Pandemic Pay Rate Realness

We have all seen it. The rates, the crazy rates! 

$7,000 a week for ER and ICU 12hr varied shifts! 

While paying nurses more during these ridiculous times is justified, we would be remiss, sending you off chasing the shiny penny without knowing the full weight of that penny; cause it is heavy, heavy with expectations. 

Travel nursing pay rates have always been higher than that of staff nurses; that has always been one of the many perks of this career path. However, as with most of the world, the pandemic has had an enormous impact on the travel nursing industry. Pay rates are getting so high that we’re seeing staff nurses bid their full-time roles adieu to get in on the travel nurse action.  

Let’s take a look at how we got here. 

In early 2019, high paying assignments for travel nurses was $2000-$2500. Typical assignments are about 13 weeks long, day or night shifts, 36-40 hours a week, and normal nurse to patient ratios. In early 2020, as coronavirus leveled up to pandemic status, rates increased to $3000-$4000 in March 2020, and by the summer crisis rates were $4000-$5000. Seeing rates double was shocking enough, but more surprisingly, it is not over! From Winter 2020 to now there has been a steady supply of assignments paying $6000-$8000 a week, and we don’t think we’ve seen the peak yet. While spikes have been across all specialties, ICU and Telemetry enjoy the largest and most consistent pay rate increases. 

However, along with the ever-increasing rates, there has been some confusion around what these increased rates mean for travel nurses; Do these rates mean there are more expectations and responsibilities? In short, yes. 

With great pay comes great responsibility – or whatever Spider-Man’s uncle said. 

With these new rates, assignment expectations and responsibilities have also risen. Crisis responsibilities now include:

• 48-60 hour weeks
• Higher nurse to patient ratio (1:3 or 1:4 in the ICU)
• Varied shifts
• A near guarantee of floating
• Pay rates can go up or down during your assignment. 
• 6-8 week contracts (instead of 13 weeks)

Shorter contracts are an effort by the hospital to avoid being locked into one pay rate for too long should the market fluctuate again. However, extensions are still very much a norm and, if you like your location, a hospital will still accommodate these requests. 

In order to keep up with the demand, the amount of hiring, and procedural steps from hiring to start date has been streamlined. At this point, if your profile is a match and your license is unencumbered, you’re in the express lane to a job. There’s little to no time for the long interview process and compliance onboarding time has shrunk, so expect orientations to only be a day. 

So, lastly, some advice: be flexible. This is a common sound bite from everyone in the travel nursing industry, even in normal times, but it’s more relevant now. Hospitals are operating as if they’re on fire, they’re not just paying more to attract nurses but paying more to get more work out of their nurses. If you want the highest paying assignments, just know you’ll be expected to work longer hours, varied shifts, float regularly, and have more patient responsibility. Communicate early what you want and find the right fit that checks all your boxes. 

Most importantly, stay safe and protect your physical emotional, and mental health. If you need any help with that, please reach out and let us know if there’s anything we can do. 

Cheers to 2021.