Is Pay Everything?

When searching for a locums assignment, there are various factors that can influence which job you choose to accept. Certainly, pay is very important and one of the main reasons nurse practitioners leave their permanent jobs to become a traveler. But is pay everything? Working as a locums nurse practitioner for the past 8 years, I have learned that depending on your season, is what you choose to prioritize.

Sometimes I choose to prioritize location. For example, last summer I chose to prioritize working in a new location that would be fun. This ended up being in Colorado. Although the pay wasn’t as high as I would like, I sacrificed the pay to be somewhere I wanted. I have done this several times by prioritizing to work in Florida or close to home.

Sometimes I choose to prioritize pay. This may be after taking a sabbatical or when wanting to quickly save up for something in particular, such as a down payment for a house. In this case, I am open to working in the locations that tend to pay more. These locations tend to be Northern California, Washington, New York, Maine, and Arizona.

Sometimes I choose to prioritize mental health. If I am feeling burn out but not ready to take a break, I will decide to select an assignment with a low patient volume. Typically, with a low patient volume, the pay will be lower. Versus if I am not burned out but looking for higher pay, I may be willing to seeing a higher patient volume.

Sometimes I choose to prioritize experience. For example, one time I had the opportunity to work in an employee health clinic for American Airlines. The pay was decent but I had other assignment options that would pay more. I ended up choosing to work with American Airlines because it would be a new experience and my first time working in employee health. I was curious to see what it would be like and build my skills working in a different setting.  

I decided to write this post because I get emails on a regular basis saying one of my readers found the perfect assignment except the pay isn’t as great as they would like. I always encourage negotiating, but I think you should choose the assignment based on your “season” at that time, and not always based on pay.

I am glad to see that the hourly rate and salary for nurse practitioners has increased significantly over the past 10 years. When I started working as a nurse practitioner in Florida 13 years ago, the average NP salary was closer to $90,000/year. Now, I know many nurse practitioners in Florida (with only a few years of experience) making $125,000/year.

The same goes for working as a locums nurse practitioner. When I started locums, the average hourly rate for a primary care nurse practitioner ranged from $55 to $70 per hour. Nowadays, I never see agencies offering that $55-65/hour range. These days, the average hourly rate for a locums primary care nurse practitioner ranges from $75 to $100 per hour. Of course, this varies by the state and practice setting. As stated above, Northern CA and NYC will pay closer to the $100/hour, whereas Southern states will pay closer to the $75/hour. Urgent care and ER settings will pay more than a primary care outpatient clinic.

Would love to hear your perspectives, feel free to comment below!