As a member of eJane, the travel nurse will more than likely assume the role of an “independent contractor.”

According to federal employment guidelines, this means you are self employed.  It means you are not employed by eJane or the healthcare provider you contract with.  You will have to obtain your own professional liability insurance, which you need to have anyway if you are a travel nurse.  You will file your own quarterly income taxes, so you should put aside between 20-25% of each pay check.  You pay for your own health/life/dental insurance.  You will find and pay for your own housing while on a travel engagement.  You will arrange for furnishings and utility hook-ups/disconnects and pay for these yourself.  You will negotiate the terms of a contract (taking into consideration all of the previous expenses) and, finally, you will sign a contract for employment.

Wow, that sounds like a lot to do!  And the first time it will be, but it gets easier and easier each time once you find out what works best for you.  If you are traveling with someone, many of these tasks can be divided.  After your professional liability/health/life insurance and retirement programs are in place, the rest is easy.  After the first year of filing your Federal Income Tax return as an independent contractor, the IRS will send you the quarterly forms you need to send in with the amount owed already filled in (based on the previous year’s return). 

Finding your housing and utilities will be discussed in a future blog.  I would like to point out, however, the convenience of having access to the internet and a cell phone cannot be overemphasized–especially for the travel nurse lifestyle!

Finally, as an independent contractor, you will negotiate the terms of the engagement and sign a contract.  This is probably the biggest difference, however, if you think about it, you already have experience doing both of these–it was just with an agency nurse recruiter rather than a hospital nurse recruiter.  The only difference is that the hourly rate you are negotiating for as an independent contractor will be much, much higher than you are used to due to your expenses.  On the other hand, it will likely be much less than the hourly rate the hospital pays a travel nurse agency.