Scott Blevins

- Scott Blevins, Marketing Director of RN Network

The concept of recruiting health care professionals from all over the nation and moving them to assignments in various cities began more than 20 years ago.It was initially created as an offshoot of the per diem agencies, organizations whose mission was to find nurses to fill in for a short stretch of time at nearby hospitals.What these agencies discovered was that warm-weather states experienced critical nursing shortages as their population swelled in the winter months – shortages that could not be filled by recruiting from the local nursing pool.

They saw there was a need for nurses who would travel, said Scott Blevins, Marketing Director of RN Network Inc., in Deerfield Beach, Florida.The original owners of RN Network were among the pioneers of the travel nursing industry, according to Blevins.They saw there were profits to be made if you could put a nurse somewhere, set them up and pay for their housing.Back in 1989, there were maybe three major competitors, and maybe five other smaller companies..

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They do not have expenses, said Blevins.The nurse gets to go to different locations.If she wants to go to a big city, she goes for 13 weeks, if she gets tired of it she then goes to the country.it be basically a lifestyle choice..

Agencies provide free housing for the length of the contract as well as furnishings for the residence.Pay rates can run from $ 18 to $ 35 an hour and a work week generally runs 36 hours which travel nurses often take in three 12-hour shifts, so they have four days free to tour around.Travel costs to the assignment as well as health insurance are covered.As of this writing, many agencies are offering completion bonuses anywhere from $ 250 to $ 3, 000 for assignments concluded successfully.

- Scott Blevins, Marketing Director of RN Network

The concept of recruiting health care professionals from all over the nation and moving them to assignments in various cities began more than 20 years ago.It was initially created as an offshoot of the per diem agencies, organizations whose mission was to find nurses to fill in for a short stretch of time at nearby hospitals.What these agencies discovered was that warm-weather states experienced critical nursing shortages as their population swelled in the winter months - shortages that could not be filled by recruiting from the local nursing pool.

"They saw there was a need for nurses who would travel," said Scott Blevins, Marketing Director of RN Network Inc., in Deerfield Beach, Florida.The original owners of RN Network were among the pioneers of the travel nursing industry, according to Blevins.
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They don't have expenses," said Blevins.