Travel Nurse Top Agencies for ICU, ER & OR Nurses — Specialty-Specific Guide (2025)

Top Travel Nurse Agencies for ICU, ER & OR Nurses — Specialty-Specific Guide (2025). Among the top-performing agencies in 2025 are Aya Healthcare, FlexCare, RNnetwork, and Travel Nurse Across America (TNAA). These typically offer better access to top-tier hospitals and competitive compensation packages.

Specialty-Specific Guide (2025) — Top Travel Nurse Agencies for ICU, ER & OR Nurses

Every year, hundreds of skilled ICU, ER, and OR nurses burn out from obligatory overtime, understaffing, and stagnant salaries at their domestic hospitals. But here`s what maximum do not realize: tour nursing organizations are actually presenting area of expertise nurses top class contracts with sign-on bonuses up to $15,000, weekly pay averaging $2,500 to $3,800, and the liberty to select assignments that fit their precise scientific skills. If you are an essential care or surgical nurse feeling undervalued, this manual breaks down which tour nurse organizations absolutely prioritize ICU, ER, and OR placements—and a way to stable the highest-paying contracts in 2025.

Quick Snapshot: What Specialty Travel Nurses Need to Know

Average Weekly Pay with the aid of using Specialty (2025): ICU nurses earn $2,800–$3,500 according to week, ER nurses make $2, six hundred–$3,300, and OR nurses command $2,700–$3,six hundred relying on area and agency.

Top Perks to Compare: Sign-on bonuses ranging from $3,000 to $15,000, complete medical health insurance beginning on day one, housing stipends averaging $1,800–$2,500 monthly, and licensure compensation for multi-kingdom compact licenses.

Minimum Experience Required: Most area of expertise contracts require at the least one to 2 years of latest enjoy on your unique unit, present day kingdom nursing license, BLS and ACLS certifications, and area of expertise certifications like CCRN, CEN, or CNOR are closely desired and regularly boom your pay rate.

Contract Lengths: Typical assignments run thirteen weeks with alternatives to extend, aleven though disaster contracts can be shorter at four to eight weeks with substantially better disaster pay rates.

Hidden Costs to Budget: Plan for transient housing deposits, tour costs in your mission area, keeping licensure in a couple of states, and ability gaps among contracts in case you do not stable returned-to-returned placements.

What Makes Travel Nursing Different for ICU, ER, and OR Specialists?

Travel nursing for area of expertise nurses isn`t similar to fashionable med-surg journey positions. When you figure in in depth care units, emergency departments, or running rooms, businesses want to affirm you could take care of high-acuity sufferers, complicated device, and life-or-demise conditions from day one. Your enjoy with ventilators, trauma protocols, ECMO, fast collection intubation, or sterile surgical approach will become your bargaining strength for top class pay packages.

The pleasant journey nurse businesses for essential care and surgical nurses keep committed area of expertise recruiters who certainly apprehend what a rate nurse function in a Level I trauma middle entails as opposed to a small network health facility ER. They might not waste it slow filing your profile to centers in which you are overqualified or under qualified. These recruiters realize which hospitals pick TNCC-licensed ER nurses, whom surgical facilities want first-help OR enjoy, and which ICUs require CRRT or balloon pump skills.

Specialty journey nursing additionally approach quicker placement techniques while centers face staffing emergencies. A health facility dropping 3 ICU nurses to resignation can pay disaster prices to fill the ones positions immediately. Understanding which businesses have the most powerful relationships with foremost health facility structures and which of them simply publish jobs they discover on different structures makes the distinction among earning $3,two hundred weekly as opposed to $2,four hundred for the equal work.

Why Specialty Travel Nursing Matters for Your Career and Income

Most workforce nurses in ICU, ER, and OR positions attain a earnings ceiling around $85,000 to $105,000 yearly relying on vicinity and years of enjoy. Travel nursing shatters that ceiling. Specialty journey nurses operating constant 13-week contracts can earn $130,000 to $180,000 yearly, with a few disaster contracts pushing general every year profits past $two hundred, 000 whilst you component in tax-unfastened stipends for housing and meals.

Beyond the on the spot monetary impact, journey nursing hurries up your medical knowledge quicker than staying at one facility. Every mission exposes you to one of a kind affected person population; device brands, digital fitness file structures, and evidence-primarily based totally protocols. An ICU nurse who travels learns to manipulate the whole thing from surgical ICU sufferers to neuro ICU and cardiac ICU instances throughout a couple of states. That versatility makes you substantially extra precious whilst you sooner or later pursue management roles, go back to everlasting positions, or follow for superior exercise programs.

