So far I have written several posts about what to avoid and how to position yourself with Travel Nursing contracts and housing covering the trials and tribulations about the challenges faced with Travel Nursing. Today I am focusing on the light-hearted and positive experiences we've had that we would have missed out on had we not decided to hit the road as a Travel Nurse. We have already created life-long memories from the rich experiences we've had! We have some fun stories to tell as well!
One of the reasons my husband wanted to become a travel nurse, as with many Travel Nurses, is to see the country while getting paid for it. During our quest, from the beginning, we decided to create a "road" bucket list of experiences we want while exploring this great country. While we are only in our 10th month on the road, we are happy to report that we have already checked off a bunch of bucket list items and discovered more that we didn't know we wanted to do!
Let's start with a big one! We took an assignment in Los Angeles for the winter. Because we were in LA and because we had more daytime to enjoy the city, I ended up on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno! Yes, you heard right! One average day we went wandering around Universal Studios with our annual passes. As we stood to watch a kids show being filmed on the lot we were approached by a guy who was holding spokesperson auditions and asked me to "try out." Now, I knew from how vague he was that it couldn't have been "real," but we were having a really fun day and opted in. It turns out that the spokesperson role was being filmed for the Fake Spokesperson segment on The Tonight Show and my audition made the cut. A couple of weeks after the shoot, our friends back home started flooding our facebook page with comments how they saw us! It was hilarious!! In addition to being ON the show, we were given tickets to watch a live taping of it at the studio. Oh, how we miss Jay Leno now that Jimmy Fallon took over! The entire experience was so much fun!
Chance encounters with other famous faces happened a few times while in Los Angeles as filming is everywhere there, every day. On a Friday afternoon we had a brief moment to meet and talk to Garth Brooks. Though I am not a country music fan, after seeing him in person and listening to his interview I'm a fan! He is such a humble guy!
My husband had the opportunity to meet his favorite actors from his teenage years. We went to a book signing on Sunset Boulevard featuring a new book written about an old show. During the book signing the Producer, Director, and two of the main characters all showed up! What a cool, cool day for my husband! After the signing was finished, the actors mingled with the crowd. My husband had the opportunity to discuss the show personally with them for quite some time, one-on-one! Great experiences --- and all because we were brave enough to hit the road and try Travel Nursing!
In his younger years my husband loved to play tennis. He always dreamed of getting to a pro tournament. While on assignment in Winston-Salem, North Carolina we made that dream come true. The Winston-Salem Open came to town and we were able to get tickets to see some of the sports top players compete! The husband was in heaven! It had been so rainy all week but on this evening of competition the climate was just right and no rain! Bucket list item --- checked off and look how happy he is!
- Other great experiences we checked off the list include; eating dim sum in an authentic Chinese restaurant. We did that in downtown Los Angeles in Chinatown.
- Putting out feet in the sand on Christmas Day. We went to a beach in Malibu to spend part of our Christmas -- sure beats the snow back in Wisconsin!!
- Roadtrip to explore San Diego. What a great city! We'd certainly look for assignments here in the future. There is so much to see and do!
- Palm Springs - a great, small city place to take in nature and relax on days off. We'll look for work here when we need to slow down a little. This is the perfect place for it.
- Neither of us had ever been to Wilmington, NC or Charleston, SC before but wanted to go. We were able to do that while on assignment in North Carolina. Both are waterfront, historic cities that have a well-developed waterfront area offering great seafood dining options. We had a blast!
- Outer Banks - we took another roadtrip specifically to enjoy the southern end of The Outer Banks. A really nice, beachside vibe!
- Toured the Biltmore Castle. Upon arrival we were given a pair of specialty Servants Quarters Tour tickets - a group had a few no-shows and granted the spare tickets to us for free! Ah-mazing castle! I kept picturing that this must be the type of place the Downton Abbey crew worked in!
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Experienced the Smoky Mountains.
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Saw the Andy Griffith Museum and the city which inspired Mayberry.
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Wineries! We love wineries and breweries so we tour them from coast to coast.
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Visited our first Presidential Library - The Reagan. A traveling exhibit about Spies was an excellent bonus. We boarded Reagan's Air Force Once - it's cool to now say we were on Air Force One!
- We attended our very first Jazz festival and seeing Dave Koz give a live performance as well as Al Jarreau. Loved it!
- Finding the world's best barbecue (in my humble opinion) in Wichita, Kansas.
- Photographing abandoned buildings, cities, gas stations, and signs along Route 66.
- We stood on the corner in Winslow, Arizona. What a fine sight to see!
- Met some really great people by starting a meetup group in one of our assignment cities - one of whom has become a very good friend.
- There has been so much more to blather on about already, but I'll leave it here as a "to be continued."
- In summary, while Travel Nursing is hard work, as any nurse will tell you, it is very rewarding and exciting, too!
We are hoping for the next assignments to be on the Eastern Seaboard to finish out the summer months, then hopefully, off to Honolulu for six months of warm weather bliss again! We are loving the option to skip our horrible winters back in our tax home!
