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According to Indeed, the average wage for an RN in Texas is $35.82. The new contracts pay $100/hr and $150/hr for overtime. According to the staffing agency yo

by mike_d 5y ago

According to Indeed, the average wage for an RN in Texas is $35.82. The new contracts pay $100/hr and $150/hr for overtime. According to the staffing agency you have to have not been employed by a hospital in Texas for the last 30 days. for an almost 3x wage bump I'd be shocked if some nurses didn't decide to sit on the sidelines for a month.

toomuchtodo 5y ago
Or quit, work a traveling nurse contract out of state for a month, and then come back on contract. A nurse friend quit the VA and is making $10k/week traveling.
- bluedino 5y ago
  My brother in law is a traveling nurse, he has shown me the 10k/week jobs in Alaska but the others seem to be 4-6k
  - giantg2 5y ago
    I'll gladly take $4k per week.
  - Mountain_Skies 5y ago
    Wages are increasing rapidly as everyone is outbidding each other for the very limited number of travel nurses in a labor market that suddenly has a large amount of new vacancies.
    - LurkingPenguin 5y ago
      How is this sustainable? Is the shortage of nurses a temporary, short-term issue or are there structural problems in the market? If there is a longer-term problem, how will it affect healthcare costs and the quality of patient care? While I generally understand the value of travel nurses and the role they have historically played in the market, if I was a healthcare consumer in the US, I'd be pretty disconcerted if I knew that the healthcare systems I relied on were so desperate for nurses that they were offering travel nurses $10,000/week.
      - phlipski 5y ago
        Answer - it's NOT sustainable. But then again neither is US healthcare costs in general... They'll continue to march upwards and onwards until the entire country finally goes bankrupt and then (and ONLY THEN) will real change happen. Covid (and health care staff covid burnout) has just accelerated this issue... Welcome to American healthcare - most expensive healthcare in the world for the 18th best ranked system....
        LurkingPenguin 5y ago
        Yes, it seems like the US is heading to a breaking point. That said, I think ranking healthcare is difficult. I'm an expat who has used health systems in a number of different countries. The country I'm in now for example (Taiwan) has a very well-regarded single payer system. On some ranking lists, it even tops the US. I've found Taiwan's system works really well for most basic needs and is very cheap by American standards. Through the national healthcare system (NHI), I can see a specialist of my choosing at a hospital for around $20. That includes the appointment and any prescriptions or blood tests ordered. My monthly contribution to the system is high by local standards (it's in the hundreds of dollars a month) because I have a higher salary and am self-employed. In terms of care, if you have a complex health issue, I haven't been able to match the specialist care available in the US. It's not even close. But yes, specialist care in the US is expensive and therefore not available to many people.
      - freeone3000 5y ago
        Texas has 9,000 surplus ICU patients due to COVID-19 [0] (not total patients, not cases, ICU patients). This is, predictably, causing a nursing shortage. In addition, nurses are resigning due to no effective public health measures to stop the spread -- half the state is unvaccinated, masks are not worn and the mandate is not enforced (by personal experience). As a bonus, some nurses are resigning because they themselves refuse the addition of the COVID-19 vaccination to the list of required nursing vaccinations. While there are absolutely structural issues, there were the same structural issues two years ago -- this is an acute crisis due to the amount of new "healthcare consumers". 0. https://www.texastribune.org/2021/08/10/coronavirus-texas-hospitals-icu-beds/ https://www.texastribune.org/2021/08/10/coronavirus-texas-ho...
fn-mote 5y ago
> I'd be shocked if some nurses didn't decide to sit on the sidelines for a month. Texas residents are banned from the new contracts. Sitting on the side sounds like roulette... presumably those who are mobile will leave the state for other lucrative contracts, and the rest will work "within the system" (probably wishing for a stronger union while they campaign for a slice of the pie).
- toast0 5y ago
  I'm no healthcare forecaster, but if the pay for new work is currently 3x and the state isn't doing much to improve conditions, in 30 days there's likely to still be a lot of demand for new work. If I were a nurse, I think I'd have a hard time with sense of duty and sitting out, so a one month traveling job in another state (if possible, one that's doing better at vaccination) for a few weeks would feel better than sitting around, but at the same time, when the government incentives say to sit around for 30 days if you want to get paid more, who am I to not follow incentives.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
Omniusaspirer 5y ago
Austin based Texas travel RN here- flying out Friday for a 13 week contract in a tropical locale. Compensation is: -60 hours a week guaranteed (even if sent home because not needed, get paid) -Hourly (<40 hr): $95.00/hr -OT: $177.00/hr -Untaxed weekly stipends: $1,785 -$500 relocation + $500 for doing some online training modules -All holidays at OT rate, callback at OT rate with minimum 2 hours -$9,125/wk minimum gross I'm told that more overtime will almost certainly be available should I care to pick up (~$2100 per 12 hr shift). I have an associates in nursing and 2 years of work experience in the last 3 years. Happy to answer any questions as I know this sector is pretty outside of the normal HN discourse and there's been some interesting employment trends since the pandemic began.
- fy20 5y ago
  How much training do you need to qualify for this position? In Europe nurses typically study for 3 or 4 years, and then you are lucky to get much over minimum wage... In Western Europe, €30k/year would be a good salary for a nurse.
  - Omniusaspirer 5y ago
    2.5 years or 5 semesters at a community college costing 0-10k is the fastest route from scratch and the one I took. If someone already has a bachelor's (4 year degree) they can take an accelerated nursing bachelor's program for 30-60k which can take as little as 12 months. 1 year of work experience post graduation is the minimum to travel. EU salaries seem to generally be lower than those in the US, but with healthcare the difference is extreme with Switzerland being the only exception I'm personally aware of.

