Traveling Nurse Anesthetist: CRNA Contract Jobs, Pay & Benefits

Travel CRNA Overview

What Travel Means

Working as a travel CRNA means you take temporary assignments at hospitals and surgery centers that need short-term anesthesia coverage, typically lasting 8-13 weeks per contract. Instead of being a permanent employee at one facility, you're essentially a highly-paid temporary worker who moves from place to place filling staffing gaps. Facilities need travel CRNAs for various reasons—covering vacations and leaves of absence, filling open permanent positions while recruiting, handling seasonal volume increases, or supporting new service lines before hiring permanent staff. You'll sign contracts specifying your assignment length, schedule, pay rate, and other terms, then move to that location for the contract duration.

This lifestyle appeals to CRNAs who value variety, adventure, and flexibility over stability and community roots. You might spend three months in Montana, then move to Florida for another three months, then head to Oregon. Each assignment exposes you to different practice settings, patient populations, and anesthesia approaches. You'll work with constantly changing surgical teams, learn different hospital systems, and adapt to varying protocols and equipment. Some people thrive on this constant change and find it exhilarating, while others find the instability and lack of belonging exhausting. Your personality and life circumstances largely determine whether travel CRNA work suits you or drives you crazy within a few assignments.

Travel positions differ fundamentally from locum tenens work, though people often confuse the terms. Travel CRNA positions typically involve agencies that employ you, handle your benefits and payroll, and place you at client facilities. Locum tenens usually means you're an independent contractor working directly with facilities or through agencies, but without employment status or benefits. Travel positions generally provide more support and structure, while locum work offers higher hourly rates but requires you to handle your own taxes, insurance, and retirement. The travel healthcare industry has exploded in recent years, creating abundant opportunities for CRNAs willing to embrace this mobile lifestyle and the tradeoffs it involves compared to traditional permanent employment.

Why Facilities Hire Travelers

Hospitals and surgery centers use travel CRNAs when they can't maintain adequate permanent staffing. Rural facilities might struggle recruiting anyone willing to relocate permanently to small towns, so they continuously cycle travel staff rather than leaving operating rooms closed. Urban facilities sometimes face unexpected staffing crunches—multiple CRNAs quit simultaneously, someone takes extended medical leave, or surgical volume increases beyond current staff capacity. Rather than scrambling to cover gaps with exhausted permanent staff working excessive overtime, they hire travelers who can start quickly and leave once the crisis resolves without ongoing employment obligations.

Seasonal volume fluctuations drive travel staffing in some locations. Arizona facilities get slammed during winter months when snowbirds arrive, needing temporary staff to handle increased surgical volume. Tourist areas see summer surges requiring additional anesthesia providers. These predictable patterns make travel assignments available in specific locations during particular seasons, allowing you to plan your travel year around geographic and weather preferences. You might winter in warm southern locations, spend summers in mountain states, and enjoy fall colors in New England—structuring your work life around lifestyle preferences rather than being trapped in one location year-round.

Some CRNAs deliberately pursue travel careers while facilities would prefer permanent staff but accept travelers because they're the only option. Other facilities intentionally build staffing models incorporating travelers, using them strategically to maintain flexibility without committing to permanent positions they might not need long-term. This means your welcome as a traveler varies—some facilities treat you as a valued team member, while others view you as a necessary evil, showing their resentment through cold treatment and minimal support. You'll learn to assess facility culture quickly during assignments, completing contracts even at unfriendly places while resolving never to return despite being asked.

Travel Versus Permanent Employment

The primary advantage of travel work is financial—you'll earn substantially more as a traveler than in permanent positions. Travel CRNA pay typically ranges from $2,500-$4,000+ weekly before housing and travel reimbursements, translating to $130,000-$200,000+ annually depending on how much you work and where you take assignments. This beats most permanent positions by $20,000-$60,000 yearly. Additionally, travel agencies typically provide tax-free stipends for housing and meals that further increase your take-home pay. These stipends aren't taxed if you maintain a permanent residence elsewhere, creating significant tax advantages when structured properly with guidance from accountants familiar with travel healthcare taxation.

You'll gain incredible professional diversity as a travel CRNA, experiencing different practice settings, anesthesia approaches, and case mixes that permanent staff at one facility never encounter. You might work at a small rural hospital one contract where you handle everything independently, then at a large academic center using care team models with anesthesiologists. This exposure makes you adaptable and broadly skilled, comfortable in any environment and familiar with various techniques. You'll become the CRNA who's seen everything and can handle anything, making you extremely marketable if you eventually return to permanent employment. Many permanent employers value travel experience highly because they know you'll adapt quickly to their systems.

