F | As recently stated by the United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, the largest healthcare occupation, Registered Nurses, hold approximately two and one half million jobs in the United States. About 60% of these Registered Nurses hold staff positions in hospitals, in inpatient and outpatient departments. That leaves approximately 40%, or about one million Registered Nurses, that have other means of employment. A large number within this group on one million Registered Nurses work mostly for Temporary Help Agencies. |
F | Temporary Help Agencies in the nursing field are more commonly referred to as "Nursing Agencies". The client base of the Nursing Agency is somewhat diverse, but predominantly serves long term care/nursing home type facilities and hospitals. The two primary types of services that a Nursing Agency will offer are (1) Short Term and (2) Long Term. |
F | Short Term staffing typically involves Per Diem solutions, with schedules of a day here and there or perhaps a week or more in some instances. Typically the Short Term, or Per Diem,solution, does not provide guaranteed service time and is subject to last minute cancellation. In addition, most nurses who work in a Per Diem situation usually have a staff position elsewhere and are typically use the Per Diem Nursing Agency as a service to supplement their normal income. |
F | The Long Term solutions is commonly referred to as "Travel Nursing". With Travel Nursing, the service time is typically about 3 months in duration, although some assignments are shorter and some are longer. With the Travel Nursing Assignment, cancellation policies are much different that the Per Diem cancellation policies. Travel Nursing Assignments are typically guaranteed for the longer duration, thus providing both the nurse and the hospital with comfort that the relationship will continue throughout the duration. With the Travel Nursing "guaranteed hours", concerns of cancellation, late shows and no-shows are diminished. In addition, the hospital assumes a professional that has becomes very familiarity with the internal practices and units assigned. |
F | The Travel Nurse is an employee of the Travel Nursing Agency and therefore the Travel Nurse Agency is responsible for treating the individual as an employee, i.e. tax reporting, benefits, insurance, reducing administrative burden on the hospital. The Travel Nursing Agency is also responsible for procuring private housing for the employee and/or a monthly housing stipend. The more comprehensive Travel Nursing Agencies also offer their employees participation in an employer sponsored 401 (k) Plan. |
F | According to recent projections from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics more than 1 million new and replacement nurses will be needed by the year 2010.........the opportunities are there in nursing !!! |