The flexibility additionally protects your nursing license and intellectual health. Burnout drives nurses out of bedside care entirely, however journey contracts can help you take deliberate breaks among assignments with out dropping profits momentum. You manipulate whilst you work, wherein you go, and which affected person populations you treat. For nurses managing ethical damage from understaffed conditions, switching to journey nursing frequently reignites their ardor for affected person care due to the fact they`re subsequently supported with suitable ratios and resources.

From a licensing perspective, running in a couple of states below the Nurse Licensure Compact or acquiring person kingdom licenses broadens your expert credentials. When you maintain lively licenses in 5 or six states, you qualify for greater assignments and might negotiate higher pay due to the fact you are right now to be had without watching for licensure processing.

Comparing the Top Travel Nurse Agencies for ICU, ER, and OR Nurses

Aya Healthcare sticks out for uniqueness nurses due to the fact they hold the most important database of ICU, ER, and OR contracts nationwide. Their generation platform helps you to clear out particularly to your unit type, required certifications, and desired locations. Aya gives complete medical health insurance with low deductibles beginning the primary day of your settlement, which subjects whilst you’re converting jobs each 3 months.

Their pay programs have a tendency to be obvious with clean breakdowns of taxable wages as opposed to non-taxable stipends. Many uniqueness nurses record Aya’s recruiters honestly labored as nurses or have good sized healthcare backgrounds, in order that they recognize whilst you say you want a settlement with one-to-one or one-to- ICU ratios.

Travel Nurse Across America focuses on vital care placements and has cultivated sturdy relationships with Magnet hospitals and Level I trauma centers. Their blessings bundle consists of unfastened non-public housing or beneficent housing stipends around $2,two hundred monthly, plus they cowl your license and certification costs. TNAA assigns you a committed recruiter for the existence of your dating with the agency, which offers continuity whilst you’re seeking out your subsequent assignment. They’re specifically recognized for securing tremendous OR contracts with official surgical centers.

FlexCare Medical Staffing appeals to ER nurses mainly due to the fact they deal with many emergency branch contracts in underserved and rural regions that provide disaster charges. Their weekly pay programs frequently encompass better stipends due to the fact those centers desperately want skilled ER nurses who can feature independently. FlexCare affords day-one medical insurance and has a stable recognition for on-time bills and responsive guide whilst settlement troubles arise. They additionally provide referral bonuses up to $2,000 while you convey some other uniqueness nurse to the agency.

Cross Country Nurses operates as one of the oldest journey nursing corporations with mounted clinic relationships throughout all 50 states. Their length approach they are able to provide greater settlement options, however a few nurses document much less customized recruiter interest as compared to smaller corporations. However, their blessings are aggressive with 401k matching, loyalty bonuses for finishing more than one contract, and complete malpractice coverage. ICU nurses recognize that Cross Country regularly has contracts at coaching hospitals wherein you may preserve current crucial care skills.

Trusted Health differentiates itself with a technology-first method wherein you may browse to be had contracts without delay on their app, see obvious pay programs earlier than applying, and manipulate your credentials digitally. These appeals to nurses who pick much less recruiter involvement and need to self-direct their journey career. Trusted Health has grown its uniqueness settlement services significantly, especially for OR nurses looking for contracts at ambulatory surgical operation facilities and uniqueness surgical hospitals. Their platform suggests real-time availability and helps you to practice to more than one position simultaneously.

NurseFly focuses completely on constructing expert profiles for skilled uniqueness nurses and connecting them with facility managers who need to lease without delay or via their companion corporations. For ICU, ER, and OR nurses with stable revel in and certifications, NurseFly assist you to command better pay charges with the aid of using showcasing your expertise. They don`t deal with contracts themselves however facilitate connections that frequently bring about top class placements.

Step-by-Step Action Plan to Secure Top Specialty Travel Contracts

Step One:

Update your nursing resume to emphasize your unique strong point talents in place of ordinary nursing duties. List the precise system you`re gifted with—ventilators, ECMO, CRRT, balloon pumps for ICU nurses; trauma protocols, triage systems, RSI revel in for ER nurses; robot surgery, orthopedic instances, cardiovascular tactics for OR nurses. Quantify your revel in with statements like “controlled one-to- ICU ratios for 18 months in 24-mattress scientific ICU” or “scrubbed for over 2 hundred orthopedic surgical instances along with general joint replacements and backbone surgeries.”

