Hurricane Florence Shifts Demand Inland for North Carolina Travel Nurses
Update, 9:35 a.m. CST, Sept. 21, 2018 More open positions were made available in Charlotte, North Carolina to help deal with Hurricane Florence evacuee patient loads, according to information from industry sources. At least 40 open positions are available in the area for travel nurses. Most of the requested positions are for medical-surgical and telemetry travel nurses, but there are still labor and delivery spots available. Travelers can view North Carolina opportunities on the StaffDNA job board here >> Original story, posted at 9:43 a.m. CST, Sept. 19, 2018 North Carolina is a consistently popular state for travel healthcare professionals—it regularly ranks among the top 10 most applied-to states every month and has a wide variety of job opportunities through most seasons. However, the devastation from Hurricane Florence this weekend forced several coastal hospital locations to close entirely and evacuate patients inland, meaning travel nurse job opportunities have followed suit. “With the flooding…hospitals have been closed down close to Wilmington,” said Kelsey Moena, a client advisor for staffing agency LiquidAgents Healthcare. “They are not bringing in (travel nurse) candidates because you can’t even get to the hospitals.” Thousands of patients and healthcare providers evacuated early last week to avoid the storm, while a limited number of staff and hospitals in evacuation zones were granted mandatory evacuation exemption waivers and stayed behind to keep emergency centers open. Multiple facilities in the Cape Fear Valley Health System remained closed or had delayed opening on Wednesday from flooding and power outages, according to a press release. Several outpatient facilities associated with New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington opened Wednesday, but other facilities including Pender Memorial Hospital, NHRMC Orthopedic Hospital, and NHRMC ED-North remained closed, according to the hospital’s website. Because of these closures, travel nurse needs have shifted west towards the inland hub of Charlotte. Carolinas Medical Center recently posted at least 20 needs for travel nurses to help with new patient loads from the storm, according to industry sources. The hospital is primarily looking for medical-surgical, telemetry and labor and deliver travel nurses. Find travel nurse opportunities in Charlotte, NC >> Travelers who can’t make it to North Carolina but still want to help can donate to ongoing disaster relief efforts by clicking here. Closed Cape Fear Valley Health System facilities include: Bladen Medical Associates – Bladenboro Bladen Medical Associates – Dublin Bladen Medical Associates – White Lake Bladen Medical Associates – Clarkton Cape Fear Valley Primary Care at Lumberton QuikCare at Robeson Cape Fear Valley Foot & Ankle – Lumberton and Laurinburg offices Cape Fear Valley Podiatry’s Lumberton office Bladen Physical Therapy Cape Fear Valley Rehabilitation Center’s Outpatient Pediatric Physical Therapy All other Cape Fear Valley clinics are open, but Cape Fear Valley Diagnostic Center will open at 7 a.m. and HealthPlex will open at 8 a.m.
Travel Jobs: Where Travelers Applied In August, Sept. Market Predictions
In last month’s update, we touched on how August serves as a transitional period for the travel healthcare job market. Many travelers looking to avoid the early wave of competition in July waited until August to search for a fall contract. At the same time, many travelers went back to work or squeezed in a bit more “paid vacation” by extending at their summer facilities through the month. Pediatric facilities may have needed more help, with parents bringing children in for check-ups before school and to get the first round of flu vaccinations. As such, our predictions for the total volume of applications on the StaffDNA job boards were mostly on the mark, dropping by about 12 percent from July to August. Market activity ramped up towards the end of the month, but not fast enough to reach July’s high number of applications. Travel healthcare jobs September 2018 We expect September to at least recoup from the 12 percent drop in application volume for August, but we may also see a possible increase in application activity. There are a few market indicators that point towards September as a high-activity month: Many travelers who decided to extend their summer contracts will be looking for either a quick contract between fall and winter or they will already be planning for the winter months. Hospitals are continuing to push for more temporary staffing to bulk up for flu season. The great “snowbird” migration will start to ramp up this month. Travelers who moved north for cooler summer temperatures will head back south for the winter. Conversely, travelers who don’t mind the cold will head north to fill gaps left by summer travelers. If you didn’t catch it, the recurring theme here is winter. Late November through February are incredibly busy times for general healthcare facilities, so most hospitals, recruiters and travelers have already begun planning three months ahead. We already saw a few examples of the winter