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July 25, 2024
Hospitals have been slowly phasing out travel nurses for the last year. Meanwhile, travelers are complaining that their contracts are being cut short or canceled before they even begin. Signs point to major challenges in the industry — but is travel nursing dead?
Travel nursing has long been a stellar opportunity for nurses to explore new areas and hospitals while gaining valuable experience. However, the pandemic caused a dramatic surge in demand for nurses willing to travel. As a result, many first-time contractors were attracted to the field. Now, many people are questioning what is going on in travel nursing as facilities return to pre-pandemic staffing levels. Here we’ll explore the current state of travel nursing and how travel nurses are affected.
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Source: Unsplash
According to Timothy Landhuis, vice president of research at Staffing Industry Analysts, there were approximately 50,000 US travel nurses pre-pandemic — approximately 1.5% of the country’s registered nurses. That pool doubled to at least 100,000 as COVID spread.
However, complex factors have contributed to a decline in travel nursing positions over the past year.
Most clearly, the cost for hospitals to bring in travel nurses is very expensive. Contract labor expenditures soared by more than 500% in 2022, as hospitals sought out travel nurses to help with pandemic staffing shortages.
Rather than depending on travel nurses for temporary solutions today, hospitals are increasingly looking for permanent, full-time nurses. Large health systems are developing new programs that allow employed nurses to travel to different facilities within their network. The drop in demand has meant there are fewer opportunities for travel nurses and lower pay rates.
One way to combat this trend is for hospitals to search for travel nurses directly instead of going through agencies, which helps reduce the hospital’s costs and increase the pay for travel nurses.
Despite the decline, there are still openings for all specialties, particularly in rural and underserved areas. These settings often lack permanent staff or rely on travel nurses to replace vacancies in their bare-bones workforce to meet the community’s needs.
Likewise, some medical facilities continue to lean on travel nurses for short-term staffing needs. Currently, some of the highest-paying jobs for travel nurses have been in intensive care units and medical surgery.
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The coronavirus and successive variant waves exacerbated hospital staff shortages, resulting in exorbitant contract nursing fees.
As the average travel nurse salary rose across the country in 2020, so did the number of nurses who quit their full-time employment to travel. More nurses abandoned staff employment, and the turnover worsened shortages.
During the surge of COVID-19, national rates for travel nurses rose to $150 per hour. This was three times more than the national average for full-time staff nurses, which has now decreased back to an average of $44/hour nationally.
Source: Healthcare Dive
Three years later, many travelers are returning home for stable staff positions. Hospitals are now negotiating down contract rates with travel nurse agencies by as much as 50%, and some are even hiring travel nurses directly.
Though not what it once was, travel nursing is far from dead, and the pay is still above average. The average travel nurse income has stabilized at around $2k per week in 2024. Given that compensation has fallen, so have the number of travel nurses, making jobs less competitive and evening back out to pre-pandemic levels.
Still, several factors, such as whether a hospital is dealing with a natural disaster or strike, as well as market demand in that region, can cause assignments to attract higher prices. According to ZipRecruiter, the average annual travel nurse salary in the United States is $101,132 or $49/hr as of July 2024. This is still much higher than the national average for registered nurses, which is $86,070 per year or $41.38 per hour, according to the BLS.
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Source: Nurse.org
Another attractive option for nurses who enjoy traveling is internal travel nurse programs. These are contract positions offered by health systems that allow nurses to travel on a short-term basis to associated hospitals. The pay is often higher, but in some cases, benefits may be limited.
“These positions are enticing for anyone interested in a higher base pay, while foregoing many traditional health and wellness benefits — perhaps nurses who are still eligible for health insurance under their parents or guardians, or those who already have coverage through a spouse’s employer,” said Denise Neely, BSN, Senior Vice President and COO for Bronson Methodist Hospital and Chief Nursing Officer for Bronson Healthcare.
Source: Facebook Travel Nurse Community
Other facilities offering similar internal travel programs include:
These arrangements also relieve some of the pain points that travel nurses experience, such as having to learn new policies and procedures, repeating new hire and HR orientation, and worrying that the hospital may cancel their contract.
Travel nursing is still a viable employment choice for the nursing profession. Travelers can earn better salaries with stipends and bonuses than their counterparts, with benefits packages and affordable living arrangements. Another perk of travel nursing is schedule flexibility. Nurses enjoy the option to work 13-week assignments with breaks in between.
Another common attitude expressed by travel nurses is that contract work allows them to focus on patient care. They can avoid the bureaucracy of dealing with management and leadership that some face in staff roles.
Travelers also choose which hospitals they will work in. They can refuse facilities that they’ve heard have dangerous conditions or too many patients per nurse. California is currently the only state that regulates nurse-to-patient ratios. It requires one nurse for every five patients in most departments and intensive care units to have a 1:2 ratio.
Travel nursing is perfect for those who want the freedom to choose the assignment and department that fits their lifestyle and interests. It allows nurses to obtain experience in a variety of settings while having the freedom to travel. Despite the current economic downturn, travel nursing remains a feasible employment option for healthcare workers with the right mindset and skills.
An industry analysis suggests that the US may face a shortage of up to 78,610 full-time registered nurses by 2025. According to one nationwide assessment of the nursing workforce, nurses are retiring in greater numbers. The number of older nurses retiring, combined with the impending influx of elderly Baby Boomers who will require more care, is expected to exacerbate the situation. These facts suggest that there will always be choices for experienced nurses in all specialties who want to travel.
Technological advancements and virtual care will also continue to have an impact on the ever-changing world of travel nursing. While some features of travel nursing may evolve, traditional short-term assignments will remain a popular option to meet facility needs. Overall, travel nursing is very much alive and an attractive career choice for nurses with a promising outlook for the future.
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