Incomes 6 figures, working 9 months a yr, touring the nation: What it is wish to be a journey nurse, from those that have performed it

Journey nursing is not for everybody, however it does include perks. In contrast with everlasting workers nursing positions, journey nurses get pleasure from extra versatile contracts, alternatives for journey and better salaries.

Journey nurses work short-term contracts, often for just a few months at a time, anyplace there are staffing shortages across the U.S. This consists of hospitals and long-term care amenities, in addition to locations like jails and prisons. 

Demand for journey nurses was rising earlier than the pandemic, however it exploded between 2020 and 2022, pushing up gross salaries to as a lot as $6,000 per week, in response to health-care staffing company AceStack. 

Whereas demand has since subsided considerably, journey nurses can nonetheless earn 30% to 50% greater than comparable everlasting workers nurse positions, particularly the place demand is highest.

Kevin Levu at dwelling.

Chuck Greenwood | CNBC Make It

The occupation “offers numerous freedom in my life,” says Kevin Levu, 24, a journey nurse at Pelican Bay, a most safety jail in Crescent Metropolis, California.

“For me, it is the advantage of selecting how lengthy I work someplace, negotiating my pay and feeling like I am being paid what I am price,” says Levu.

This is a have a look at each the upsides and challenges of being a journey nurse, in response to three registered or licensed vocational nurses who made the change.

The liberty to journey throughout the U.S. is usually cited as one of many greatest perks of being a journey nurse. It is what drew Kirsten Newcomb to the place. In March 2020, Newcomb, then 33, moved to the Hawaiian island of Maui after quitting her longtime job as a workers nurse in Virginia. 

“I used to be motivated primarily by journey,” she instructed Develop, the non-public finance website printed by CNBC in partnership with Acorns, in 2022. “I simply knew if I used to be going to begin journey nursing I needed to go someplace epic,” like Hawaii. 

Kirsten Newcomb is from Virginia and has labored three journey nurse contracts in Maui.

Photograph by Helen Zhao

Newcomb, who at all times “liked planning holidays,” had been contemplating journey nursing for a very long time earlier than lastly seizing the chance to work in Maui in 2020, earlier than the pandemic started.

Equally for Levu, journey nursing was a solution to “expertise one thing exterior of the norm.” Whereas working with violent inmates is much from a trip, he says the expertise has given him perspective about his personal sense of freedom. 

“The seaside is three minutes away from my home, however for a few of these inmates it would as nicely be 1,000 miles away, as a result of they’re by no means getting out,” says Levu.

Journey nurse contracts often solely final just a few months, making it logistically simple to take day off work between gigs. Contracts can usually be prolonged, too, particularly in locations the place journey nurses are in excessive demand.

That flexibility permits Aspen Tucker to work onerous for 9 months, adopted by a three-month break.

At 26, Tucker left his workers nursing job in 2020 for his first journey nursing gig, attracted by the upper pay and the liberty to set his personal schedule.

Aspen Tucker at dwelling.

Nathanael Berry for CNBC Make It

With extra day off, he is been in a position to take prolonged holidays to faraway locations like Belize, Colombia, Seychelles, Qatar and Kenya.

“Once I was youthful, I wrote down an inventory of locations I at all times needed to journey,” he says. “I attempt to knock out each place on that checklist.”

Newcomb has additionally taken weeks off between journey nursing gigs as a solution to unwind. “I have been in a position to take extra day off than I used to be as a workers nurse, for certain,” she says.

Journey nurses are inclined to earn extra per hour than workers nurses. Plus, they often obtain tax-free bursaries or stipends to cowl dwelling bills, which boosts their revenue even additional.

Whereas journey nurses may earn greater than $6,000 per week between 2020 and 2022, they now usher in a mean of $2,800 for a 48-hour week, in response to AceStack. That is about $1,400 to $1,960 larger than common workers nursing positions.

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By switching to journey nursing, Newcomb boosted her pay from about $1,000 per week to $7,000 per week in 2020, permitting her to save lots of $30,000 over the course of 1 yr.

Likewise, Tucker greater than tripled his nursing wage in 2022, which allowed him to save lots of $57,000 for a down fee on a house in Spartanburg, South Carolina — a house base for when he is not working.

Levu doubled his revenue from $56,600 in 2023 to $112,000 in 2024 when he began working as a journey nurse at a county jail. The monetary safety that comes with Levu’s job provides him a way of “aid” understanding there’s extra “respiration house” in his month-to-month funds, he says.

Whereas journey nursing has monetary and life-style advantages, the job shouldn’t be with out its challenges. Contracts are sometimes in high-stress environments like prisons, hospitals and disaster facilities that may take an emotional toll on these within the occupation.

Newcomb, who labored at a disaster middle in Dallas in the course of the pandemic in 2020, says the expertise was grueling. “I believe I noticed extra sufferers cross away than I had within the full 10 years earlier in my entire nursing profession,” she says.

For Levu, turning into a journey nurse meant leaving the routine of a long-term care facility for the jarring depth of working in a jail, the place inmate violence is widespread.

“I’ve blood on my arms, after which later my shift ends,” Levu says. Within the exterior world, “individuals are greeting me on the grocery retailer, and I am like, ‘Dude, this feels just a little unreal.'”

The hours will be lengthy, too. Tucker is ready to take day off when he wants it, however when on contract he has labored 48- to 60-hour weeks to maximise his additional time pay.

Along with the emotional toll, journey nursing comes with logistical trade-offs too. 

In Newcomb’s case, regardless of having the ability to “swim with turtles” on a tropical island, the excessive value of dwelling in Maui prevented her from saving a lot cash when she was there. And with every job comes the problem of discovering a brand new place to remain, often inside two weeks of accepting a proposal. 

The logistics of journey will be “very disturbing,” she says.

Kirsten Newcomb in Hawaii.

Photograph by Helen Zhao

The added journey prices may also be troublesome to handle, says Tucker. When working, he is needed to pay hire whereas nonetheless making mortgage funds again dwelling. He is additionally needed to pay mates to maintain his pet canine and keep watch over his dwelling.

By not having a everlasting job, Tucker additionally does not have medical insurance when he is not working. He needs to be cautious about health-care prices when he is been between contracts, he says.

The plain problem for Levu is the specter of violence at Pelican Bay. For that cause, “corrections is not one thing I plan on doing on a long-term foundation,” he says. As an alternative, he may be a part of the military as a commissioned nurse.

Within the meantime, Levu is studying to stability the stress of his work along with his psychological well being. Which means not at all times choosing up additional time, simply to make more cash: “If it is one thing I get pleasure from doing, then I’ll,” he says. “In any other case, I do not essentially want the cash that unhealthy.”

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