Why Do Hospitals Hire Travel Nurses – and How It Saves on Staffing Costs
Currently, hospitals across the US are facing significant challenges, including staffing shortages, ensuring high-quality patient care, and managing workplace costs. One solution to this has been the hiring of travel nurses.
Hospitals hire travel nurses to manage staffing shortages, maintain patient care quality, and regulate overtime costs without long-term employment expenses. This has been increasingly popular, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, helping hospitals reduce burnout and turnover while remaining flexible.
One common myth about travel nursing is that it costs healthcare facilities more than hiring permanent nursing staff. While travel nurses often charge higher rates than permanent staff, there are a lot of hidden costs you can avoid in the hiring process. In fact, replacing a full-time nurse can cost between $45,000 – $67,500.
In this article, we’ll cover all the benefits of hiring traveling nurses and how Ambition24hours can help you find the best staffing model for your facility today.
Understanding the Hospital Staffing Cost Problem
According to a study by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, almost 100,000 hospital nurses left the workforce due to stress, burnout, and retirements between 2021 and 2023. A further 600,000+ nurses intend to leave by 2027.
This creates a serious dilemma within the healthcare industry, as it means rising nursing costs amid tightening budgets and still ensuring quality patient outcomes. Additionally, with all the expenses associated with onboarding new nurses, including agency fees, leave, benefits, and other financial remunerations, the costs quickly add up in just a few months.
This is one of the main benefits a traveling nurse can bring to your healthcare system, as they offer a more flexible, cost-effective solution to the nursing workforce shortage.
How Traveling Nurses Reduce Hidden Operational Costs
With the nurse shortage the USA’s health systems are facing, hiring travel nurses is a way to manage costs more strategically. Every stage of the permanent staffing process – credentialing, recruitment, onboarding, and benefits – represents time and money spent before a nurse has even started work.
On the other hand, with travel nurses, hospitals only pay for the contract periods and the hours they need. Travel nursing agencies, such as Ambition24hours, handle all the admin and credentialing, shortening placement timelines and reducing HR overhead.
By building up full-time teams with travel nurses, facilities maintain patient ratios, avoid costly overtime, and significantly reduce the risk of burnout. If temporary experienced nurses properly support your core staff, you’ll see absenteeism drop and retention improve – leading to measurable cost benefits over time.
The Flexibility Factor: Matching Staffing to Patient Demand
Hospital patient loads swing throughout the year, whether that’s flu season, unexpected local surges, or elective surgery peaks. Hiring travel nurses can provide different healthcare settings with on-demand coverage and instant scalability.
In contrast to paying full-time staff to stay idle during the off-season or idle periods, travel contracts offer operational flexibility and financial stability. This translates to:
Fewer scheduling issues and inefficiencies
No underutilized labor costs
Consistent care quality despite staffing shifts.
What’s more, travel nurses often have specialized skills, such as ER and intensive care unit experience and critical care. This is a great way to fill skill gaps without hiring new permanent positions at an additional cost.
Comparing Costs: Travel Nurse vs Staff Nurse Models
As we mentioned earlier, there’s a common misconception that travel nurses are more costly because they generally have higher rates and come with costs like housing stipends and travel reimbursements. However, this is without factoring in the total employment expense, including onboarding costs, overtime, and vacancy impact, which changes the picture significantly.