Step Two:

Obtain or replace essential certifications earlier than making use of to tour positions due to the fact this at once affects your pay rate. CCRN certification for ICU nurses normally adds $2 to $five according to hour for your base rate. CEN certification for emergency nurses alerts competency to facilities. CNOR certification for OR nurses opens doorways to specialized surgical contracts. Also make certain your BLS, ACLS, PALS (if applicable), and any strong point certifications like TNCC or NIHSS are present day and could continue to be legitimate thru your supposed settlement period.

Step Three:

Apply to 3 to 5 tour nurse groups concurrently in place of committing to simply one. Different groups have special contracts with unique hospitals, and also you need most options. Create bills with Aya Healthcare, Travel Nurse across America, and one or others that specialize for your area. Be sincere with every recruiter that you are exploring a couple of groups—that is fashionable exercise and that they count on it.

Step Four:

During your recruiter interviews, ask particular questions on their uniqueness agreement volume. How many ICU contracts do they fill monthly? What`s their ordinary pay variety to your uniqueness and revel in stage? Do they provide disaster contracts? What’s their coverage on agreement cancellations through centers? How quick do they receive a commission and system your direct deposits? Can they offer references from different uniqueness tourists? These questions monitor whether or not they are absolutely geared up to assist your uniqueness profession or simply seeking to fill any nursing role.

Step Five:

Review pay applications cautiously and apprehend the breakdown among taxable hourly wages and non-taxable stipends for housing and meals. The IRS calls for you to hold a tax home—a everlasting house in which you pay hire or mortgage—to qualify for tax-unfastened stipends. Some groups provide better stipends however decrease hourly prices, which impacts your Social Security profits and destiny benefits. Others offer better hourly wages with decrease stipends. Calculate the entire weekly and 13-week gross pay to evaluate gives accurately. Don’t overlook to aspect in medical insurance costs, journey reimbursements, and sign-on bonuses.

Step Six:

Verify the power info earlier than accepting contracts. Ask your recruiter approximately the unit size, ordinary affected person ratios, affected person population, digital fitness report system, required name hours for OR nurses, trauma stage for ER positions, and whether or not it is a glide pool role or committed unit. Contact cutting-edge tourists at that facility thru Facebook agencies or on-line boards to get sincere feedback. Some contracts that pay better prices include difficult running situations or negative control that purpose tourists to interrupt contracts.

Step Seven:

Prepare your compliance files successfully due to the fact delays in finishing facility necessities put off you’re begin date and paycheck. Most centers require fitness screenings, TB tests, drug screens, and history checks, evidence of vaccinations such as annual flu shots, COVID vaccination records, and abilities checklists particular in your uniqueness. Start collecting those files without delay after accepting an agreement. Use virtual credential control systems like Passport or Verified Credentials to shop the whole lot in a single region for destiny contracts.

Step Eight:

Plan your housing and relocation logistics earlier than your begin date. If you`re taking agency-supplied housing, verify the precise address, furnishings, utilities included, and rent terms. If you take the housing stipend, begin condo looking or exploring Airbnb alternatives at the least 4 weeks earlier than your begin date. Factor in deposits, tour days, and settling-in time. Many forte nurses paintings their remaining scheduled shift at their modern undertaking and pressure right now to begin their tour settlement inside days, so boost making plans prevents demanding transitions.

Expert Tip: Negotiate Everything Before Signing

Nurse Educator’s Insight: Most new tour nurses do not understand that preliminary pay applications are negotiable, especially for forte positions in excessive demand. When a recruiter provides an provide, reply with “I’m very inquisitive about this settlement, however I’m seeing comparable ICU positions offering $2 hundred greater weekly—are we able to in shape that?” or “Would the ability approve an additional $500 sign-on bonus if I devote today?”

Agencies have wiggle room of their invoice costs and may regularly boom your repayment without an awful lot pushback. Also negotiate settlement extension costs upfront. Ask “If I make bigger past thirteen weeks, will my price boom or live the same?” Many centers provide top class costs for extensions due to the fact they keep away from onboarding new travelers. Finally, usually negotiate compensation for license and certification costs. Some businesses to start with say no however will cowl those costs whilst you press the issue, doubtlessly saving you $500 to $1,2 hundred in line with year.

Secure Your Specialty Travel Career Today

Travel nursing for ICU, ER, and OR experts gives skilled nurses the uncommon aggregate of considerably better income, expert increase via numerous scientific experiences, and life-style flexibility that conventional team of workers positions honestly cannot in shape.

By that specialize in businesses that recognize forte nursing requirements, retaining modern certifications that command top class pay, and strategically negotiating each settlement component, you function yourself to earn what you are clearly really well worth even as warding off the burnout entice that drives nurses far from bedside care. The forte tour nursing marketplace maintains developing as hospitals face chronic staffing shortages in vital care areas, because of this that skilled ICU, ER, and OR nurses preserve widespread negotiating energy proper now in 2025.

