As travel RN wages in 2023 continue to fall in many states, some registered nurses who left their staff positions to take more lucrative travel roles are returning to staff jobs. Some former staff nurses returned to the hospitals they left. These nurses, often referred to as boomerang nurses, may have been lured back by better pay and benefits.

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Some Travelers Returning to Staff Roles

According to Vivian Health’s Future of Healthcare Work Report 2023, a good number of travelers surveyed are considering staff positions. Nearly 46% of survey respondents contemplating permanent roles said they were interested in full-time employment. To snag travelers returning to staff positions, healthcare facilities must be willing to give them what they want most.

Survey respondents in Vivian’s report could choose up to five things most important to them when seeking new jobs. While wages ranked the highest, other perks also scored well, including benefits, staff-to-patient ratios, commute time and flexible schedules. Besides standard healthcare and retirement benefits, respondents also selected tuition reimbursement, continuing education, well-being programs, childcare/dependent care, and financial counseling as crucial benefits.

Some healthcare facilities are listening and overcoming their staffing woes by winning nurses back with higher pay and better benefits. New or better perks reported at some hospitals include childcare, less demanding positions, flexible schedules, student-debt relief, and adoption or infertility benefits. And, of course, a boost in staff nurses’ wages. One report in the Wall Street Journal indicated that staff pay had increased by as much as 21% at some facilities. Despite the elevated staff salaries, these facilities were still saving money by paying less for overtime and temporary contracts due to having more nurses on staff.

Even with better staff pay and perks, lower travel wages and fewer travel nurse job openings, there are still plenty of travel positions out there and nurses interested in pursuing them. While healthcare travel wages for nurses fell again in 33 states, a few states saw pay increases and several states’ travel nursing pay stayed the same this month.

States With Wage Increases

Three states posted positive increases in travel nurse wages in April 2023. This number is down from the five states with increased rates in March 2023 but better than in April of last year, when only Minnesota posted a higher pay rate compared to the previous month. Of the three states with higher healthcare travel pay for nurses this month, Utah had the best increase. 

Utah’s 1.8% rise in travel RN wages resulted in a bump of about $46 in average weekly pay or $598 in a 13-week contract. This month’s increase makes up for the 1.4% decrease the state posted in March. Although Utah also posted a drop of 0.9% in February 2023, the state had a significant increase of 5.9% in travel wages in January 2023. The combined rate changes technically put travel nursing wages ahead for the first part of 2023, but Vivian’s salary data indicates the state is still down 2.9% when comparing the year-over-year change.

States With Wage Decreases

Like every other month in 2023 thus far, more states reported decreased travel nurse wages in April compared to the previous month. While March had 39 states on this list, 33 states had lower weekly travel salaries this month. Wyoming had the most significant dip in travel nursing pay at 6.3%. Like Utah’s rise, Wyoming’s drop mostly evens out based on its increase of 5.2% last month, the most significant rise in travel RN wages in March. Wyoming’s year-over-year change is negative 7.9%.

States Where Wages Stayed the Same

The remaining 14 states had fluctuations of less than 1%, resulting in relatively small changes in weekly travel RN wages in April 2023. Although weekly salaries may have moved up or down to a small degree, wages in these states were considered unchanged for the month. This month saw many more states with small fluctuations compared to March, which only had six on this list. However, February 2023 also saw 14 states with travel nurse rates that were primarily unchanged.

Average salary data based on travel RN jobs posted on Vivian Health during the complete month of April compared to the jobs posted during the complete month of March 2023.