater Boulevard, Suite 100, Scottsdale, AZ 85251, (855) 466-8773 – This is one agency I won’t be going back to anytime soon – and not because of the recruiter. I’ll tell you about the quality of her service in the following post. No, it was the account manager with whom I had a problem. The agency wanted me to talk to the client Director of Nursing to iron out the details of my contract. I did this, and one of the things we agreed on is that the only place I would be pulled from the ICU was to the ED. I went back to the agency and let them know everything was worked out. They sent me a contract with a general pull clause which would have made it possible for me to be pulled anywhere in the hospital. I asked them to change the contract to reflect the negotiations they told me to accomplish. I was told the legal department wouldn’t allow modifications to the wording of their contracts. I asked to speak to the account manager. I received a call from the account manager – a guy by the name of Nicholas Jimenez – who was absolutely rude and, in my opinion, unprofessional, and I told him so. He very quickly told me I was free to seek employment through another agency. Which I did, and I’m now getting $200 more a week than what Concentric was going to pay me for the same position. Mike Sherk, mnsherk@gmail.com

LRS Healthcare, 1120 North 103rd Plaza, Suite 3, Omaha, NE 68114, information@LRShealthcare.com, 800-811-0064 – Highly recommend. Current contract through them. Very smooth process from first contact to execution of contract. Mike Sherk, mnsherk@gmail.com

Maxim Healthcare Services, 7227 Lee Deforest Drive, Columbia, MD 21046 (with many satellite offices), 410-910-1500 – Good agency to work with. My recruiter was one of the nicest guys you will ever work with. But there are some shortcomings in my opinion. Their payroll department couldn’t tell me initially if my withholding would be for Pennsylvania, Maryland, or possibly both. Also, they seem to have a free-for-all with their recruiters. I’m constantly getting calls by new people. If I contract through this agency again, I want to use the same recruiter I had in the past and don’t need solicitation calls from others. Mike Sherk, mnsherk@gmail.com

Medical Solutions, 1010 North 102nd Street, Suite 300, Omaha, NE 68114, (several regional offices) info@medicalsolutions.com, 866-633-3548 – my initial recruiter with Medical Solutions was incredibly motivated – until I sign the contract. Then it became increasingly difficult for her to respond to any form of communication. See my comments in the appropriate following post. As an organization though, not bad to work for. If you want a contract in Washington, DC or Baltimore this is one of the agencies that you should look at. They seem to have, at least for the time being, an inside track to MedStar Health facilities. Mike Sherk, mnsherk@gmail.com

SnapNurse, 675 Ponce De Leon Avenue NE, Suite 8500, Atlanta, GA 30308, 844-804-7627, Text 844-804-7627 – I traveled with SnapNurse to the Ft. Lauderdale area in the late summer of 2020 to assist the Florida Department of Health with COVID-19 testing. This was a pretty good gig which paid pretty well. BUT SnapNurse will typically If pay your travel to the work area and your lodging. This means you won’t be getting any tax free lodging stipend. Also, they don’t give you the stipend for the meals and incidentals. You have to pay that out of your own pocket. Like I said, a pretty good gig. If you’re just starting out and don’t want to deal with the logistics of traveling this may be a good way to go. If you have experience and are comfortable setting up your own travel and lodging you may want to look elsewhere in favor of maximizing your tax free income. Mike Sherk, mnsherk@gmail.com

Please contribute to this post by leaving your comment below or by emailing them to me. As I receive your information, I will update this post with your comments and arrange the content in alphabetical order by agency name.

As always, please share below on the platform(s) 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.

Travel Nursing Fundamentals

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.