The main difference between normal nursing and travel nurses is the renumeration and compensation packages that travel nurses get. Usually, the hourly pay of travel nurses is considerably high as compared to other nurses. Besides, travel nurses get a whole lot of other benefits (such as housing, traveling compensation etc) and perks as compared to normal nurses. The sudden surge in demand of travel nurses, who are usually hired to work at a particular place for a short period of time has led to lucrative packages being bestowed on those nurses who are willing to uproot themselves from their present location and travel to a different hospital, work there and then travel again to some other place.
Now, this might seem a bit baffling and cumbersome, but the matter of fact is that travel nurses actually enjoying moving about from place to place. Not only do they get a better pay as compared to their non-traveling counterparts, but their housing, boarding and lodging problems are also taken care of, and all this is included in the standard compensation package that most travel nurses get. Another benefit of travel nursing is that if the nurse and the employer are able to reach a mutual agreement, then the nurse might get employed at that particular hospital on a permanent basis. This means, that once a travel nurse is done with traveling and wants to settle down at a place, there are ways of doing that also. In short, the travel nurses has nothing much to loose and can decide to settle down and put a break on the traveling part, whenever he or she chooses to do so.
Now, apart from getting a chance to lead a very high standard of life and being able to fulfill their desires to travel across geographies and demographies, travel nurses get a whole range of other benefits as well. For instance, it is the duty of their employer to ensure that they get a fully furnished housing, which is either in the hospital premises or in the vicinity of the hospital (thus eliminating the need to spend additional money of local travel). Another benefit that travel nurses get as a part and parcel of their job is that the staffing agency that they belong to, would, theoretically, be taking care of their visa/passport, ticketing and transitional expense problems, thus making the whole process of traveling and moving out from place to another, even more enjoyable and desirable. Besides, its the duty of the agency and the hospital concerned to take care of the work licenses, documents and all the necessary paperwork needed to work across different states and hospitals. Apart from all these benefits, travel nurses are entiteld to the standard benefits that other nurses get. For instance, health benefits, payroll benefits and other benefits relating to pensions schemes and insurances etc. are also made available to travel nurses. Note, that these benefits might vary from hospital to hospital and from state to state, but more or less, these remain the same throughout the US.
Hugo on June - 14 - 2009