by mike_d 5y ago

toomuchtodo 5y ago

Or quit, work a traveling nurse contract out of state for a month, and then come back on contract. A nurse friend quit the VA and is making $10k/week traveling.

bluedino 5y ago
My brother in law is a traveling nurse, he has shown me the 10k/week jobs in Alaska but the others seem to be 4-6k
- giantg2 5y ago
  I'll gladly take $4k per week.
- Mountain_Skies 5y ago
  Wages are increasing rapidly as everyone is outbidding each other for the very limited number of travel nurses in a labor market that suddenly has a large amount of new vacancies.
  - LurkingPenguin 5y ago
    How is this sustainable? Is the shortage of nurses a temporary, short-term issue or are there structural problems in the market? If there is a longer-term problem, how will it affect healthcare costs and the quality of patient care? While I generally understand the value of travel nurses and the role they have historically played in the market, if I was a healthcare consumer in the US, I'd be pretty disconcerted if I knew that the healthcare systems I relied on were so desperate for nurses that they were offering travel nurses $10,000/week.
    - phlipski 5y ago
      Answer - it's NOT sustainable. But then again neither is US healthcare costs in general... They'll continue to march upwards and onwards until the entire country finally goes bankrupt and then (and ONLY THEN) will real change happen. Covid (and health care staff covid burnout) has just accelerated this issue... Welcome to American healthcare - most expensive healthcare in the world for the 18th best ranked system....
      - LurkingPenguin 5y ago
        Yes, it seems like the US is heading to a breaking point. That said, I think ranking healthcare is difficult. I'm an expat who has used health systems in a number of different countries. The country I'm in now for example (Taiwan) has a very well-regarded single payer system. On some ranking lists, it even tops the US. I've found Taiwan's system works really well for most basic needs and is very cheap by American standards. Through the national healthcare system (NHI), I can see a specialist of my choosing at a hospital for around $20. That includes the appointment and any prescriptions or blood tests ordered. My monthly contribution to the system is high by local standards (it's in the hundreds of dollars a month) because I have a higher salary and am self-employed. In terms of care, if you have a complex health issue, I haven't been able to match the specialist care available in the US. It's not even close. But yes, specialist care in the US is expensive and therefore not available to many people.
    - freeone3000 5y ago
      Texas has 9,000 surplus ICU patients due to COVID-19 [0] (not total patients, not cases, ICU patients). This is, predictably, causing a nursing shortage. In addition, nurses are resigning due to no effective public health measures to stop the spread -- half the state is unvaccinated, masks are not worn and the mandate is not enforced (by personal experience). As a bonus, some nurses are resigning because they themselves refuse the addition of the COVID-19 vaccination to the list of required nursing vaccinations. While there are absolutely structural issues, there were the same structural issues two years ago -- this is an acute crisis due to the amount of new "healthcare consumers". 0. https://www.texastribune.org/2021/08/10/coronavirus-texas-hospitals-icu-beds/ https://www.texastribune.org/2021/08/10/coronavirus-texas-ho...

fn-mote 5y ago

> I'd be shocked if some nurses didn't decide to sit on the sidelines for a month. Texas residents are banned from the new contracts. Sitting on the side sounds like roulette... presumably those who are mobile will leave the state for other lucrative contracts, and the rest will work "within the system" (probably wishing for a stronger union while they campaign for a slice of the pie).

toast0 5y ago
I'm no healthcare forecaster, but if the pay for new work is currently 3x and the state isn't doing much to improve conditions, in 30 days there's likely to still be a lot of demand for new work. If I were a nurse, I think I'd have a hard time with sense of duty and sitting out, so a one month traveling job in another state (if possible, one that's doing better at vaccination) for a few weeks would feel better than sitting around, but at the same time, when the government incentives say to sit around for 30 days if you want to get paid more, who am I to not follow incentives.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

Omniusaspirer 5y ago

Austin based Texas travel RN here- flying out Friday for a 13 week contract in a tropical locale. Compensation is: -60 hours a week guaranteed (even if sent home because not needed, get paid) -Hourly (<40 hr): $95.00/hr -OT: $177.00/hr -Untaxed weekly stipends: $1,785 -$500 relocation + $500 for doing some online training modules -All holidays at OT rate, callback at OT rate with minimum 2 hours -$9,125/wk minimum gross I'm told that more overtime will almost certainly be available should I care to pick up (~$2100 per 12 hr shift). I have an associates in nursing and 2 years of work experience in the last 3 years. Happy to answer any questions as I know this sector is pretty outside of the normal HN discourse and there's been some interesting employment trends since the pandemic began.

fy20 5y ago
How much training do you need to qualify for this position? In Europe nurses typically study for 3 or 4 years, and then you are lucky to get much over minimum wage... In Western Europe, €30k/year would be a good salary for a nurse.
- Omniusaspirer 5y ago
  2.5 years or 5 semesters at a community college costing 0-10k is the fastest route from scratch and the one I took. If someone already has a bachelor's (4 year degree) they can take an accelerated nursing bachelor's program for 30-60k which can take as little as 12 months. 1 year of work experience post graduation is the minimum to travel. EU salaries seem to generally be lower than those in the US, but with healthcare the difference is extreme with Switzerland being the only exception I'm personally aware of.