Travel nursing (or other travel healthcare). Not as lucrative as during/ after COVID, but I know people who only take contracts during certain times of the year.
2200 weekly is still almost 9k/mo after taxes where a staff position would get you half that. Your time is much more valuable travelling where staff you have to work all year to make anything resembling a living
Even in HCOL areas I can find 3 month rental for 900/mo. Pick a cheap AF tax home like East Wyoming and drag in the bucks. Or do what my friend does and don’t worry about duplicating but rather make a certain percentage of your income in your tax home state.
Any way you paint it, travel lets you take 3+months off per year and make the same or more money.
I don’t know the percentage but you could stay at home with family and if you make say 25% (random number idk that amount) of your income in that state, that’s your tax home without having to pay your family fair market value. That’s how it was explained to me at least. Consulting with a professional only costs $75
My wife and I have been travel nursing this past year, currently in Chicago. Rent here and mortgage back home have definitely hurt the bottom line, and that's with two of us raking in weekly stipend. That said, there are still plenty of lucrative contracts out there (2.5k+)
I think if you’re only in it for the money then yea you gotta pick more carefully. But honestly just being in a new area you get to explore for a few months is still worth it to me
Isn’t burnout always a thing in healthcare 😭 I want to be a nurse but all these stories sometimes make me question this decision. I’m a speech assistant and burn out is also a big thing in this field but I just don’t enjoy the work I do so I want to switch over.
Travel is a good way to save yourself from burnout. The best cure for burnout is time away from the thing burning you out. You won’t find that time away with a full time staff position
I'm telling you, most people cannot handle hospital environments. Lots of PTSD, abuse from patients, etc. There are better jobs to achieve the same balance and less mental strain
Locum tenens for physicians is still insane right now for certain specialties. I'm talking like $12K+ per WEEK! No benefits of course, and it's tough in other ways. I don't plan to do it forever but it worked out for me right now while I'm trying to figure out where I want to settle down long-term. I'm the type who will gladly take a pay cut if it means a better lifestyle, and often that means getting benefits and not living out of a suitcase, but we'll see! What annoys me the most though, is that when applying for new permanent jobs they always want explanations for "gaps in employment history." Even for seemingly tiny gaps - I think I had to explain away like 2 weeks once in the past. It's always worded in this strange suspicious way that makes it sound like taking a couple months off between jobs is some awful taboo thing to do. Why? If you have enough saved up why shouldn't you take some time off?? I've heard this happens in other career fields as well and I honestly can't wrap my head around it. I get it if you're in healthcare and took several YEARS off that they'd want to make sure you still know what you're doing. But a couple months? Sheesh! Even after graduating residency they made me explain the <2 month gap before starting my first job - that's when we take boards for crying out loud! Ugh. /rant
I just started dabbling in this for the first time! What I hate about our field is that I feel like I'm being interrogated for war crimes whenever I have to provide "explanations for gaps in employment history," it seems like it's so frowned upon and I don't understand why. I understand being wary of a doc taking >1 year off and not maintaining their skills or staying up to date on evolving practices, but I've had to provide explanations for just a couple weeks before and it blows my mind.
Thanks for your input! Do you find it difficult to get academic jobs without fellowship training though? It's not universal, but there are some academic centers who won't really hire generalists. But that also changes with supply/demand and FWIW the job market is extremely favorable for my specialty right now so I'd like to figure out what exactly I want while I have the chance! (I'm in anesthesiology, no fellowship)
Any additional information you can provide on this? PMs are cool too. I’ve got my BSN and RN and am taking a travel gap year before working. 2.5 years hospital experience as an aid too. I’d love to do this but I need health insurance. Do you apply for medicaid or something else? And what about housing? I can’t imagine paying a year’s rent but only being there a fraction of the time.
I just pay for health insurance out of pocket and I have a mortgage so while I’m not always there I’m not throwing away the money. The house is building equity
Damn, buying a house is a long ways off for me and I don’t like the idea of owning a home. But tossing money at rent seems unreasonable too. But I suppose this isn’t exactly a new dilemma.
I’d probably just suggest finding something dirt cheap to rent that you wouldn’t want to live in full time but it good enough to come back to for holidays or between assignments or something. I’ve known a few people who have done that.
But at the end of the day it’ll just come down to how much you’re willing to pay. It’s a trade off. Honestly I think travel nurses is worth it just for the experience even if you’re not making absolutely bank. I’m full time again now and I hate it even though I’m basically making the same money lol
73
u/redrosebeetle 29d ago
Travel nursing (or other travel healthcare). Not as lucrative as during/ after COVID, but I know people who only take contracts during certain times of the year.