Benefits to Locums/Travel CRNA
Freedom, Control, and Pay
When healthcare professionals think of the Locums or traveling contracts usually the first benefit that comes to mind is the money. I agree that the increase in pay can be a huge benefit but I would argue that there are more better benefits if one would choose to take advantage of them.
The first benefit that I think is the best benefit is the freedom. This point has many layers. As a traveler you have freedom of where you work, how long you work, when you work. Where you work could be as simple as traveling to close neighborhood hospital or outpatient situation or it could be traveling to a different state or even country. How long you work can be dependent on the contract you take but usually there is freedom of how long each contract lasts and you usually have a 30 day out if the location is not a good fit (and lets be honest you made it through crna school so obviously you could do anything for 30 days). When you work is another huge benefit. You can choose to work 8’s, 10’s, 12’s, or even 16’s. Also, there is option to work weekends and nights. I personally haven’t worked a weekend or a night shift in over two years and I am not complaining.
A good second benefit is control. Control of your schedule, control of your payroll, and control of your funds. Control of schedule is what days and hours you work. Control of your payroll is how much you pay yourself and how much you get in benefits like retirement and other benefits like healthcare and continuing education and vehicle stipends. The last control point I would like to make is control of your funds. This means you can invest funds exactly where and when you want. For me this means my retirement is at Vanguard in my favorite funds (VTSAX and VBTLX). It also means that every month I am able to invest the matching. Some companies only do this quarterly and some can even be close to a year in the rears.
Last and probably the most discussed benefit is pay. Usually when you go to new location people will make comments about how you are making the big bucks. While on paper this is true there are definitely other considerations to look into before this is a drastic benefit. The truth is you get a higher hourly rate but depending on what expenses and deductions you have you may be technically taking less of your higher rate home with you. I big thing to compare are the benefits companies are providing their w-2 employees. Some companies offer great healthcare, life insurance, and disability insurances. A 1099 employee can get these benefits as well but it may be at higher cost since there is not as many employees. On the flip side I look at this as benefit for 1099 because I try to self insure the best I can with a high savings rate and not pay the poor math tax. The other factor is a 1099 employee can choose a more affordable higher deductible health plan and can take advantage of the triple tax benefits of a HSA.