However, travel work involves significant downsides you need to consider carefully. You'll lack the job security and benefits of permanent employment—no paid time off, no retirement matching, no long-term disability insurance unless you buy it yourself. Your health insurance through travel agencies is often adequate but less comprehensive than permanent positions. You're always the new person, never developing the deep collegial relationships and institutional knowledge that make work feel comfortable and familiar. You'll constantly prove yourself to skeptical permanent staff who sometimes resent travelers, particularly if they're working short-staffed specifically because their facility won't pay enough to recruit permanent staff. Understanding both standard CRNA roles and travel variations helps you evaluate whether this lifestyle truly appeals to you or whether permanence and stability matter more than financial premiums and geographic variety.

Pay and Financial Details

Weekly Pay Rates

Travel CRNA pay structures differ from permanent employment's annual salaries. You'll negotiate weekly rates, typically ranging from $2,500-$4,000 depending on assignment location, facility type, and current demand. High-need rural areas or crisis staffing situations might pay $3,500-$4,000+ weekly, while less urgent needs in desirable locations might pay $2,500-$3,000. These rates typically cover 40-48 hours weekly, with overtime paid for additional hours at time-and-half rates. If you're willing to work 50-60 hours weekly and take frequent call, you can earn $4,500-$6,000+ in some assignments, allowing you to make incredible money during relatively short contract periods.

Your weekly rate gets divided between taxable hourly pay and tax-free stipends for housing and meals. Agencies structure this split strategically to maximize your take-home pay while staying within IRS guidelines. You might receive $2,000 weekly as taxable W-2 wages (roughly $50 hourly) and $1,500 in tax-free stipends. This structure means you pay income tax on only $104,000 of your $182,000 annual income if you work full-time as a traveler, creating substantial tax savings. However, to qualify for tax-free stipends, you must maintain a permanent tax home—a residence you own or rent where you return between assignments and incur real expenses maintaining it. Without a legitimate tax home, all your income is taxable, eliminating this significant financial advantage.

Pay rates fluctuate based on demand and competition among agencies for your services. During COVID, desperate facilities paid travel CRNAs $5,000-$8,000+ weekly because demand was overwhelming and supply scarce. As things normalized, rates fell to more typical $2,500-$3,500 ranges. You'll learn to negotiate effectively, playing agencies against each other and walking away from low offers. Unlike permanent employment where salary negotiations feel awkward, travel CRNA rate negotiation is expected and normal. Agencies have flexibility in rates, and aggressive negotiation often secures $200-$500 more weekly than initial offers—$10,000-$25,000 more over a year of contracts. Don't accept first offers without pushing for more.

Housing Arrangements

Most travel CRNA contracts include housing stipends separate from your hourly rate, typically $1,500-$3,000 monthly depending on assignment location. You can either take the stipend and find your own housing, or use agency-provided housing where they arrange and pay for accommodations directly. Agency housing is convenient—you just show up and move in without dealing with apartment searches, deposits, or furnishing. However, agencies often choose basic extended-stay hotels or corporate apartments that feel sterile and generic. Many travelers prefer taking stipends and finding their own housing through Airbnb or furnished finder services, selecting places matching their preferences and potentially pocketing extra money if they find cheaper options than the full stipend amount.

Finding your own housing requires research and planning before assignments start. You'll search for furnished rentals near your assignment facility, comparing monthly rates and amenities. Furnished Finder specializes in travel healthcare housing and often has options cheaper than hotels while nicer than corporate apartments. Airbnb offers month-to-month flexibility and diverse options from entire houses to private rooms. Some travelers negotiate direct month-to-month rentals with landlords, avoiding platform fees. The time investment finding housing pays off in better living situations than agency defaults, though it requires more effort than just accepting whatever agencies provide.

Housing costs vary dramatically by location, and not all assignments provide stipends covering local housing adequately. San Francisco or New York stipends might be $3,000-$4,000 monthly but still barely cover decent housing in those expensive markets. Rural assignments might provide $1,500 stipends that more than cover housing costs, allowing you to pocket the difference. This is called "stipend arbitrage"—choosing assignments where housing stipends exceed your actual housing costs, increasing your take-home pay. Smart travelers target assignments with favorable stipend-to-housing-cost ratios, maximizing income by living modestly and banking stipend excess. This strategy won't work if you need luxury accommodations everywhere you go, but it dramatically boosts earnings if you're comfortable in simple housing during temporary assignments.

