Everything you need to know when choosing a travel nursing agency

Chances are that if you’re reading this article, then you are considering a new career as a travel nurse. First of all congrats on taking the big step forward.

Regardless if your new to being a travel nurse or a seasoned veteran needing a change, selecting the proper travel nursing agency is very important for you.

While there are tons of nurse travel recruiting companies to choose from, not all of them are the same. For that matter, choosing a recruiter you can place your trust on and a company that provides the proper benefits you need can help make your future assignments run smoothly.

After all, working with a recruiter or company that see you as nothing but a number to deal with will lead towards some serious stress in your life.

In this article, we’ll cover everything you’ll need to know about choosing a proper travel nursing agency.

Compare the offers from each agency

If you already have experience as a nurse, then the chances are that you’ll receive a lot of responses from travel nursing agencies that you apply to. It can be overwhelming, but that’s a good problem to have.

When shopping around for a travel nursing agency, consider the benefits being offered to you.

While having a positive relationship with your recruiter is very important, if your travel nurse agency isn’t able to meet your medical insurance coverage needs, then you’ll be taking a huge gamble. Make sure to compare medical insurance plans of the agencies you’re interested in.

The agency you choose may come off as the perfect on at first, but after you’ve dived deep enough into offered benefits, the high can fade pretty quickly. Besides checking for proper medical insurance, research or ask about other benefits offered by the agency.

In other words, you want to know everything that this agency or travel nursing contract can offer you in terms of benefits. Some agencies tend to offer more perks and some will offer less but in exchange give you a higher salary.

It’s important to figure out your goals as a travel nurse. Are you just looking to make good money or visit the cities that you always wanted to work in? Either way, come up with a goal in mind when comparing the offers.

Talk with the various recruiters at those agencies.

Once you’ve selected the proper agency, start communicating with recruiters at those agencies. Most agencies will only allow you to speak with a single recruiter at a time, but you shouldn’t feel like you have to commit to that one recruiter immediately.

If the benefits the agency is offering suits your needs, but the recruiter doesn’t get along well with you, politely ask for another recruiter.

You’ll most likely be talking to your recruiter through the phone since that how most of the agencies tend to operate. They’ll ask you some questions, such as your current nursing experience lever and desire to travel.

The conversation should start off light but go into deeper follow-ups to come if you start to feel comfortable with that recruiter.

Keep in mind that a recruiter is not only there to help you find that perfect travel nursing gig, but they will also become your lifeline once the assignment has begun. You want someone who has experience in this line of work, capable of making proper recommendations and is trustworthy.

A good recruiter will never “oversell” you on their agency. They will be a supporter and be a friend to you to guide you through the process of getting hired as a travel nurse.

Pros and Cons of Travel Nursing

It’s important to know the pros and cons of travel nursing before making the leap into this challenging yet rewarding career. Here are some pros and cons for you to ponder on.

Before you start applying, you should understand the sacrifices that you might have to make as a travel nurse. We’ll quickly go over some of the pros and cons of travel nursing.

Pro: You get to travel

One of the most obvious advantages for this line of career is the traveling benefits you get. This allows you to go to all sorts of places around the country, giving you a sense of adventure as you go from place to place, although you will be living in this locations instead of simply passing by.

Con: Away From Friends and Family

Being away from your family and friends can be one of the many cons of travel nursing. They are your support system when things start to get rough. As a travel nurse there may be times when you need some support for a variety of reasons.

Another thing is that you’ll be away from your loved ones and if you have kids this can be an issue. Some travel nurse opt to take their kids with them to every new location they employ in, but this could also make an impact on the kids as well.

Pro: Loads of Money

A commonly cited pro for becoming a travel nurse is the high pay it comes with. Although, you’ll need to be very careful with this one. While the potential to make large stacks of cash is there, it’s not always a given. There are a variety of variables that can determine whether or not you’ll make a large sum of money.

