HWL Insights

As a flex pool or travel nurse, you're often the "new nurse" on different units. While this role brings exciting opportunities, it also presents unique challenges. Here's how to navigate them with confidence and professionalism.

Let’s be real - travel nursing is awesome, BUT it requires a LOT of coordination to achieve the maximum benefits of top pay and flexibility. What if you could achieve most of the benefits of travel nursing with the job security of a staff nursing position? Have you considered joining an Internal Resource Pool (IRP) aka Local Insourced Flex Teams (LIFT)?

Contingent workers have become a mainstay in the healthcare space, particularly travel nurses. With inflation affecting supply chains in nearly every sector, skill gaps ever widening, and a seemingly-endless talent shortage, it's no wonder facilities are increasingly reliant on travel staff. However, travel nurses come at a premium cost, so overreliance on them can hemorrhage dollars. They also change the way talent management strategies are implemented.

The cost associated with premium contingent labor, like travel nurses, is always higher than salaried permanent nursing positions and coronavirus (COVID-19) exacerbated  an already-significant situation by creating an environment in which these critical resources are in even higher demand. Recent estimates state

Bill Rates for travel healthcare professionals are beginning to stabilize for the first time since 2019. The immediate need for Registered Nurses (RN) at the beginning and throughout the Covid-19 pandemic put intense pressure on hospitals to fill vacancies, regardless of the hit their facilities took to their budget. Demand for staff during the pandemic skyrocketed, and most hospitals due to high vacancy rates of permanent staff needed to meet the demand by using outside staffing agencies. With few options hospitals turned to agencies to supply the nurses their hospitals so desperately needed. With bill rates rapidly increasing, questions began to swirl around what percent of bill rates are going to staff pay packages. The answers to those questions proved elusive.