job swell in the past two weeks. Facilities in East Texas have been hiring medical-surgical nurses en masse, and one of the largest hospitals in St. Louis plans to bring in more than 200 travelers in the next two months. Unsurprisingly, both of these locations are in southern states where flu activity peaks early and stays high throughout the winter. Expect to see more facilities in Alabama, Mississippi, New Mexico, Arizona, Louisiana and Arkansas heavily recruiting in the next few weeks. While we can’t say for sure September will be the busiest month of the year for job hunting, we can guarantee travelers have a much wider range of options to find a contract right now that fits their needs. Let’s see what we learned from August’s top markets. State rankings show a gradual winter shift The StaffDNA state rankings list didn’t change much overall from July to August, but it did provide early hints to where travelers may be looking for the late fall and winter. Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Nevada continued to gain ground and now sit comfortably in the top 20 most applied-to states. Arizona also held a spot in the top 10, dropping only two spots to No. 8. Kentucky, South Carolina enter the Top 10 Kentucky just barely jumped into the top 10 most applied-to states for August, bumping Virginia down to No. 11. South Carolina made the largest shift, moving seven spots from No. 13 to the sixth place slot. We expect the state to remain popular in September, as there are many high-paying opportunities on the StaffDNA job boards in the state, especially for rad techs and OR, ER, ICU and PACU nurses. August’s Top Markets Florida California Texas North Carolina Tennessee South Carolina Pennsylvania Arizona Georgia Kentucky Virginia Indiana Missouri Oklahoma Arkansas Wisconsin Michigan Iowa Idaho Maine New Mexico Nevada Oregon West Virgina Colorado Ohio Hawaii Washington New Jersey Illinois Massachusets Alabama Minnesota Utah Maryland Louisiana New Hampshire Vermont Arkansas Montana New York South Dakota Connecticut Kansas Mississippi Nebraska Washington D.C. Wyoming North Dakota Rhode Island Delaware
Travel Jobs: Where Travelers Applied in July, Expectations for August
Expectations were high for July to be a very active month on the StaffDNA job boards after a sharp jump in application volume in June, and travelers did not disappoint. The volume of applications increased by almost 20 percent, making it the second month in a row with a significant increase in job board activity. This positive trend can be linked to several factors: August is a historically busy month for hospitals in the U.S., but especially for pediatric facilities. Most school districts in the U.S. start the school year in mid- to late August, so parents are likely to bring their children in for a check-up or to update their immunizations. Experienced travelers who took off in the summer were on the hunt for fall assignments. “Snowbirds” who headed back to northern states during the summer are looking to migrate down south for the winter. Job volume kept up with traveler demand. Needs for skilled labor and delivery and OR professionals ramped up in late-June, and less popular summer vacation states were offering competitive pay packages. Travel Healthcare Jobs August 2018 We don’t expect to see another dramatic jump in job board activity for August, but we do expect hospitals will already start recruiting for winter travelers late in the month. “[Pediatrics], ICU, step down, [telemetry]—you’ll see hospitals start to book in September,” a LiquidAgents Healthcare source told HCT Today. “Hospitals that are budgeting and planning early are already putting out January needs.” A quick look at the StaffDNA job board shows several new positions posted within the last two weeks that have scheduled start dates in December. Let’s take a closer look at what we learned from July’s top markets. State ranks are starting to shake up June saw almost no major movement among the ranks of states where travelers applied to the most, but July showed hints of the upcoming seasonal shift, with more Southern states holding or moving up the list. Since August is a transitional month for the traveler job market, we expect to see much more dramatic shifting trends in where travelers apply for jobs. September may prove to be even more volatile, as travelers who got contract extensions through August will start actively seeking jobs. Arizona and Tennessee enter the Top 10 After a month out of the big leagues, Arizona jumped 10 ranks back up to the No. 6 spot of the top 10 most applied-to states. Tennessee also re-entered the top ranks at No. 7. Tennessee seems to be a fairly popular state year-round, but as we’ve seen Arizona is much more prone to seasonal changes. We may see it hop around the ranks in August and September, but we expect it and New Mexico to be very popular with travelers in the winter months. Massachusetts makes the biggest jump, Illinois falls the farthest Illinois dropped 14 ranks, from the edge of the top 10 at No. 11 to middle of the pack at No. 25. Meanwhile, Massachusetts regained most of the ground it lost in June, moving up 12 ranks from No. 41 to No. 29. The