Do Travel Nurses Cost a Hospital more than Existing Staff?

By Stephen Halasnik, President
HEALTHCAREseeker.com

We hear it from Hospitals often that the hospital is trying to reduce their staffing expenses so they don't want to use Travel Nurses. We always took this as a fact, but I finally had a chance to run a cost analysis.

Amazingly enough; the numbers showed that in fact, a Traveler costs about the same or maybe even less than a full time staff nurse and that one of the key reasons why has to do with vacation and sick time.

Let's take a scenario where a full time staff nurse is given 3 weeks' vacation and 8 sick days for a total of 23 days off. When that nurse takes vacation/sick days there are other salaried nurses that need to be brought in to cover the nurse's shift. That means that the Hospital is still paying for that nurse while another of full time staff nurse is covering the shifts. If one takes those 23 vacation/sick days x 12 hour shifts x $66 (cost of the nurse per hour-see chart below)= $18,216. That $18,216 is the difference as to why a Travel Nurse may actually costs less for a Hospital to use then permanent staff.

I am certainly not advocating that a Hospital should have all Travel Nurses. It is the full time staff that gives your Hospital its culture, personality and unique patient experience but I believe the numbers show that Travel Nurses are not more expensive than full time staff and your decision to use Traveler or not, should not be a cost decision.

Full time staff nurse costs	Cost per hour
Salary	$35
Medical, dental, life	7
Social sec + unemployment	4
Workers comp insurance, liability and Malpractice	4
Other benefits: 401k match, tuition, etc	3
Recruitment costs, sign on bonuses, orientation	4
Vacation/sick days/holidays ( 23 days)	9
Total cost for a full time staff nurse	$66