For example, if you decide to pick up a contract at a city that tends to offer a lower salary to their nurses, then this might be an issue.

On the other hand, a popular city like San Francisco is known to pay their nurses really well.

Con: Loneliness and Homesickness

You should always remember that being committed to travel nursing isn’t like experiencing a vacation. You’re going to be moving to a whole other location with a contract that typically lasts over 3 months.

Meaning you’ll literally be moving away from your current homestead. Plenty of travelers tend to experience homesickness and loneliness due to having to eat alone or other such things.

The good side of this is that you won’t “always” be on the road. Most contracts do last to 3 months or more, so you’ll still have a place that you can call home.

Pro: Broadening Your Work Experience

As a travel nurse, you’ll be working at various hospitals around the country. These hospitals will have their own processes, procedures, equipment, goals and set of challenges. Because of this, you’ll gain a varied set of experiences that could prove valuable in the coming future.

Many travel nurses take this opportunity to broaden their skill set in nursing and test out different departments within a hospital to see what works best for them.

Con: Moving around a lot

Travel nursing takes a whole different meaning to “travel.” Essentially you’ll be living on the road. As a result, you’ll need to be ready to pack your things at a more frequently paced compared to what you would for a vacation. The more you pack, the longer it’ll take for you to move on.

A lot of travel nurses like to use Public storages to store their items while they are on the road.

Mistakes people make when choosing a travel nursing agency

When it comes to selecting a nursing agency, there are a couple of factors to take into consideration before choosing the proper one suited for you. From the integrity and financial stability of the agency to reviews and travel nursing salary packages. What most nurses aren’t aware of are the many mistakes and misconceptions that happen when selecting an agency.

Not enough researching

Picking a travel nursing agency that will have your best interest in mind is one of the most crucial parts for a nurse to do when choosing a travel nurse company. The only proper way to find out if the company is legitimate is for you to do your due diligence and conduct enough research. With today’s internet, there are plenty of ways of doing this, by either asking in various nursing forums to even personal messaging someone who may have worked with the agency before.

Reputation and Industry Standards

One thing to keep in mind when choosing a well-known agency that has a positive reputation is that when a profile is handed over, the company will most likely select the travel nurse that is coming from the travel nursing agency with the best reputation.

Nurses should also check to see if the agency has been credentialed by the Joint Commission. The purpose of the Healthcare Staffing Certification Program is to provide an independent, comprehensive evaluation of a staffing firm’s ability to provide qualified and competent staffing services.

Agencies who’ve managed to obtain a certificate must complete a strict qualification profess that ensure you will be traveling with an agency that is upheld at the highest possible standards in the industry.

Number of Jobs

Plenty of nurses keeps on forgetting to think about when searching for a travel nursing agency is the amount and type of jobs available for them. Nurses should be keeping an eye out for the number of open jobs, the location of the contracts and the specialties needed for said assignments.

Travel Nursing Agency Reviews

Travel nursing company review can give you vital information, but it’s important for you not to put too much weight on online reviews. Similar to how you wouldn’t go to your favorite restaurant simply due to some random review having a bad experience there. It’s very important to keep the same mind frame when searching through travel agencies reviews.

Top travel nurse agency

To begin your search we’ve included some travel nurse agencies for you to look into. Here a list of a few top nursing agencies to look into.

Travel Nurse Across America: The travel nursing agency offering the highest paying travel nursing jobs across the United States.

Sagent Healthstaff: Sagent Healthstaff is a  top-ranked national healthcare staffing company.  They staff hospitals and other healthcare facilities nationwide with travel, local contract, and per diem healthcare professionals.

Medical Solutions: For healthcare facilities, Medical Solutions offers traditional travel staffing, a managed service provider (MSP) program, strike solutions for hospitals, and a rapid response program for hospitals with urgent, flexible staffing needs.