drop for Illinois is expected—the northern state enjoys more popularity in the spring, but travelers may be looking to get out before the winter season hits. The state experiences five severe winter storms on average between November and April, according to information from the state’s climatologist office. Massachusetts frequently hangs around the middle of the pack for total applications, so we expect it to mostly maintain its rank during the coming months. July’s Top Markets California Florida Texas North Carolina Georgia Arizona Pennsylvania Tennessee Michigan Virginia Wisconsin Arkansas South Carolina Kentucky Missouri Nevada Iowa Indiana Maine Oklahoma West Virginia New Mexico Oregon Indiana Illinois Colorado Ohio Hawaii Massachusetts Alabama Washington New York Minnesota Maryland Louisiana Montana New Jersey Kansas Mississippi Alaska Wyoming Nebraska Utah Connecticut District of Columbia (Washington D.C.) South Dakota Vermont North Dakota New Hampshire Rhode Island Delaware
EMR Conversions: Cerner Jobs Available For Fall In Virginia, Epic In New Mexico
Travel nurses with Cerner experience looking for a quick contract with great pay should turn their attention to Lynchburg, Virginia for new EMR conversion jobs. Centra Lynchburg General Hosptial, the flagship facility of the Centra Health system, will undergo a Cerner conversion in September, according to industry sources. Centra has been in the process of switching their hospitals to Cerner after signing a contract with the software company in 2016, according to a press release. The facility is primarily looking for ICU, CVICU, OR and step down travel nurses with Cerner experience. The assignments are scheduled to start on Aug. 27, last for five weeks and vary between day and night shifts. The short contract length could provide a good opportunity for qualified travelers who want to avoid working the holidays. Based on current job board data, pay for these positions range from $1,900-2,132 weekly, which is well above the average for the state. Additionally, despite Virginia’s high cost-of-living rating, Lynchburg actually falls below the state and national average, meaning travelers can save money on rent and basic necessities. You can view job board postings based on specialty here: CVICU OR ICU Oncology Editor’s note: Linked job board posts are subject to change based on availability and other factors. Interested travelers should contact their recruiters for the most up-to-date information. Additional EMR Conversion Needs September is shaping up to be a busy month for EMR conversion needs, as several facilities have “go-live” dates scheduled for the month. Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico still needs OR and medical-surgical travel nurses for their switch from Cerner to Epic charting on Sept. 17. Contracts will range anywhere from six to 13 weeks. Interested nurses should have Epic experience, two years of working in their specialty and previous travel assignment experience.
Travel Jobs: Top 10 States for June, July Market Predictions
In our June traveler job market predictions, we talked about the “summer stall”—less new job postings, more competition for every job and more interest in atypical summer job states. Based on StaffDNA job board data, two of our predictions were on target. Job application volume increase by nearly 20 percent from May to June, marking the most active month since January. What we didn’t expect was for supply to match pace with demand. Hospital systems in many states, including popular summer destinations like California and Virginia, bounced back after the late-May and early-June slump. Part of this can be linked to vacation plans for permanent hospital staff, according to travel agency sales staff sources. As the regular staff takes off for the summer or cuts back on hours, that provides opportunities for travelers to fill the gaps. We expect for this market momentum to stay strong in July, as travelers who took time off in June will be planning ahead for the start of the school season in August or to find a fall contract in September. The back-to-school rush marks a yearly milestone for many travelers with children or grandchildren. They will typically take a break during the summer for childcare, and return to hospitals once the kids are back in school. “The experienced travelers know it can take four to six weeks to find and start a job, so they start the search for an agency and position mid-summer,” said Kate Quinn of LiquidAgents Healthcare. Let’s take a look at what we learned from our top markets for June. Rankings barely shift as travelers settle in for the summer While April and May saw a lot of “movement” in terms of where healthcare travelers applied across the country, ranking shifts were much more conservative in June, despite the high application volume. Most states moved up or down the list by 5 ranks or less, and five states—North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Wisconsin and Washington—didn’t move at all. We expect the list to remain mostly stable for July, August and potentially in early fall, as traveler won’t start making big moves until we get closer to the holiday