A travelling nurse is one who goes to work at different places for temporary short term nurse positions to fulfill the nursing shortage in those hospitals and health care centers. Any time when there is a shortage for nurses in hospitals, the management will invite travelling nurses giving them higher wages, accommodation and other bonuses.
Essentials for becoming a travelling nurse:
If one wants to become a travel nurse then one must possess clinical experience of a minimum one year in his/her own specialty. One must also possess a licensure which is normally given through reciprocity within the home state and nursing board. Many travel agencies would reimburse travelers for license cost or any other certification. Though only one year experience is required for the travel nurse but practically nurses with more than two years of experience are given priority. Many travel nurses get all the details regarding the hospital etcetera before a day or two before the assignment. Many nurses may not even receive any kind of orientation. This must be cleared during the interview. It is expected that travel nurse should be very knowledgeable and experienced in their field. The nurse must possess a license (LPN or RN) of their resident state.
How can you become a travel nurse?
Travel nurses normally chosen by many recruitment agencies acts as a mediator between the hospital and the travel nurse. These agencies normally submit applications in different hospitals on behalf of the nurses. But when you apply with these recruitment agencies a lot of paper work has to be done which involves employment application form, verification of certification and license, work history, skill assessment in your field of specialty, immunization verification of communicable diseases, TB skin test, chest X-ray etc. which is then compiled as the travel nurse’s profile.
Once you are done with the agency process, these agencies will then search for temporary jobs for you that match your profile. Once you give consent then your agency sends your profile through email or fax to the hospital. Then your profile is thoroughly scrutinized by the head of the department under whom you will work. All agencies do not have access to all temporary postings therefore a travel nurse can apply to several agencies for this job.
Hospital offers Bill Rate to the agency .i.e. The money offered by hospital. Then the agency calculates its cost and then deducts all the profit margins and overheads from that bill rate and then offers the balance price to the travel nurse. This offer includes location and specific dates of the contract. Payment details, insurance amount, housing amount etc. depends on the agency’s decision to include it in your package.
This amount of money most of the time is distributed differently by different agencies. One agency may give high amount of insurance; one may pay higher for rental car or for license reimbursements. If the travel nurses accept all the conditions then the agency arranges telephonic interview between the manager and travel nurse in many cases. If the interview is successful, a formal contract is made and is signed by the traveler. Traveler can negotiate on wages, housing, insurance and other perks also.