From September 13-16, 2026, travel nurses, allied health professionals and locum tenens providers from across the country will gather at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas for four days of education, networking, career conversations and industry connections. 

If you've spent any time in travel nurse or allied health Facebook groups, you've heard the buzz: TravCon isn't just another industry event. It's the largest gathering of its kind in the country, and for four days every year, it turns a Las Vegas hotel into the epicenter of the travel healthcare world. 

On the surface, comparing agencies by rate looks like straightforward math. But rate is only ever half the equation. What's missing from that comparison is everything that happens after the contract is signed: whether the credentialing file was actually complete, whether licenses were verified rather than assumed, and whether the clinician arriving on day one is truly ready to practice safely in your facility.   

A compact license is a powerful advantage, but it isn't a golden ticket to every state. Several major states; including California and New York, sit outside the NLC, which means clinicians heading there still need a separate, standalone license through endorsement. Compact membership and implementation timelines also shift regularly as new legislation passes, so what was true last year may not hold today. 

The United States is in the grip of a healthcare workforce shortage that shows no signs of easing. The American Hospital Association projects a shortfall of up to 124,000 physicians and more than 200,000 nurses within the next decade. But the staffing gap isn't just a nursing problem. Surgical techs, ICU specialists, LPN travel jobs markets, and allied health professionals across dozens of disciplines are in critically short supply in markets coast to coast.   

On International Nurses Day 2026, VP Filipe Teixeira reflects on what real nurse empowerment looks like, and how Ambition24hours has delivered it for 30 years through 24/7 support, fair pay, CPD, and clinical oversight.  

Empowered nurses are not nurses who simply push through impossible conditions with grit and caffeine. Empowered nurses are those who have the staffing support and the institutional resources to practice at the highest level of their clinical training. They have the bandwidth to listen, to assess thoroughly, to educate their patients, and to catch the subtle change in condition that prevents a code at 2 a.m.   

The math is simple: when you work in a permanent position, your salary is often capped by hospital budgets, administrative overhead, and fixed benefit packages. When you transition to a locum tenens, allied traveler, or travel nurse role, you are essentially bypassing the middle-management costs and capturing more of your true market value.