Kirsten Newcomb worked in Virginia for 10 years prior to her position took her someplace with calendar year-round sunshine and heat weather conditions, with the added rewards of sunbathing sea turtles and lush jungle hiking: Hawaii.
In March 2020, the 35-yr-outdated moved to the island of Maui just after quitting her longtime work as a staff members nurse to turn out to be a travel nurse. “I was motivated generally by adventure,” Newcomb says. “My preferred matter that I have carried out on Maui so much is I went paragliding off the facet of Haleakala, which is the large volcano.”
Journey nurses are registered nurses who get the job done brief-time period contracts, usually lasting about 3 months, at hospitals with staffing shortages all-around the state. Skyrocketing need for travel nurses has raised recognition about the job’s hardships as perfectly as distinctive advantages: flexibility, globetrotting, and increased fork out.
Due to the fact of the pandemic, demand for travel nurses soared about 82% in 2020, according to travel nurse agency Aya Health care. There have been 12,817 journey nurse occupation openings on typical every single working day in 2020, up from 7,054 in 2019, in accordance to Aya Healthcare facts. At the top of the pandemic in December 2020, there ended up about 30,000 openings, up from almost 10,000 a year earlier.
Kirsten Newcomb is from Virginia and has worked a few journey nurse contracts in Maui.
Photograph by Helen Zhao
Vacation nurses can discover the region on limited-time period contracts and get time off in between gigs, figuring out they can probably safe a new task right away. “As soon as I get started seeking for a new contract, it ordinarily normally takes about a week,” claims Newcomb. “I can quite a lot decide on wherever I want to go next.”
“It really is just about a de-risked journey,” states April Hansen, an govt vice president at Aya Healthcare and former vacation nurse. “This is where by overall health care meets the gig financial system.”
“When you have an total country that is going through a pandemic, and the hero is the nurse … that delivers a distinct level of recognition to just how valuable and how transportable our ability established is,” Hansen says. “You can truly get your abilities on the street and create your own vocation route.”
Travel nurses are usually paid additional than staff nurses, as incentive for uprooting their lives and going, quickly, to a new locale. Hansen says journey nurses commonly make any where from $2,000/7 days to a lot more than $5,000/week. That rate features a tax-free of charge stipend for meals and housing. Typical pay out for registered nurses in the U.S. ranges from about $1,000/week to about $1,500/7 days, in accordance to ZipRecruiter details.
When hospitals are overcome by people, they pay out top rated greenback to employ travel nurses rapid. Newcomb labored a disaster deal in Dallas, Texas in 2020 that aided her preserve $30,000 in the past 12 months, but the practical experience was grueling and the spend didn’t always really feel really worth it. “I feel I noticed more sufferers go away than I experienced in the comprehensive 10 years preceding in my full nursing career,” she states.
“I couldn’t observe the news when I was browsing my dad and mom about Xmas, simply because the news would exhibit hospitals and I would quickly recall what that felt like. And I would right away start off crying.”
Newcomb hasn’t been ready to help save as significantly dollars residing in Maui, mainly since the charge of dwelling is higher, but she’s happier and the healthiest she’s ever been.
During the pandemic, lots of nurses traveled to hospitals in have to have, out of a connect with to duty. In carrying out so, numerous have gotten to discover wonderful places. “I just understood if I was going to start off journey nursing I wished to go somewhere epic,” Newcomb suggests.
The posting “Journey Nurse who Earns $7,000 a Month in Hawaii: ‘I was Determined Mainly by Adventure’″ was originally published on Grow (CNBC + Acorns).