Author: Tim Rush

Per Diem vs. Part-Time vs. Travel: What’s the Difference?

Beginning a job search on Health Jobs Nationwide takes you to a main page where you can filter search results. Among your many options is Employment Type. Our jobs board lists hundreds of thousands of open positions across many types including per diem, part-time, and travel work. Have you ever wondered how the three job types different?

 By far the number one employment type is full-time. There are more than 120,000 full-time positions posted on our site right now. But there are also thousands of per diem, part-time, and travel jobs. If you are not looking for full-time work, one of these categories might interest you. Note that these are all medical jobs.

 1. Per Diem Work

 Although a lot of per diem healthcare jobs are in nursing and teaching, it is technically possible for any medical job to be offered on a per diem basis. Per diem employees do not have a regular schedule. They do not have consistent hours they work from week to week. Rather, they fill in for full- or part-time employees who need to take time off.

 As a per diem nurse, for example, you might work three consecutive shifts to fill in for another nurse who is out. Then you might take three or four days off. Another opportunity will come up for you to take a couple of weekend shifts to fill a temporary gap.

 There are definite benefits to working per diem, including flexibility and premium pay. Some people prefer per diem because it offers an opportunity to learn new skills, broaden one’s knowledge, and work in different environments.

 2. Part-Time Work

 Most of us are familiar with part-time work. It is included in this post as a way of drawing a clearer distinction between per diem and travel work. A part-time worker generally works no more than 32 hours per week. The employee may or may not have access to an employer’s complete benefit package. However, part-time healthcare jobs generally offer benefits of some type.

 Part-time workers may have set schedules. For example, you may have a nurse who works three weekend shifts – a single 12-hour shift or two tens. Their schedule is consistent but, because they only work 32 hours, they are considered part-time.

 3. Travel Work

 Medical jobs in the travel category are almost always clinical jobs. You are talking nurses, doctors, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners. Travel workers are usually full-time workers who take work on an assignment basis. Assignments can be as short as a few weeks or as long as 6 to 9 months.

 The key to the travel work category is that employees frequently change locations. Whether that means working at five different hospitals in the same general vicinity or traveling from one state to the next, travel workers don’t make a career at any one facility. Some do not even work exclusively in the U.S.

 Travel workers do have some flexibility in the sense that they have the freedom to choose when and where they want to work. For legal purposes, travel nurses and doctors are self-employed contractors. They contract with facilities or staffing companies to provide services at a given location for a set amount of time. When one assignment expires, it is on to the next one.

 One of the most interesting aspects of working in healthcare is that there are so many different types of medical jobs and working arrangements. Healthcare is anything but static, that’s for sure. Just take a look at our jobs board. We offer so many possibilities that you are bound to find something that’s right for you.

by Tim Rush (CEO HSI, LLC)

Kansas Becomes 26th State to Loosen NP Practice Restrictions

Nurse practitioner jobs in Kansas now offer a bit more freedom thanks to a bill recently signed into law by Governor Laura Kelly. The bill eliminates the need for direct supervision among nurse practitioners looking to provide the primary care they are trained and licensed to perform. Kansas is the 26th state to make the change. Two U.S. territories and the District of Columbia have also given greater practice authority to NPs.

 Will the remaining twenty-four states follow suit? That’s hard to say. A similar bill was defeated in Colorado in early 2022. In other states, legislators are not even having the discussion. Whether or not to sever the supervisory relationship between physicians and nurse practitioners is by no means settled.

 Independent Primary Care

 Prior to the new law, Kansas nurse practitioners were allowed to offer primary care under the supervision of a physician. An NP could work in the supervising doctor’s office or, with a written agreement in place, offer care in a separate facility. In either case, the NP’s scope and practice remained subject to doctor supervision.

 Such restrictive scope and practice laws have been common in the U.S. for decades. However, the COVID pandemic made it clear that NPs and their physician assistant counterparts are more than capable of providing quality primary care without being tethered to a physician. Perhaps that’s why just over half the states have since loosened their restrictions.

 The most intriguing aspect of eliminating direct supervision is its potential impact on nurse practitioner jobs. How will NPs choose to practice in states that don’t require it?

 Retail Primary Care

 A recent Forbes article by Senior contributor Bruce Japsen briefly mentioned the proliferation of retail healthcare clinics operated by well-known companies like CVS. The retail health clinic is nothing new, but it has gained widespread attention thanks to the pandemic. Such clinics are prime candidates for independent nurse practitioners.

 Japsen suggests that patients could be willing to seek primary care from a nurse practitioner in a retail clinic if that meant avoiding crowded doctors’ offices and long waits in the waiting room. It is hard to argue his point. Anyone who has sat waiting an hour or more for the doctor, only to be given 10 minutes of their time, might welcome the opportunity to walk into a retail clinic, see the NP, and be out the door in under 30 minutes.

 Of course, not all retail clinics get patients in and out as quickly. But the advantage of the retail model is that nurse practitioners are not bound by tight scheduling. They can see fewer patients in a day and, as a result, spend more time with each patient.

 Not Everyone on Board

 It is clear that not everyone is on board with the idea of loosening restrictions on nurse practitioner jobs. There are doctors and healthcare groups who don’t feel as though NPs have enough training to work independently. There are also patients who just do not feel comfortable visiting with an NP – especially if a doctor is available.

 Efforts to prevent states from cutting direct ties between physicians and nurse practitioners is to be expected. Healthcare is a very touchy subject for obvious reasons. Therefore, wide differences of opinion are part of any debate. Furthermore, such differences are not always worked out as evidenced by the fact that there are still twenty-four states that require physician supervision of nurse practitioners in primary care settings.

 Such supervision is no longer necessary in Kansas. With the new law in place, Kansas joins twenty-five other states in allowing nurse petitioners to practice independently.

by Tim Rush (CEO HSI, LLC)