Travel nursing is straightforward once you have done two contracts. The first one is where people get caught, almost always by the same five things, none of which are clinical.
1. The pay is a package, and you need the breakdown
Travel compensation is normally a taxable hourly rate plus non taxable stipends for housing and meals. Agencies frequently quote a single blended weekly figure, because a blended number looks larger and invites less scrutiny.
Insist on the split before you commit. You need it for three reasons.
It determines your tax position, discussed below. It determines what overtime is worth, because overtime multiplies only the taxable hourly rate, so a contract with a low taxable rate and high stipends pays poorly for extra hours. And it determines what you receive if the facility cancels shifts, since stipends are often tied to hours worked.
Two contracts advertised at the same weekly gross can be materially different jobs. Compare the components, not the headline.
2. The stipends are only tax free if you have a tax home
This is the single most consequential thing new travellers misunderstand, and getting it wrong creates a problem that surfaces a year later.
Housing and meal stipends are non taxable only if you are duplicating expenses, meaning you are maintaining a genuine permanent residence somewhere while paying to live near the assignment. The IRS concept is a tax home, and it broadly requires that you have a regular place of business or abode, that you are incurring real costs to maintain it, and that you return to it.
Paying a token amount to a relative to keep a bedroom, or claiming a parent's address while having no actual expenses, does not establish a tax home. Nurses who work continuously away from any permanent residence are itinerant for tax purposes, and for an itinerant worker the stipends are ordinary taxable income.
The other trap is staying too long in one place. Remaining at a single work location for more than twelve months generally makes that location your tax home, which ends the stipend treatment. This is why repeated extensions in the same city need care.
Talk to an accountant who has travel healthcare clients before your first contract, not after. It is a small cost and it prevents an expensive surprise.
3. Float policy decides what your contract actually is
You may be hired for telemetry and spend half the contract on other units. Whether that is acceptable depends entirely on what the contract says, and vague float language is the most common source of mid assignment disputes.
Get it in writing before you sign: which units you can be floated to, whether you will be oriented to them, and whether you can be floated to a specialty you have not worked. Floating within a cluster of similar units is normal and reasonable. Being sent unoriented from telemetry to paediatrics is a licence risk, and it happens.
You have leverage on this before you sign and essentially none afterwards. Thirteen weeks is a long time to spend somewhere you did not agree to be.
4. Licensure sets your start date
The Nurse Licensure Compact lets a nurse whose primary residence is in a compact state hold one multistate licence and practise in every other compact state. If that describes you, most of the country is open immediately and this is the largest single advantage in travel nursing.
If your home state is not in the compact, or you want to work in a non compact state such as California, New York or Oregon, you need a licence by endorsement in that state. Processing times vary enormously and can run from a few weeks to several months depending on the board and the time of year.
Apply early, before you have a contract, for the states you actually want to work in. Nurses regularly lose good assignments because the licence was not ready. Also note that you cannot hold multistate licences in two compact states at once, so moving your residency has consequences for your licence.
5. Contracts get cancelled, and the terms matter
Facilities cancel. Sometimes before you arrive, occasionally after you have given notice on your permanent job and put a deposit on housing. This is the risk you are compensated for and it is not rare.
Before signing, know your guaranteed hours, how many hours the facility can cancel without paying, the notice period required, and what your agency does if the contract falls through. A good agency starts on replacements the same day and will tell you which facilities have a history of cancelling. Ask that question directly.
Do not resign from a permanent post until the contract is fully signed and the start date confirmed. Verbal offers are not offers.
The things that are easier than expected
Balance requires saying that most of this goes fine. The clinical work is the clinical work. Units are usually glad you are there. Being the new person constantly is uncomfortable for about three contracts and then becomes a skill.
What surprises most new travellers is how quickly it recalibrates their sense of what is normal. After four facilities you stop assuming that the way your first hospital did things was the only way, which is one of the genuine professional benefits of this work.
Before your first contract, read our note on questions to ask a recruiter and how to prepare for the interview.
Common questions
How much experience do I need to start travel nursing?
Usually one to two years of recent experience in the specialty you want to travel in. Facilities pay contract rates for clinicians who can work independently after a short orientation, so travel is a poor route into a new specialty and a good way to work one you already know.
What is a tax home and why does it matter?
A tax home is a genuine permanent residence you maintain and return to while paying separately to live near your assignment. Housing and meal stipends are only non taxable if you are duplicating expenses in this way. Without one you are itinerant for tax purposes and the stipends are ordinary taxable income.
Do I need a compact nursing licence?
No, but it opens most of the country immediately. If your home state is in the Nurse Licensure Compact, one multistate licence covers every other compact state. For non compact states such as California, New York and Oregon you need a licence by endorsement, so apply early because processing times vary widely.
What happens if my contract is cancelled?
It depends on terms you should read before signing: guaranteed hours, how many hours can be cancelled without payment, and the notice period. Never resign from a permanent job before the contract is signed and the start date confirmed.
Should I take the housing stipend or agency housing?
Most travellers take the stipend and arrange their own accommodation, which gives control over location and lets you keep any difference. Agency housing removes the hassle and is worth considering for a first contract in an unfamiliar city.
PNG Solutions is a healthcare staffing agency in Atlanta placing nurses and allied health professionals nationwide. If you want to talk to a recruiter, call 470 713 0689 or send us a note.