Ask a Travel Nurse Question: 

Ask a Travel Nurse: Should I take agency housing or find my own in Hawaii?

I’ve been traveling for two years now and have always found my own housing, but coming up in January I’m planning to take the plunge and head to Hawaii, so I was thinking I’d like to eliminate some stress and just have my agency handle my housing for this assignment. Do you think this would be smart? Or will this unpack my pay too much and not be worth it?

Ask a Travel Nurse Answer:

I’m sorry, but this is simply not a question that I can answer for you. Let me explain.

In 19 years, I have never taken an assignment where I arranged my own housing. This is for precisely the reason that you mentioned, it is just too stressful. But that is actually not the reason for not being able to answer your question.

The reason I cannot answer your question is that I have no idea what dollar amount we would be talking about, nor do I have any idea if this dollar amount would equate with the amount of stress relief it provides. Again, I always think it is worth it to have someone else find the unit, arrange the lease, pay the deposit, take care of issues should they arise, and about 20 other things that I would have to deal with on my own should I not have my company’s housing department to do it for me.

Even if I were to know the dollar amount, what might be worth a pay cut to me, might not be worth it to you.

Find out the dollar amounts, research how hard it is finding housing on the island where you are headed, and then maybe hit the travel nursing forums and see what others have to say about finding housing in Hawaii. The three times I have gone, I have always had company housing and no complaints.

Sorry I could not answer you more directly, but this is personal decision once you have all the information. Good luck!

David

david@travelnursesbible.com

Click here to celebrate!

If you’re like me, you embrace any festive reason to celebrate. And this Friday, October 10th, there’s a really good occasion: Travel Nurses Day 2014!

Medical Solutions, a pet-friendly Travel Nurse staffing company, introduced Travel Nurses Day in 2013, in order to set aside a day specifically to honor and celebrate Travel Nurses and the unique, important work they do in hospitals and facilities nationwide. Travel Nurses lessen the impact of the nursing shortage, also providing relief to their colleagues, preventing nurse burnout, and ensuring safer staffing levels. Not to mention all of the hard work and great patient care they put forth! While working hard, Travelers also play hard and explore hard — embracing the awesome adventure of cities unseen and sights unknown.

So, a day just for Travel Nurses is the least the world can do, and, there are some pretty amazing prizes on the line this year for Travel Nurses Day:

• One paid vacation of your choice — a $2500 value
• Three Kindle Fire HD 6 Tablets (8GB) — each tablet a $114 value
• Three $50 gift cards from Tafford Uniforms
• Fifteen $50 gift cards from Zappos, Amazon, and Starbucks

And, becoming eligible to win one of these great prizes is literally fun and games! Here are this year’s amusing Travel Nurses Day activities:

• Find the perfect location for your next assignment with the “Where should I travel next?” quiz. Land in a spot that’s juuuust right, based upon your unique style, favorite things, and preferred surroundings. It’s like having your very own crystal ball, plus who doesn’t love an online quiz?!
• Three Photo Finds allow you to take advantage of your keen perception skills. Simply spot the inconsistencies between each set of photos.
• Write your own Travel Nursing tales with three Travel-Libs. Just fill in a few words and watch your distinctive, and likely pretty funny, story unfold.

Games are live now, so head to TravelNursesDay.com to get your celebration on, play games, and (fingers crossed!) win prizes. Happy Travel Nurses Day 2014!