Travel nurses are registered nurses who take short-term assignments at hospitals and healthcare facilities around the country, filling temporary staffing gaps. Instead of working permanently at one hospital, they move from location to location on contracts that typically last about 13 weeks, earning higher pay than staff nurses and receiving stipends to cover housing and meals while on assignment.
How Travel Nursing Works
Travel nurses are employed by staffing agencies, not directly by the hospitals where they work. When a hospital has a staffing shortage, whether from seasonal demand, staff burnout, or unfilled positions, it contracts with a staffing agency to bring in temporary nurses. The agency handles recruiting, credentialing, and compensation. You apply through the agency, and a recruiter matches you with open assignments based on your specialty, experience, and location preferences.
The concept dates back to the late 1970s, when hospitals in New Orleans were overwhelmed by injuries during Mardi Gras week in 1978 and contracted nurses from around the country for temporary support. That stopgap solution became a permanent fixture of the healthcare staffing industry, and today the travel nursing market is valued at roughly $14.2 billion.
Typical Contract Length and Structure
The standard travel nursing contract runs 13 weeks. Contracts as short as six weeks and as long as a year exist, but they’re uncommon. Many 13-week contracts include an option to extend for another 13 weeks, bringing the total to 26 weeks at one facility. Extensions require approval from both the staffing agency and the hospital, and you can often renegotiate pay or other terms before signing on again.
When a contract ends without an extension, you either pick up a new assignment through your agency or take time off between contracts. That flexibility is one of the main draws of the career. You choose which contracts to accept, including the location, the department, and the shift.
What Travel Nurses Earn
Travel nurses earn more than permanent staff nurses. As of mid-2025, the average annual pay for a travel nurse in the U.S. is about $101,132, which works out to roughly $49 per hour or $1,944 per week. That’s higher than the typical staff RN salary, though the gap varies by specialty and location.
The real difference is in how the compensation is structured. A travel nurse’s pay package has two main parts: a taxable hourly base rate and tax-free stipends for housing and meals. The housing stipend covers lodging and utilities at your assignment location, while the meals and incidentals stipend covers daily food and minor personal costs. Both are set according to federal per diem rates from the General Services Administration, so the amounts vary depending on the cost of living where you’re working. A contract in San Francisco will come with higher stipends than one in rural Arkansas.
These stipends are tax-free, which means a significant chunk of a travel nurse’s total compensation isn’t subject to income tax. That tax advantage can make the effective pay difference between travel and staff nursing much larger than the raw numbers suggest.
Tax Home Requirements
There’s an important catch with those tax-free stipends. To qualify for them, the IRS requires you to maintain a “tax home,” which is a permanent residence where you pay rent or a mortgage. The key requirement is duplicating your living expenses: you’re paying for your permanent home and paying for lodging at your temporary assignment location. If you don’t maintain a home base and simply travel continuously, the IRS may classify you as an “itinerant worker,” which makes your stipends fully taxable.
There’s also a one-year rule. If you accept or extend a contract and realistically expect to work in the same location for longer than 12 months, that location becomes your tax home. At that point, stipends become taxable immediately, not after the 12th month passes. This is based on your expectation at the time you accept the work, not just the calendar.
How to Become a Travel Nurse
You need an active registered nursing license, either through an Associate Degree in Nursing or a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. Many agencies prefer candidates with a BSN because it opens more assignment options, but it’s not universally required. Beyond the degree, most staffing agencies require at least two years of bedside clinical experience before they’ll place you on assignments. You generally cannot travel nurse straight out of school.
Certifications matter too. Basic Life Support and Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support are standard requirements. Specialty certifications like Certified Emergency Nurse or Certified Critical Care Nurse aren’t mandatory, but they make you more competitive for higher-paying assignments in emergency rooms and ICUs.
Licensing Across State Lines
Nursing licenses are issued by individual states, which means working in a new state normally requires a new license. The Nurse Licensure Compact simplifies this for travel nurses. If your home state participates in the compact, your multistate license lets you practice in any other compact state without applying for an additional license. For assignments in non-compact states, you’ll need to apply for a single-state license, which your agency typically helps coordinate.
Housing on Assignment
Travel nurses have two main housing options: taking a stipend and finding your own place, or letting your agency arrange housing for you.
- Taking the stipend gives you full control. You pick the location, the amenities, and the move-in date. Many travel nurses use Airbnb or Vrbo for furnished short-term rentals. Some travel in pairs or with family and use the stipend for a two-bedroom apartment. The trade-off is that you’re responsible for doing the research and booking everything yourself, which takes time, especially in unfamiliar cities.
- Agency-placed housing means showing up to a furnished apartment that’s ready to go. The agency covers the deposit, rent, basic furniture, and utilities. It’s convenient, but you don’t get to choose the location or unit type, and in expensive cities you might end up in a studio. You also won’t receive a housing stipend, since the agency is paying for your lodging directly.
Most travel nurses choose the stipend option because of the flexibility, particularly those who travel with pets, partners, or children.
Benefits and Trade-Offs
The biggest advantages are pay, flexibility, and variety. You earn more than staff nurses, you choose where and when you work, and you gain clinical experience across multiple hospital systems and patient populations. For nurses who want to explore different parts of the country or avoid the politics of a single workplace, it’s a compelling lifestyle.
The trade-offs are real, though. Travel nurses often lack seniority at their assigned hospitals, which means fewer career development opportunities and less say in scheduling. Some hospitals “float” their travel nurses between departments as needed, so you might be hired for a medical-surgical unit but get pulled to another floor on a given shift. You’re also away from your home base for months at a time, which strains relationships and routines. And while the pay is higher, you’re responsible for managing your own housing, navigating tax rules, and handling gaps between contracts.
Current Demand for Travel Nurses
Hospitals across the country continue to face nursing shortages, rising patient volumes, and burnout among permanent staff. Seasonal patient surges add further pressure, and many facilities rely on travel nurses to maintain safe staffing levels. Demand is particularly strong in specialty areas like ICU, emergency, operating room, and labor and delivery nursing.
The market went through a correction in 2025 after the extreme demand spikes of the pandemic era, but assignments are lasting longer and opportunities are spreading to a wider range of locations. Growth is expected to pick up again in 2026 as the market stabilizes. For nurses with at least two years of experience in a high-demand specialty, travel nursing remains a reliable and well-compensated career path.