We’ve been around since 1995 helping travel nurses find their dream contracts. As you can imagine, our recruiters and account managers have been asked thousands of questions from travel nurses throughout the years. With that being said, we’ve narrowed it down to the top questions our recruiters get asked from travel nurses. This applies to both new travelers and veteran travelers.
What Nursing contracts do you have? How much do they pay?
This is the number one question our recruiters get asked questions from travel nurses. New travel nurses and veteran travelers want to know their options. The truthful and unsatisfying answer is, it depends. The best way to know what accurate travel nursing contracts we have is by talking with a recruiter! Positions open and close almost hourly. If you are interested in a contract you need to let your recruiter know ASAP. This puts the wheels in motion to get your application completed, get you compliant, and get you submitted to your ideal facility!
Before chatting with your recruiter, do some research on where you want to travel to. Not sure where to go? Here is a list of the best states for nurses to work and live.
Pro Tip: keep an open mind while choosing contracts. Surprisingly, some of the best experiences and memories happen in places you might have not known you would enjoy!
Do I get Mileage Reimbursement and stipends for My Travel Nursing Contract?
PRN Healthcare personalizes all of our pay quotes based on each individual nurse which allows us to include travel reimbursement in your contract. We also are able to pay a portion of your weekly check in tax-free money (also known as stipends), pending that you are duplicating living expenses. We understand that this new adventure may arise some questions for you- so always feel free to reach out to one of our recruiters if you would like more explanation on how this works and how to capitalize your income!
How do I know my contract won’t get canceled?
This is a fear for many new travelers who are debating leaving the security of their staff position. Truthfully, it is always a possibility for a contract to cancel. It is very rare though, especially with the high demand and shortage of nurses. If a cancellation were to happen, your recruiter and account manager will do everything to either get you into a new contract or find you something better ASAP! Moral of the story? Take the leap. You won’t regret it.
How Do I Find Housing as a Travel Nurse?
PRN Healthcare offers two options for meeting your housing needs as a travel nurse. We have a Housing Coordinator in-office that can work with you to find your home away from home. You will be supplied with fully furnished housing, so you can move right in. Just let our housing coordinator know your wants, needs, and expectations. For example, do you want to be where the action is or do you prefer a quiet environment? Alternatively, you can look for housing on your own and we will provide you with a stipend.
Still curious about travel nurse housing? We have a lot of resources for you on the blog.
- 10 Travel Nurse Necessities You’ll Want for Your Next Contract
- How to Find Short-Term Housing for Travel Assignments
- How to Make Travel Nurse Housing Feel Like Home
- 5 Tips for Packing for a 13 Week Travel Contract
What Benefits do you offer?
Benefits play an important deciding factor for travel nurses when it comes to choosing the right travel agency they want to work for. For example, the more benefits that a travel agency offers means it is more likely for the travel nurse to want to work there. Also, benefits can determine if the nurse wants to come back and work for the company because they offer a variety of good benefits that pertain to them. A few benefits that PRN Healthcare provides is health insurance, life insurance, dental insurance, and vision insurance. The company also offers a 401k plan, travel housing, referral bonuses, and much more! Make sure to plan ahead and ask your recruiter about what benefits their company offers.
Check out our PRN Healthcare page to learn more about what benefits we offer!
What is the onboarding process like?
When talking with a recruiter it is important to ask what the onboarding process is like. This experience can be a bit overwhelming for some, which is why you should ask how long the process takes. For example, some companies onboarding process may take a week, and some places may take several weeks to a month. A few other important questions for a travel nurses is to ask what documents are required for compliance so you can come prepared with sending them over. A recent requirement for most healthcare facilities is to make sure you are all up to date on your vaccines. Therefore, when your sending your compliance paperwork over you should make sure to include your vaccine forms. As you can see every agency is different when it comes to their onboarding process, which is why it is important to ask these questions.
Answers that can be red flags from Recruiters
As a travel nurse, when you first start to talking to a recruiter you need to pay attention to all of their answers. This is due to some of the answers being seen as red flags on important topics. For example, when a recruiter is talking about how often you are going to get paid from the company. This is an important subject to pay attention to and can be seen as a red flag if the company only offers biweekly pay. This is because most nurses prefer being paid weekly over biweekly pay.
Another red flag can be if a recruiter says they do not offer travel reimbursements in the contract. This would mean that the employer would not pay the nurse back for any of the expenses while they were traveling. Typically, most nurses would not be happy about that. The last red flag is when is when you feel like their is a lack of communication between you and the recruiter. Communication is essential when trying to find the perfect assignment, and if you reached out to the recruiter a week ago and still haven’t heard back from the recruiter, then that’s a huge red flag. As you can see it is important to pay attention to those red flags from recruiters so you don’t end up getting stuck with a contract that you are not happy with!
What makes your agency the best choice for travel nursing?
Being a travel nurse, you are always put in the situation where you have to choose which staffing agency is the best for you. Let me tell you, it all comes down to the fine details and which agency is most beneficial to yourself. All staffing agencies have many similarities and differences and those differences can be your deciding factor on whether or not you work for them. As a travel nurse, you have the right to ask your recruiter why their agency is the best choice for them. The recruiter should be used to getting asked this question, and should have many reasons why you should choose their agency over other competitor agencies. The responses the recruiter provides should sell you on whether you want to work for the company or not.
Can I Extend my travel Nurse Contract? I Love My Placement!
This makes us so happy when we get this question! We are thrilled you are loving your contract. Sometimes extending contracts is easy, some nurses have been working at the same facility for years! Other times it can be a little more complicated.
In an ideal world, if you knew you wanted to extend, you should talk to your nurse manager. If you don’t express that you want to stay they might replace you with someone else. Once your manager knows, they may extend a renewal to you. Normally this happens when they haven’t yet found a permanent staff nurse, and they like having you on the team. This makes the process easy for everyone involved. You don’t need to move or reintegrate into another facility. Your recruiter doesn’t have to resubmit you anywhere, and your manager doesn’t have to worry about replacing you.
Sometimes the world isn’t so perfect and an extension cannot be given. This could be due to multiple reasons. Firstly, the needs at the facility could have changed, and either you are not needed anymore or you don’t want to accept the new job duties. Sometimes when nurses ask for high pay increases or weeks of vacation off, the facility decides to hire someone else instead. Whatever the reason is, there is something good that comes out of this! At least now you know what you are looking for. When you know what type of environment you thrive in, it helps find contracts that much easier!
Did these questions from travel nurses spark more questions for you? We’re here to help answer all your questions. Now is the time to go visit PRN Healthcare to find the next place to travel nurse.
