I am examining travel-nursing as a career. How best to do it, without using a broker to find the contracts.?

Most brokers only pay the nurse 40%-50% of the contract dollar. I would rather do the work of getting the contract, but have questions as to how to get started. I would appreciate any insights from people already doing any variation of this approach.

I have traveled professionally for agencies for 20 years. I have also traveled as a consultant .When working directly with patients I ALWAYS used brokers/Nursing Travel agencies . Here's what they do so carefully understand why they take 50% . They negotiated and settled my contract and got me 30% more in wages than the companies would pay consultants.

They did everything from setting up my contracts and making sure they were totally followed thru with by the hospital. They rented my housing, paid and set up utilities, paid all security deposits, paid for insurance and rental cars, paid all my health insurance, dental/life/short term disability/health insurance.

They also assured I was paid a food allowance weekly, got my proper CME's which they paid for. I had my license taken care of prior to entering the door by the agency as well. They are actually great to work for! Travel agencies (which are reputable) make traveling jobs a pleasure.

I have had reputable hospitals forget to pay me, fail to follow through on contracts when I was working as a Consultant. Yet I have never been subject to any of those hassles when working for an agency.

Think long and hard about whether you can afford to do all that or if your time is worth more working clinically. The agencies proved to me that my time was much better spent doing my clinical thing than brokering my services. I also made more money and used my skills assisting patients rather than fighting through the red tape of contracted staffing by using an agency.

You will love the opportunities travel nursing gives you! Good luck and happy traveling!

Go to work in the state of Alaska. You don't need a brokerage up there at all to find a job in nursing, especially if you're willing to travel. I lived there 16 years, I know firsthand.