A Travel Nurse lives and dies by the contract negotiated. It is so important to negotiate the best pay package that you can during for your assignment. We have read a LOT of articles, blogs, and websites that talk about getting "everything" in writing in your contract but we have found very few specifics for what to ask for. Since we are still in our first year of Travel Nursing, the lack of info was frustrating for us.
Here are a few pointers we've learned to get written into the contract BEFORE we start an assignment. Whatever it is you want or need, HOLD YOUR GROUND. If your recruiter can't or won't give you what you need, then pick another company. There are hundreds to choose from.
1) Plan your vacations and get those dates you want/need written into the contract.
2) Put language in writing that specifies no PBDS testing or Prophecy testing is required by either the Agency OR the Hospital, and if it IS required, that the contract will NOT be cancelled if you fail. It is appalling that you move to a new location and commit to an apartment LEASE only to have a Performance Based Development System test sprung on you that hinges on whether or not you start working. That is unacceptable. You commit to a contract and so should they.
3) Instead of asking for completion bonuses or sign-on bonuses, negotiate a higher taxable hourly rate. This will be significant for take-home pay as nearly 40% of those bonuses go away to taxes withheld when the bonus pays out. Additionally, completion bonuses can be affected by the facility when they low census (for which you have no control). Some Agencies WILL penalize you even though it wasn't your fault you didn't get all the hours contracted for (see item #5 for guaranteed hours).
4) Insist that the clause for sick days be deleted or modified. Some companies will garnish your pay (we've seen up to $19/hr!) if you call in sick! At LEAST negotiate 2 days of sick time without a wage garnish.
5) Get "guaranteed hours worked" in your contract. This means that the facility guarantees you will be scheduled for AND WORK 36 hours after orientation is complete. We moved across the country and were then repeatedly low censused. It makes no sense to take an assignment and then be subject to low census repeatedly. GET THE GUARANTEE. The caveat to that, of course, is that you must then be prepared to float to other departments. But work is work!
6) Get a Travel Reimbursement of $300 to $500. Half pays out when you arrive at the assignment, the rest pays when you travel to either your tax home or next assignment.
7) Get hotel reimbursements in addition to the Travel Reimbursement. We have gotten up to $200 for hotels to go to an assignment.
8) If a new license is required for a state you accept a contract in, get License Reimbursement written into the contract and get the dollar amount specified.
9) Any certifications required, you get a Certification Reimbursement.
10) Any online training that is required prior to arriving for your first day of the assignment you get paid your base rate. We have spent up to 10 HOURS of unpaid training for one hospital that we never received pay for!!!! All of that was required before he started the job yet our Agency never disclosed it during contract negotiations and never compensated us. This training was specific to the hospital about it's policies and procedures.
11) Get the highest taxable rate that makes sense for you. Many agencies offer a low taxable rate ($10-$18/hr) and then make it up in a glamorous housing stipend. The Agency is saving a boatload of money by doing this because they don't have to pay out employment taxes and the saved money goes into their own pocket. Also, they are not paying into your social security account for your future, AND, if you plan to buy anything requiring a loan in the next 2 years, that housing stipend does not factor into your income so you will qualify for a smaller loan. One more thing to note, the IRS is now getting more aggressive on auditing Agencies who circumvent taxes by paying inappropriately low rates to nurses. BEWARE!
12) Make sure your contract specifies the hours of your shift assignments. We've seen assignments be for 12 hour night shifts but upon arrival they schedule nurses for days, pm's or eight hour shifts. That's a no-no!
13) Get your hourly and overtime rates specified. In California, for example, blended rates are usually quoted by your Agency. You must be able to see the specific hourly base rate and the specific OT rate so that you can determine if working an extra shift is worth it. Blended rates hide what you will actually earn.
14) Get a minimum eight hours of in-unit orientation time written into the contract. We have arrived at assignments where orientation was intended but never happened. Zero! The unit had a couple of nurses call in sick so we never were even given a tour around the unit, just thrown into the fire on the very first night.
15) If you take the company housing, specify all the things you require in your apartment, such as a TV, non-smoking, proximity to the facility, pets allowed, etc.
16) Assignment Extensions: Nurses who accept a contract extension need a paid visit to their tax home. Get the length of visit and the cost reimbursements written into the contract. Agencies typically offer $400-$500 for this, but often Nurses must ASK for it - it is not typically offered without asking for it.
17) A contract extension is really more accurately described as a new contract. Negotiate higher pay for the extension. The Agency doesn't spend money recruiting or getting a new nurse licensed/certified again, and the hospital isn't paying for more orientation. Many Agencies will offer completion bonuses to entice you but negotiate higher pay instead.
18) Finally, if a specific uniform is required by the hospital that you must go buy, get that reimbursement written into the contract. Though Uniforms are tax deductible, I would rather get the reimbursement from the Agency than wait to claim it on my taxes.
These are all things we learned the hard way as we didn't find any specific guides written anywhere as to what to ask for!
I hope these help you as you negotiate the best deal possible for yourself. If there is something else that you ask for that isn't listed here, please comment or email me as we'd love to know and share with others!
