While moving to different locations, travel nurses receive some of the best benefits available in the medical industry. When calculating all of the positive things that come from this type of career, it is no wonder that men and women continue to seek out this profession as both lucrative and exciting. Between the compensation, the travel benefits and the insurance coverage, becoming a travel nurse offers stability and potential that few other jobs can match.

Compensation

For most people, a paycheck is one of the most important parts of any job or career. Travel nurses are guaranteed a certain number of hours on any project on which they are assigned. Because of the demand in the medical field, these guarantees often include overtime. If the work isn`t there after a nurse has arrived, they are still guaranteed the pay they were promised. (The terms of guaranteed pay vary from company to company.)

Other compensation includes money for meals, housing (if not provided by the nursing company) and some incidentals. When added up, this is a sizable change from the pay of a typical nurse working in the same location day after day. On top of this, there are bonuses. A nurse could potentially be given a sign-on bonus, a job completion bonus and even a bonus for recommending friends for this career option.

Travel Benefits

When it comes to housing, traveling nurses often have two options. A company could provide housing for their nurses. In this case, the residence is fully furnished and usually within close distance of the medical facility. Others choose to arrange for their own housing.
These traveling nurses will usually get an allowance that will go towards the apartment, rental home or condo.

All traveling expenses are covered. Plane tickets, train tickets and even daily bus tickets are paid for. While this seems like an obvious benefit, there is more here than meets the eye. The money is usually given to a traveling nurse as a reimbursement. Because of this, there is no reason to pay taxes on this amount. For many traveling nurses, this is like getting a pay raise that doesn`t require paying any additional taxes.

Insurance Coverage

Traveling nurses have the option to choose between different types of medical insurance options. Some plans cover a nurse while they are away from home. Other plans cover the entire family. The ability to choose the plan that works well for the individual and their family is beneficial to any traveling nurse. Some form of life insurance coverage is usually available as well.

With all these benefits to consider, students looking for a promising career often find themselves drawn to nursing. With compensation that often outweighs that of local nurses and the ability to see new places and enjoy new experiences, the traveling medical industry is seeing steady increases in new recruits. To get an advantage over the competition, individuals look to some of the top nursing programs in the world to not only educate them, but also to help them search for the right traveling nurse opportunities.

Carly Anderson Director, www.college.com