Choosing The Best Traveling Nurse Agency

By Peter Johnson

Traveling nurses do not get their work through hospitals. A traveling nurse needs to have their application accepted by a traveling nurse agency, who will then represent them in their hunt for work. Traveling nurse agencies seek to match a traveling nurse, with a suitable and compatible work environment. As your future success and financial prosperity relies on the traveling nurse agency finding the best work available, it is important to invest time in finding the traveling nurse agency which is right for you.

The first thing traveling nurses need to understand is that it is the travel nursing agency, not the hospital pays their salary. The hospital forwards payment to the agency, who then uses that money to pay the traveling nurse. Before applying at the travel nursing agency the nurse should ask how often they will be receiving checks from the agency, do they get paid weekly, monthly, bi-weekly, or do they only get paid when the job has been completed. It is important to know how often you can plan on receiving a check so that you will be able to plan a realistic budget. Talk to other traveling nurses who are employed through the agency, find out how happy they are with the agency's payment plan. Certain agencies may pay higher wages and different overtime and penalty rates, so research at this stage can be quite beneficial in the long run. The perks of being a traveling nurse will follow once you have selected the best traveling nurse agency.

Try to find out how often traveling nurses employed through the agency are working. There is no sense in signing up for an agency, just to find that they rarely get suitable assignments. If the traveling nurses who are working through the travel nursing agency have long periods of inactivity between jobs ensure that this is down to personal choice rather than job availability.

When you are considering a potential traveling nurse agency find out if they subsidize travel expenses. This can be an important factor, as sometimes you will be travelling considerable distances, and this can be an expensive part of the job. Some traveling nurse agencies pay the travel expenses of their nurses, other agencies deduct the cost of traveling out of the traveling nurse's salary. Some agencies even have a policy that requires the traveling nurse to pay their own travel expenses. Other agencies provide a traveling allowance, they provide a certain amount of money for the nurse to travel to their new job, if the nurse's ravel expenses exceeds that amount the nurse is responsible for the additional cost. Traveling nurses typically drive to their new jobs but on some occasions they choose to fly. The way that the traveling nurse agency handles the nurse's travel expenses will make a big difference in how the traveling nurse budgets.

Talk to the traveling nurses who are already employed by the agency about the living arrangements. Most travel nursing agencies find housing for their nurses. Talk to the other traveling nurses about how accessible the hospitals are to the housing. Find out if the housing is typically well furnished. Ask if the housing facility's are kept clean or if the agency just looks for the cheapest possible place.

Another factor to consider in selecting the right traveling nurse agency, is to see how long the traveling nurses have been working for them.  You will also want to find out how long the agency has been in business- and what credentials and recommendations they have from hospitals. You could quickly get a feel for this on the internet. You will also want to know what hours and pay rates you can be guaranteed, and likewise what benefits you can expect in the traveling nurse agency.