Additional Benefits

Beyond base pay and housing stipends, travel agencies provide various additional benefits and reimbursements. You'll receive travel reimbursements covering your journey to and from assignments—either mileage reimbursement if you drive or airfare reimbursement if you fly. Some agencies provide rental car stipends or pay for your car at assignment locations. These travel benefits vary significantly between agencies, so compare them carefully when choosing which agencies to work with. One agency might offer generous travel perks that another doesn't, potentially saving you thousands annually if you take multiple assignments in distant locations.

Most travel agencies provide health insurance, though coverage varies in quality and cost. Some agencies pay full insurance premiums, while others require employee contributions. The insurance typically covers you between assignments as long as you commit to taking another contract, preventing coverage gaps. However, travel agency insurance is often less comprehensive than permanent employment benefits—higher deductibles, narrower networks, more exclusions. If you have family members needing insurance, compare coverage and costs carefully between agencies. Insurance quality should factor into your agency selection, especially if you have ongoing health needs or dependents whose coverage matters significantly to you.

License and certification reimbursements help offset costs of maintaining credentials in multiple states. Many agencies reimburse state license fees, DEA registration, ACLS certification, and other credentials required for assignments. They might also provide continuing education allowances helping you maintain CRNA certification requirements. Some agencies offer modest retirement plan contributions, though these rarely match permanent employer benefits. Professional liability insurance is always included—agencies cover you during assignments since you're working under their contracts. Make sure you understand exactly what benefits each agency provides before signing contracts, as these additional perks significantly affect your total package value beyond just weekly pay rates and housing stipends. Understanding comprehensive salary structures helps you evaluate travel pay compared to permanent positions fairly when considering all financial factors rather than just focusing on weekly rates that seem high but might not include benefits permanent employees receive automatically.

Contract Terms and Conditions

Typical Contract Lengths

Standard travel CRNA contracts run 13 weeks (three months), though you'll find assignments ranging from 8 weeks to 26 weeks depending on facility needs and your preferences. The 13-week standard exists because it's long enough for facilities to get meaningful coverage while short enough that travelers don't feel trapped in assignments they dislike. You'll typically know your exact start and end dates when signing contracts, allowing you to plan your life around specific assignment timelines. Some contracts include options to extend if both you and the facility want to continue—you might sign for 13 weeks with two possible 13-week extensions, potentially working at one location for 9-12 months through consecutive contracts.

Shorter 8-week contracts appeal to travelers who want maximum variety or who can't commit to locations for full quarters. However, facilities prefer longer contracts because orientation and adjustment periods consume the first 1-2 weeks of any assignment. An 8-week contract means you're productive for only 6-7 weeks, while 13-week contracts give facilities 11-12 productive weeks. Consequently, 8-week assignments might pay slightly less weekly to compensate facilities for reduced efficiency. Very short crisis contracts—2 to 4 weeks covering emergency staffing gaps—sometimes pay premium rates but are relatively rare. Most travel CRNA work involves 13-week commitments providing good balance between variety and stability.

Longer 26-week (six-month) contracts sometimes pay better weekly rates because facilities value the extended commitment and reduced turnover costs. However, six months starts feeling more like permanent employment than travel, reducing the lifestyle flexibility that attracts many people to travel work. If you find an assignment you love, extension negotiations often secure pay bumps of $100-$300 weekly compared to your initial rate. Facilities would rather increase your pay slightly than go through the hassle and expense of recruiting another traveler. This gives you negotiating leverage if you're willing to extend, though you should only extend at locations you genuinely enjoy rather than tolerating bad situations just for modest pay increases.

Schedule Requirements

Your contract will specify exactly what schedule you're committing to—which days you work, what hours, and any call obligations. Most contracts require Monday-Friday schedules, sometimes with weekend call rotations. Others might include scheduled weekend days if the facility needs weekend coverage. Before signing, make sure you understand and accept the schedule precisely. Unlike permanent employment where you might negotiate schedule changes after starting, travel contracts lock you into specific schedules for their full duration. If you hate night shift or refuse to work weekends, verify contracts don't include these requirements before signing.

Call requirements particularly important to understand clearly. Some facilities expect travelers to take the same call as permanent staff, which might mean weekly overnight call or frequent weeknight call. Others exempt travelers from call entirely, saving those obligations for permanent staff. Call significantly affects your quality of life during assignments—taking call weekly makes contracts feel much more demanding than call-free positions. However, call also substantially increases your income through call pay and overtime, potentially adding $1,000-$2,000 weekly to your earnings. Decide whether you're willing to take call for extra money or whether you want travel assignments specifically to avoid call obligations you might have in permanent positions.