season. Michigan, Missouri, Virginia enter the Top 10 For the first time this year, Missouri joined the likes of Texas, California and Florida in the top 10, moving up two spots from May to No. 9. Virginia moved back up as anticipated, jumping up five ranks to No. 10 on the list. The state is both a top travel destination for summer 2018 and one of the top five highest paying travel nurse states in the U.S. Montana, Wyoming climb the charts; Connecticut drops to dead last Montana and Wyoming both moved up seven ranks to take the No. 41 and 42 slots, respectively, while Connecticut dropped 16 spots to the bottom of our list. Connecticut has consistently ranked in the bottom half of the list for job board applications. It’s also one of the most expensive states to work in as a traveler because of the high regional cost of living and low average pay packages. Interest in Maine uncertain as Medicaid expansion remains in flux Enrollment for the voter-approved Medicaid expansion was supposed to roll out on July 2, which would have provided a $500 million shot in the arm for healthcare funding in the state and coverage for more than 70,000 eligible recipients. Pending litigation surrounding the expansion has left the issue in limbo. A Maine judge forced Gov. Paul LePage to submit an expansion plan to the federal government by June 11, but LePage’s administration submitted an appeal for the ruling. While the appeal is pending, LePage also vetoed the expansion bill this week. Because of the political turmoil, it’s uncertain whether the expansion will have an impact on the Maine traveler job market as expected. June’s Top Markets Florida California Texas North Carolina Georgia South Carolina Michigan Pennsylvania Missouri Virginia Illinois Indiana Kentucky Tennessee Arkansas Arizona Nevada Idaho Oklahoma Iowa Wisconsin West Virginia New Mexico Maine Oregon Colorado Washington Hawaii Ohio Alabama Louisiana Maryland Mississippi New Jersey Alaska Utah Kansas Montana Wyoming Minnesota Massachusetts North Dakota New York District of Columbia Delaware Nebraska New Hampshire Rhode Island South Dakota Vermont Connecticut
Top 10 Highest Paying Travel Healthcare Jobs: July 2
Happy Independence Day week, everyone! As our nation’s birthday approaches, we can think of no better way to celebrate than by finding the hottest travel healthcare jobs in the good old U.S. of A. The highest packages this week come out of California, which should be no surprise if you’ve visited our Travel Nursing Pay Package state ranking list, but it does track with our story about how labor and delivery and OR jobs have heated up in the past two weeks. Going forward, we also plan to arrange our list by highest listed pay to lowest for your convenience. Want to see us highlight some other states, specialties or professions in our list next week? Let us know in the comments! Travel Healthcare Jobs: July 2-6 Editor’s Note: The details listed below are subject to change based on contract availability. 1. RN- OR, Travel Location: Palm Springs, California Weekly Pay: $2,898 Duration: 13 Weeks Day Shift View this Travel Job >> 2. RN- OR, Travel Location: Chico, California Weekly Pay: $2,680 Duration: 13 Weeks Day Shift View this Travel Job >> 3. RN- OR, Travel Location: Bangor, Maine Weekly Pay: $2,586 Duration: 15 Weeks Day Shift View this Travel Job >> 4. RN- Labor and Delivery (L&D) Location: Atlanta, Georgia Weekly Pay: $2,050 Duration: 13 Weeks Night Shift View this Travel Job >> 5. RN- Medical-Surgical, Travel Location: Chinle, Arizona Weekly Pay: $1,996 Duration: 13 Weeks Day/Night Rotate View this Travel Job >> 6. RN- OR, Travel Location: Scranton, Pennsylvania Weekly Pay: $1,886 Duration: 13 Weeks Day Shift View this Travel Job >> 7. RN- Medical-Surgical, Travel Location: Reno, Nevada Weekly Pay: $1,860 Duration: 13 Weeks Day Shift View this Travel Job >> 8. Certified SurgTech- CVOR, Travel Location: Hilton Head Island, South Carolina Weekly Pay: $1,822 Duration: 13 Weeks Day Shift View this Travel Job >> 9. Certified SurgTech- CVOR, Travel Location: Brookfield, Wisconsin Weekly Pay: $1,784 Duration: 13 Weeks Day Shift View this Travel Job >> 10. RN- OR, Travel Location: Scranton, Pennsylvania Weekly Pay: $1,741 Duration: 13 Weeks Day Shift View this Travel Job >>
EMR Conversion: New Mexico hospital switching to EPIC in September
Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico plans to switch from Cerner EMR charting to Epic this fall and anticipates travel nurse staffing needs, according to industry sources. The planned go-live date is September 16. The facility expects vacancies in medical-surgical/telemetry, ICU, ER, PACU and OR. The hospital currently holds 300 beds and is a classified as Level II Trauma facility. Contracts will range anywhere from six to 13 weeks. Interested nurses should have Epic experience, as well as two years of working in their specialty and previous travel assignment experience. Additional EMR Conversion needs Two hospitals in the UNC Health Care system in North Carolina will swap from Meditech to Epic during an EMR conversion in the fall. The go-live dates at Wayne UNC Health Care in Goldsboro and Nash Health Care in Rocky Mount is September 22.