Start with the aid of using updating your resume to exhibit your strong point expertise, making use of to 3 optimum organizations simultaneously, and asking distinctive questions on pay systems and facility situations earlier than committing to contracts. Your essential care talents are in excessive demand, and the proper journey nursing organization will show that via aggressive pay packages, responsive support, and steady agreement possibilities that align together along with your profession goals.

Next: Explore our entire manual on “How to Maximize Tax-Free Stipends as a Travel Nurse — IRS-Compliant Strategies for 2025” to make certain you`re retaining extra of what you earn.

Frequently Asked Questions About Specialty Travel Nursing

How plenty enjoy do I want earlier than journey nursing as an ICU, ER, or OR nurse?

Most journey nurse organizations and centers require not less than 365 days of latest enjoy on your precise strong point, aleven though years is strongly desired for complicated essential care and surgical positions. Recent enjoy method you have actively labored in that strong point in the beyond 12 to 18 months. For example, in case you labored ICU for 2 years however then spent a yr in a clinic, organizations keep in mind your ICU enjoys outdated. Facilities hiring journey nurses want professionals who can orient fast with minimum supervision due to the fact they may be filling pressing staffing gaps, so that they prioritize nurses with current, strong medical foundations in excessive-acuity environments.

Do journey nurse organizations cowl the value of acquiring licenses in more than one states?

Most reliable journey nurse organizations reimburse license utility charges for states in which they may be sending you on assignment, aleven though rules range significantly. Some organizations pay in advance and deal with the utility procedure for you, others reimburse you after you purchased the license, and a few simplest cowl licenses when you entire your first agreement with them.

Always make clear license repayment rules at some point of your recruiter interviews. If you already keep a Nurse Licensure Compact license from a compact state, you may exercise in all forty compact states without acquiring person licenses, which saves extensive cash and time. However, non-compact states like California, New York, and Florida require separate license packages that value between $one hundred and $350 relying at the state, plus fingerprinting and processing charges.

Can I bring my family with me on travel nurse assignments?

Absolutely, many distinctiveness tour nurses tour with spouses, partners, and children. When you take delivery of housing stipends as opposed to organization-supplied housing, you manipulate your residing preparations and might hire large residences or homes that accommodate your own circle of relatives. Keep in thoughts that housing stipends are calculated for the tour nurse only, so that you may also want to complement the stipend with non-public budget for own circle of relatives-sized housing.

Some businesses provide barely better stipends whilst you expose you`re bringing own circle of relatives, aleven though this is not universal. For nurses with college-age children, 13-week contracts align really fairly with college semesters, and plenty of touring households make use of on-line training alternatives or time assignments at some stage in summer time season breaks. Your own circle of relative’s contributors cannot be indexed on organization-supplied housing leases, so in case you’re the usage of organization housing, you may want to speak about alternatives together along with your recruiter.

What takes place if a health center cancels my tour agreement early?

Contract cancellations do occur, aleven though they may be quite unusual with distinctiveness nurses due to the fact centers desperately want ICU, ER, and OR coverage. If a facility cancels your agreement without motive earlier than completion, maximum businesses assure a sure quantity of hours or will paintings right away to area you in a distinct assignment.

Review your agreement’s cancellation clause cautiously earlier than signing. Some businesses offer no economic safety if a facility cancels after you have already relocated, at the same time as others assure price for one to 2 weeks or stable instant opportunity placements. Never cease an everlasting role without know-how your tour agreement’s cancellation policies. On the turn side, in case you want to cancel a agreement, you normally ought to offer weeks’ notice, and breaking contracts damages your recognition with that organization and probably with the facility, making it more difficult to stable destiny assignments.

Are sign-on bonuses for travel nurses taxable income?

Yes, sign-on bonuses and finishing touch bonuses are taken into consideration taxable earnings through the IRS and can be blanketed for your W-2 profits. Some businesses shape bonuses to pay 1/2 of in advance and 1/2 of upon agreement finishing touch to incentivize you to complete the assignment. Others pay the total bonus when you whole a positive variety of weeks or shifts.

When evaluating pay applications among businesses, usually calculate the overall taxable profits consisting of bonuses to recognize your real earnings and tax liability. Sign-on bonuses ranging from $3,000 to $15,000 substantially raise your every year earnings however additionally boom your tax bracket, so plan accordingly. Housing and meal stipends, however, are non-taxable so long as you hold a tax domestic and meet IRS necessities for transient paintings assignments.

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