Cancellations and schedule changes create ongoing frustrations in travel work. Facilities sometimes cancel cases, reducing your hours below contracted amounts. Most contracts guarantee minimum hours—typically 36-40 weekly—meaning facilities must pay you even if they don't have enough work. However, some contracts don't include these guarantees, exposing you to income loss if case volume drops. Read contracts carefully regarding guaranteed hours, cancellation policies, and what happens if facilities can't provide your contracted schedule. You want protection ensuring you're paid what you expected even if circumstances change during assignments. Contracts without these protections leave you vulnerable to facilities taking advantage of you when convenient for them.

Early Termination Clauses

Most travel contracts allow either party to terminate with minimal notice—typically 1-2 weeks—though terms vary by agency and assignment. This flexibility protects both you and facilities from being trapped in bad situations. If you're miserable at an assignment because the facility is toxic, you're being mistreated, or the situation doesn't match what was promised, you can leave without completing the full 13 weeks. However, early termination usually means you forfeit completion bonuses and might damage your reputation with that agency, making them hesitant to place you in future assignments. Agencies track completion rates, and consistent early terminations make you look flaky and unreliable.

Facilities can also terminate you early if you're not performing adequately or if their staffing needs change. If surgical volume drops unexpectedly and they don't need you anymore, they might end your contract with two weeks notice. If personality conflicts arise with permanent staff or surgeons, facilities might terminate you to maintain harmony with their long-term employees. These terminations are frustrating—you've often already paid for housing through the contract end date and didn't plan on being jobless. However, the same flexibility that allows you to leave bad situations means facilities can end assignments that aren't working for them, even when you're perfectly content.

Completion bonuses incentivize finishing contracts as agreed. Many agencies pay $1,000-$3,000 bonuses after you successfully complete assignments, stay through the last scheduled day, and submit all required documentation. These bonuses create financial motivation to stick out assignments even when you're counting days until they end. If you're considering early termination because you dislike an assignment, weigh whether the situation is truly intolerable or whether you can endure it for a few more weeks to collect your completion bonus. Sometimes assignments that start rough improve as you adjust and develop relationships, making premature departures financially and professionally costly mistakes you later regret.

Work Environment Reality

Orientation and Onboarding

Starting new travel assignments involves rapid orientation processes compressing weeks of typical new employee onboarding into a few days. Facilities know you're only there temporarily and need you productive quickly, so they prioritize teaching essential information—where supplies are located, how their documentation system works, facility-specific protocols and preferences. You'll complete mandatory training modules, get ID badges and system logins, meet key personnel, and tour the facility. This compressed timeline can feel overwhelming, especially your first few travel assignments before you develop skills for absorbing information quickly and identifying what matters most versus what can be learned gradually.

You're expected to function independently much faster than permanent employees hired into the same roles. Where new permanent CRNAs might have extended orientation periods with mentorship and gradual responsibility increases, you'll likely take your own cases within days of starting. Facilities assume your experience and credentials mean you can handle standard cases immediately, though they should provide support for unusual situations or unfamiliar equipment. This sink-or-swim approach intimidates some travelers initially but becomes easier as you gain confidence in your ability to adapt quickly to new environments. Your first travel assignment is the hardest—subsequent assignments get easier as you learn what questions to ask and how to orient yourself efficiently.

Documentation systems present ongoing challenges as every facility uses different electronic health records with varying workflows and interfaces. You might have just mastered Epic at your last assignment, then arrive somewhere using Cerner or Meditech and need to learn completely new systems. This constant relearning is frustrating and time-consuming, though you'll develop general electronic health record competency making each new system easier to learn. Some travelers keep notes about different systems' quirks and navigation paths, creating personal reference guides that help them restart more quickly if they return to facilities they've worked at previously. Expect documentation to slow you down initially at every new assignment until you master local systems. Understanding typical CRNA work environments helps you anticipate what aspects remain consistent across assignments versus what changes constantly, allowing you to focus your orientation energy on facility-specific variations rather than relearning fundamental anesthesia practice.

Permanent Staff Dynamics

Your relationships with permanent staff vary dramatically depending on facility culture, individual personalities, and the circumstances that created the need for travelers. Some permanent staff welcome travelers warmly, grateful for the help and interested in learning from your diverse experiences at other facilities. They'll include you in social activities, share insider knowledge about hospital politics and surgeon preferences, and treat you as a valued temporary colleague. These positive experiences make assignments enjoyable and professionally enriching, leaving you with friends across the country and great memories of places you've worked.