Premier Healthcare Professionals: For over 20 years Premier Healthcare Professionals has been the industry leader in domestic and international healthcare staffing, having placed healthcare professionals, and in particular Registered Nurses, on travel contracts in all 50 states in the USA and overseas.

American Traveler: American Traveler is a workforce solution and healthcare staffing organization that delivers exceptional service to healthcare professionals and hospital clients.

Nursefly: We offer in-depth help for those looking to become a travel nurse. We’re one of the only ones in this industry that will provide you with a city guide, community reviews, and job listings all in one place.

Below is a list of job boards and additional resources for finding a travel nurse job:

Here are some places you can go to search for a travel nursing agency that suits your need.

• Indeed
• ZipRecruiter
• Travel Nurse Source
• Nurse Recruiter
• LinkedIn
• Jobs2Careers
• Gypsy Nurse
• GlassDoor
• Traveler Talk

Assignment Contract Timeline

Determining the length of your contract you desire can be quite complicated. The vast majority of these travel nurse agencies handle assignments that can from 13 weeks or even longer. It’s actually quite rare to find any company that has anything less than 13 weeks or longer since the company would love for you to be working for up to 60 hours a week.

It’s how they manage to rake in the money after all.

You’ll discover that most companies will handle a 8-week contract if that specific hospital they work with requests it. Keep in mind that hospitals are primary drivers for a contracts length.

Short-term contract companies tend to be disliked among companies unless it’s supposed to deal with a crisis. When a contract is short as 4,6, or even 8 weeks, the contract won’t benefit the agency much in terms of revenue, therefore most agencies will not offering short contracts.

These types of contracts also have fewer housing options available for short term stays and the ones that are available will have premium costs associated with them. Because of this, most agencies will decide that short-term contracts aren’t worth it. Although a crisis rate may change their minds.

A travel nurse may have their own reasons for wanting a short-term contract. Although it’s important to consider the potential downfall. The revenue decrease that the agency experiences will result in even lower pay package for the travel nurse. If you determine that you want to work short-term contracts, then there are companies that specialize in them.

International travel nurses

A lot of travel nurses wants to travel internationally. There are options for international travelers, but it gets a little bit more complicated than that.

Similar to travel nursing within the United States, international nursing jobs are mostly found through agencies within the home country. The first step is getting the proper nursing license for the country you wish to work in. Each country will have their own set of requirements, so make sure to do some research on said country.

There are plenty of opportunities for travel nursing abroad in destination all over the globe. Some places with the highest need for nurses include Australia, New Zealand, China, and the Middle East. Each of these areas is known for having high rate of disease and natural disasters may have a demand for rapid response nurse who’ll be capable of providing critical care in the aftermath of these events.

While travel nursing assignments for the US may last somewhere between 8 to 26 weeks, nursing jobs abroad will be much longer. There are times when you’ll be there for at least a year in places like Australia and Europe, while it’s common to stay for at least 2 years while working in the Middle East.

Travel arrangements and expense are usually dealt with by your agency. ALthough every agency does have their own set of rules, so it’s important to ask questions to understand exactly how they operate.

If you’ve decided to pursue travel nursing positions abroad, you’ll also need to secure an additional credential that your travel country requires. This means you may simply have to take a test, gain certifications, or completing an entirely new program. Remember, every country has their own rules and requirements when it comes to nursing.

In addition to that, you will need to ensure you have a passport, a visa, a work permit, and any sponsorships that needed. Each country will have their own list of other documentation you may need to present, such as birth certificates, immunization records, and professional references. This process can take a complete year too complete and may become quite expensive depending on the tacked on requirements.

Putting it together

Get ready and be excited for an upcoming venture and a new chapter of your life. Travel nursing is an exciting career and comes with a lot of benefits. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity, but make sure you do your research prior to getting started with anything.

Again, you’re not alone. If you need help finding the perfect travel nursing job and location for your future, please check out Nursefly! We’ll help you out as much as possible.