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Types of Travel Nurse Jobs

Are you an RN who loves traveling and exploring new places? Having you been thinking about becoming a Travel Nurse? For those of you who said yes to both of these questions we present an article that gives you the details about the main types of travel nurse jobs. The main types are: Independent Contractor, Travel Nurse, Agency Nurse and Registry Nurse.

Independent Contractor

There are a few independent souls out there who like the idea of managing their compensation packages. These are nurses who deal directly with human resources departments and nursing departments on their own. These nurses arrange their own contract details.

There are not many of these nurses around yet and when you do a search engine review for “nurses” & “independent contractor” the hits mostly return programs offering to teach you how to be a legal nurse consultant. The advantages of this approach are that you can sometimes negotiate a slightly higher wage for yourself vs. using a travel agency or registry company.

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Something to keep in mind are issues concerning workman’s compensation, vacation time, sick time and the other benefits that may or may not be included in the package. This type of traveling nurse job may not “travel” very far from home. Often the independent contractor type will stay with a particular facility on a semi-permanent basis.

Travel Nurse

This is the type of travel nurse job most nurses think about when they hear the expression travel nurse. This is a temporary contracted nurse position.

A nurse contacts a nursing agency or travel agency and goes through their employment process. She or he then becomes an employee of the nursing agency. The nursing agency maintains a list of employers that have expressed a need for traveling nurses. They match the nurse with an employer based on the nurses experience level, skills and type of facility they have worked at in the past.

As a general rule an ICU nurse would only work ICU and a Medical Surgery Nurse would only work Medical Surgery. Travel nurse jobs with travel agencies typically last from 4 weeks to 26 weeks. The typical contract is for 13 weeks with multiple renewals possible if the employer continues to need the nurse. It is possible to work for the same employer for years simply by renewing the contract each time it comes up for renewal. The benefits of travel nursing vary by agency so always check for current details.