Are You More Comfortable With Per Diem Or Travel Nursing?
Are you looking to take a new turn with your nursing career? Travel and per diem assignments both offer RNs the opportunity to expand their nursing horizons while visiting different parts of the country. However, these careers feature a number of differences as well. Here are some of the pros and cons associated with per diem and travel nursing respectively:
Per Diem Nursing
Per diem nurses are employed on temporary assignments. Typically, these jobs are found either through hospital staffing pools or specialized job placement agencies. In addition to relatively high wages, these positions also offer nurses the flexibility to work when they want as well as where they want.
Pros
Working on a per diem basis allows nurses to choose the hospitals where they wish to work. Moreover, per diem nurses get to make their own schedules to meet the needs of their personal lives. Per diem nurses are enver required to work a weekend or a holiday, if they so choose. Their pay rate is usually much higher than what regular staff nurses take home.
Cons
On the other hand, per diem nurses have relatively low job security, as their primary function is to fill in and help ease the workload on a temporary basis. Once the hospital fills a vacancy or with the ongoing fluctuations in patient census, per diem nurses’ assignments may be cancelled, often at the last minute.
Travel Nursing
Like per diem nurses, travel nurses are hired to work for a limited amount of time at a given location. These nurses travel around the country to healthcare facilities with extended staffing needs, and on average they work 13-week assignments in a single location.
Pros
As is the case with per diem nurses, travel nurses get to choose where they want to work. Unlike per diem employees, however, travel nurses have guaranteed hours; as long as they’re under contract, their positions cannot be cancelled. Additionally, travel nurses have the ability to move on to another location once they have fulfilled their contracts, or may extend their contracts at their current jobs provided there is still a need.
Cons
Unfortunately, travel nurses have less flexibility in their schedules than per diem workers. So they may be required to work every other weekend or even a holiday in this role! If complete flexibility in scheduling is the nurse’s goal, travel nursing may not be the right choice.
Contact Remede Consulting to Give Your Nursing Career a Jumpstart
Are you a qualified nurse interested in traveling the U.S.? At Remede Consulting Group, we specialize in connecting nursing candidates with exceptional hospitals across the United States. Contact Remede today to give your nursing career a jumpstart, or to learn more about the experiences of our current travelers and per diem staff.