This week marks the start of my last month on my current assignment in New Jersey, and my family and friends have all started asking, “where to next?” As a travel nurse, I get asked all the time about the logistics of finding my next travel nursing contract. Can you pick where you want to go? Does your agency assign it to you? How soon will you find out? – All very common questions, so I figured it was worth writing a post about! We’ll go over everything you need to know including when to start looking for a contract, licensing requirements, how you know where you’re going to end up, interview timelines, and more! There’s a lot of ground to cover here, but very important to know information so stick with me!
PS – If you’re just starting out in travel nursing, be sure to check out my post about the 8 most important things for new travel nurses to know!
When Should You Start Looking For A Travel Nursing Contract?
This is a tricky question because it all depends on a lot of factors. Typically, I’ll start putting out feelers and looking around about four weeks out from my ideal start date. If I’m really attached to being in a certain area (which may limit the availability of contracts), then I definitely start early.
However, I often find that when I’m applying to contracts this far out, I don’t even get interview calls a lot of the time. Many hospitals are posting positions looking for people to start ASAP, meaning if my start date is four weeks out and someone else submitted to the same contract that can start in two weeks, they’ll likely get the call, and the job, over me. That’s important to remember when submitting for contracts. It can feel overwhelming, stressful, and sometimes discouraging when you’re not getting interviews, but keep in mind the closer you are to your start date, the more likely you are to get the job. It’s just the nature of the beast.
This can also be tough if you’re trying to get your first travel nursing contract and waiting to put in your notice until you get one. If you keep pushing your start date out, you may keep falling into the cycle of someone else getting the job over you because they can start sooner. If you have the flexibility to do so, I highly encourage putting in your notice, picking a firm start date, and submitting to as much as you can. A job will come along, but being able to start quickly will always make you more marketable.
Can You Choose Where You’ll Take A Contract?
To some extent, yes. However, you have to be flexible or you might be looking for a job for a long time. You likely won’t be able to choose the hospital you want to work for and maybe not even the city, because you just never know when and where hospitals will have needs for travelers in your specialty. However, you may be able to say you’d like to stay in a certain geographic area (like the east coast, warm southern states, or anywhere in California for example). Just remember that the smaller your geographic area, the harder it will be to find a job.
As you start looking, it’s important to let your recruiter(s) know what’s important to you for your next assignment – geographic area and pay are two main components. Generally once they see something that fits your needs come up, they will reach out to you with the hospital and pay package and ask if you’d like to be submitted. A recruiter should never submit you to a contract without your permission unless you’ve told them it’s okay to do so. That being said, when they reach out you need to respond quickly with a yes or no answer. Often times being submitted first will give you the best chance of getting the job. It’s okay to do a quick bit of research on the area, but you shouldn’t sit on the decision long or the job will already be gone.
Do You Need A License In The State Where You’ll Be Applying?
The short answer is maybe. This depends largely on whether or not you have a compact license, and whether or not the state you’re going to is a compact state. If you have a compact license and you’re applying to a contract in a state that’s part of the NLC, then you should be fine to work in that state with your current nursing license. You can see which states are compact here.
If you don’t have a compact nursing license, or if you’re headed to a state that doesn’t participate in the NLC, then you’ll probably have to apply for a license in that state. Your recruiter should be able to help with this info, and sometimes agencies will be able to help you with emergency licensing, but I strongly encourage you to do your own research. If there’s a state you know you’re interested in and it’s not compact, go ahead and start gathering what you need to apply for that license. It won’t hurt to have it if you think you’d like to go there eventually, and most agencies will reimburse you for licensing costs.
One last note on licensing, while most states take a few weeks to a month to obtain a license, California is notorious for taking forever to get RN licenses approved and it requires a ton of paperwork. If you’re interested in heading to Cali anytime in the next 6 months, start the licensing process now. It’s not uncommon for it to take a few months.
What’s The Timeline Once You’ve Submitted to a Travel Contract?
As with many things in travel nursing, this can vary greatly. However, as a general rule of thumb (and in the competitive environment that is travel nursing these days), if I haven’t gotten an interview within 2-3 days of submitting to a contract, I assume that I need to move onto the next one. Please remember that this isn’t the case 100% of the time though. For the contract I’m currently working, I submitted and was really excited because the pay was great. When I hadn’t heard back by the end of the week I assumed it was filled and moved on to other submissions. Much to my surprise, I got an interview over a week after my initial submission and ended up getting the job!
If you have questions about whether or not you’re still in the running for a job, reach out to your recruiter. Most of the time hospitals will close the position once it’s filled and your recruiter will be able to see that information. They can also reach out to the agency’s contacts at the facility to follow up and push for an interview. At the very least, they should be able to help give you an idea of whether the contract is a possibility or you should move on.
Once you have an interview and the hiring manager decides you’ll be a good fit, you should have an offer within 24 hours, and you will be expected to give an answer within 24 hours as well. If you have other interviews scheduled you can sometimes push that out a teeny bit more, but in general if the hospital hasn’t heard back from you within a day they’ll move on an interview other candidates.
Final Tidbibts To Remember
The biggest piece of advice I can give you when looking for a travel nursing contract is be flexible and don’t stress yourself out too much. Keep communication open with your recruiter – let them know what you want (remember location and pay!), but be open to their feedback as well. If you’re looking to make $4k a week as a mom/baby traveler in Florida, it’s almost never going to happen. Your recruiter should have an idea for how the market is and can help you to have realistic expectations. Pick a recruiter that you trust and then listen to them.
If you work with more than one company/recruiter, remember to make sure that you’re never submitted to the same job more than once. This can get you automatically pulled from the job. This is why I mentioned earlier that a recruiter should -never- submit you to a job without your permission first. The only exception to this rule is if you work with only one recruiter and you give them permission to submit to anything that meets your criteria as long as they let you know about it. This is what I do with my recruiter and it often gets me in quickly because she can submit as soon as a job opens without having to discuss it with me after I awaken from my post night shift slumber.
If it feels like you’re never going to get an assignment despite a million submissions, don’t worry. We’ve all been there. Remember, new contracts open daily and something will come along! If it’s getting close to crunch time and you really neeed something, consider being more flexible with your pay or location. You’re not going to get exactly what you want 100% of the time unless you have the money to take time off in between every contract until you find the perfect fit. Most of us don’t have that luxury, so be flexible. Some of my absolute favorite contracts have been in places I had no desire to go, or places that I had to submit to because I was about to be unemployed in three days. (Seriously, this happened with Denver and I ended up staying for two years!). Remember that travel nursing is an adventure and a growth process, and sometimes you just have to say “fuck it” and make the best of what you get!
I hope you’ve found this helpful. If you have more questions about finding a travel nurse contract (or anything else!), drop them in the comments! You can also connect with me on IG and drop me a message, or shoot me an email! I love chatting with you guys and mentoring new travelers <3
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