Top 10 Highest Paying Travel Healthcare Jobs: June 25
Another hot week of summer means another week of hot travel healthcare jobs, and we’ve got the scoop on great positions around the nation from StaffDNA job board data. If you’ve kept up with our posts each week, you’ll notice a subtle change—we’ve switched our headline from just “nursing” jobs to “healthcare,” because we’ve also found a couple of great travel surgical tech positions this week. We talk a lot about the travel nursing market on HCT Today, but we also want to highlight other opportunities from week to week for our non-nurse readers as well. Now that we’ve covered the fun part, let’s check out this week’s top jobs. Travel Nursing Jobs: June 25-30 Editor’s Note: The details listed below are subject to change based on contract availability. 1. RN-Telemetry, Travel Location: Scranton, Pennsylvania Weekly Pay: $1,741 Duration: 13 Weeks Day Shift View this Travel Job >> 2. RN- Telemetry (TELE), Travel Location: Scranton, Pennsylvania Weekly Pay: $1,881 Duration: 13 Weeks Day Shift View this Travel Job >> 3. RN- Medical-Surgical, Travel Location: Chinlee, Arizona Weekly Pay: $1,996 Duration: 13 Weeks Day/Night Rotating View this Travel Job >> 4. RN- Medical-Surgical, Travel Location: Reno, Nevada Weekly Pay: $1,860 Duration: 13 Weeks Day Shift View this Travel Job >> 5. RN- OR, Travel Location: Palm Springs, California Weekly Pay: $2,898 Duration: 13 Weeks Day Shift View this Travel Job >> 6. RN- OR, Travel Location: Chico, California Weekly Pay: $2,680 Duration: 13 Weeks Day Shift View this Travel Job >> 7. RN- Labor and Delivery (L&D), Travel Location: Atlanta, Georgia Weekly Pay: $2,050 Duration: 13 Weeks Day Shift View this Travel Job >> 8. RN- Telemetry (TELE), Travel Location: Memphis, Tennessee Weekly Pay: $1,746 Duration: 13 Weeks Night Shift View this Travel Job >> 9. Certified SurgTech-First Assist Location: Lafayette, Indiana Weekly Pay: $2,108 Duration: 8 Weeks Day Shift View this Travel Job >> 10. Certified SurgTech-Sterile Processing, Travel Location: Columbia, Tennessee Weekly Pay: $1,562 Duration: 13 Weeks Day Shift View this Travel Job >> Didn’t find the job you’re looking for? You can view more travel healthcare job opportunities here.
Travel Nurse Market: Labor and Delivery, OR Nurse Jobs On The Rise
Labor and delivery and OR nurses, it’s time brush up on your interview skills and talk with your recruiter, because the job market is on the rise, according to an industry insider. “Those are the two specialties that I am seeing a spike in not just a few locations, but everywhere right now,” a LiquidAgents Healthcare source told HCT Today. “Especially with L&D, I would normally see half as many openings right now compared to the amount that’s currently available.” While medical-surgical RN positions remain the most frequently requested among the specialties, labor and delivery and OR RN jobs have consistently ranked among the top 10 most requested specialties since April, according to StaffDNA data. Why are there more OR nurse jobs right now? View current OR RN positions here>> Short Answer: Who knows? We’re trying to figure that out now because it’s not normal. But it may have something to do with high-deductible health insurance plans. Long Answer: For OR nurses, job demand is often tied to demand for elective surgeries at a facility. Since the dates for elective surgeries can be requested by patients months in advance, hospitals will also plan to bring on temporary OR staff to help out if necessary. In recent years, however, most facilities plan for lots of elective surgeries at the end of the year, not in the middle, because of the rise in patients using high-deductible health insurance plans. Patients with high-deductible plans typically wait to schedule elective surgeries until late in the year, when they have met their deductible, or as a way to squeeze in a last-minute procedure before their insurance company raises the price next year. Don’t expect this trend to end anytime soon—more Americans are enrolled in employer-based high-deductible insurance plans than ever before, and deductible prices continue to rise. The average deductible for people with employer-based coverage rose from $303 to $1,505 between 2006 and 2017, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation report. While this answers the question of how OR job needs can increase, it doesn’t tell us why they are rapidly increasing now. It may be tied to the ongoing uncertainty surrounding the healthcare insurance marketplace and the future of the Affordable Care Act, but that’s purely speculation. We’re keeping an eye on how this job trend develops. Why are there more Labor and Delivery jobs right now? View current Labor and Delivery (L&D) positions here>> Short Answer: September is a busy month for births, so hospitals are probably bulking up on labor and delivery nurses now to meet demand. Also, Millenials might have finally started having more babies. Long Answer: Historically speaking, September is prime time for births in the U.S. September 9 is the most common birthday in the U.S., according to yearly data between 1994 and 2014 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics. Not only that, but 9 of the 10 most popular days to give birth fall during September. It’s possible that hospitals are posting their L&D RN needs on job boards early to find travelers who can help during a busy September. The new demand may also signal a positive trend in the number of births in general. The national birth rate has steadily declined in recent years. reaching a historic 30-year low in 2017, according to an NPR report. But some analysts have predicted a rebound in birth rates in the coming years, led by an increasing number of Millenial parents over time.
5 Best Value States for Thrifty Travel Nurses
For some travel nurses, the appeal of jumping into the healthcare gypsy lifestyle is more about finding adventures in new parts of the country—for others making money is still a major motivator. But keeping the money you make as a traveler can be just as hard as making it. With a good chunk of your income going towards travel and living expenses, not to mention the unpredictability of temporary staffing, finding the best places to work where you can make your dollars stretch is tough. We’ve narrowed down the five states where you can work and earn the most bang for your buck, based on data from our Travel Nursing Pay Package Rankings and Cost of Living By State list. Our five best states were selected using the following criteria: Each state had to rank among the top 20 highest pay packages offered. Each state had to be at least 5 points or more below the 100.00 baseline of the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis regional price parity index. This gave us the best balance of how much you can make vs. how much you can expect to spend, as you can save significantly more money in states below 100.00 even if they don’t offer sky-high pay packages like California or New York, where the high cost of living negates the benefit of significant earnings. Let’s start from the bottom and work our way to No. 1. 5. Louisiana Louisiana just barely edged out Montana to make our Best Value list. The state currently ranks No. 20 for highest pay packages, but what gave it the edge is its cost-of-living rating, which is almost 10 points below the national average (90.4) Now that Louisiana is part of the enhanced Nursing Licensure Compact as of May 31, we expect to see more competition for jobs as many more travelers will have easy access to the state by December. 4. Wisconsin Wisconsin comes in at No. 4 on our Best Value list, thanks to its No. 17 ranking for highest travel nurse pay packages and low cost of living rating at 92.8, more than 7 points below the national average. Since the state is one of the less-traveled vacation spots in the U.S. and a prime target for frigid but profitable winter travel jobs, the low cost of living means there’s plenty of opportunities to earn money in The Badger State. 3. Michigan Speaking of profitable northern states, right across from Wisconsin is our No. 3 Best Value state, Michigan. Michigan ranked slightly higher in our pay package list at No. 14 and subsequently had a slightly higher regional cost of living at 93.3 on the index. Both Michigan and Wisconsin made our Highest Paying Jobs post this week. 2. Indiana Indiana consistently ranks among the top 10 most applied-to states for travelers in the first place, so the fact that it boasts the No. 12 slot in pay packages and a dirt-cheap cost of living rating at 90.3 percent. Some of the cities that regularly have job listings on the StaffDNA boards include Fort Wayne, Bloomington and Indianapolis. 1. Iowa With only one decimal point lower than Indiana on the cost of living index and several ranks above Indiana in terms of pay packages, Iowa takes the cake as our top Best Value travel nursing state. Out of all the other states on this list, Iowa is the true exception in that it currently ranks in the top 10 highest paying states, yet comparatively in the middle in travel nurse applications each month.