Other permanent staff resent travelers, viewing you as overpaid outsiders who make more money than they do while they carry the burden of less desirable assignments and ongoing institutional responsibilities. They might be short-staffed specifically because their facility won't pay enough to recruit permanent CRNAs, creating resentment that you're earning $3,500 weekly while they make $3,000 weekly as employees with years of institutional loyalty. This resentment manifests through cold treatment, minimal help during your orientation, passive-aggressive comments about traveler pay, and social exclusion. You'll develop thick skin quickly as a traveler, learning not to take this hostility personally even when it makes assignments unpleasant.

Surgeons' attitudes toward travelers also vary widely. Some appreciate your flexibility and experience, treating you like any other CRNA. Others distrust travelers or dislike working with people they don't know, showing their displeasure through difficult behavior or complaints to management. You'll sometimes be blamed for problems that have nothing to do with you simply because you're the temporary outsider. The political dynamics of being a traveler mean you have less protection and support when conflicts arise—facilities will side with permanent staff and surgeons over you every time because they're keeping those people long-term. You'll learn to pick your battles carefully, letting minor slights go and only pushing back on serious problems that compromise patient safety or create truly intolerable working conditions.

Clinical Independence

Most travel CRNA assignments involve substantial clinical independence from day one. Facilities hire travelers because they need experienced providers who can handle cases without extensive supervision or hand-holding. You'll make your own clinical decisions, manage complications independently, and function as a fully autonomous anesthesia provider regardless of how long you've been at that facility. This independence is professionally satisfying but also sometimes lonely—you won't have the built-in support systems and collegial consultations that permanent staff relationships provide. When you're uncertain about something, you might hesitate to ask for help, not knowing who's approachable or fearing you'll look incompetent to people evaluating your performance.

Practice environments vary from true independent CRNA practice to medical direction models where anesthesiologists supervise multiple CRNAs simultaneously. Your contract should specify the supervision model, but sometimes the reality differs from what you were told. You might arrive expecting to work independently only to find anesthesiologists micromanaging your cases, or expect medical direction but discover you're completely on your own. These surprises create frustration and sometimes safety concerns if you're not comfortable with the actual practice model. Clarify supervision expectations during interviews and contract negotiations, and don't hesitate to speak up if the reality doesn't match what you were promised.

Case assignments usually include the full range of what permanent staff handle, though some facilities protect travelers from the most complex cases or specialized patients. You might not get assigned pediatric cases if permanent staff prefer doing those, or you might be excluded from cardiac cases requiring specialized knowledge. Other facilities throw travelers into everything immediately, expecting you to handle whatever comes regardless of your specific experience level. The variety you encounter depends partly on facility size and case mix—large hospitals with diverse services expose you to everything, while small rural hospitals might have limited case types regardless of whether you're traveling or permanent. Most travelers appreciate diverse case assignments keeping their skills sharp across all anesthesia domains.

Lifestyle Considerations

Geographic Flexibility

Travel CRNA work allows you to live in different locations temporarily without committing to permanent relocation. You might spend winter in Arizona avoiding cold weather, summer in Colorado enjoying mountain activities, and fall in New England experiencing foliage. This lifestyle suits people who enjoy exploring new places and haven't found anywhere they want to settle permanently. You'll experience different regional cultures, try local restaurants and activities, and determine which locations you might consider for eventual permanent settlement. Many travelers use assignments as extended trial periods before deciding where to buy homes or put down roots long-term.

However, constant movement has real downsides beyond just logistics of packing and unpacking repeatedly. You'll never develop deep community connections or lasting friendships when you're leaving every three months. Dating becomes nearly impossible unless you're in open long-distance relationships. You can't have pets that don't travel well or houseplants requiring consistent care. Your belongings live in storage or your car. Family and friends back home might feel neglected because you're never around for birthdays, holidays, or casual get-togethers. The geographic freedom is exciting initially but can become isolating and exhausting, particularly if you're doing it for years without breaks back to a stable home base.

Some travelers maintain permanent homes where they return between assignments, while others embrace nomadic lifestyles with no fixed residence. Maintaining a home base provides stability and satisfies IRS requirements for tax-free stipends, but costs money even when you're not living there. You'll pay rent or mortgage, utilities, and maintenance on a place you occupy maybe 4-6 weeks annually between contracts. This expense is worth it for people who need the psychological anchor of "home" and want somewhere familiar to return to regularly. Pure nomads save this money but sacrifice having anywhere that feels like home, living entirely out of suitcases and temporary housing. Neither approach is right or wrong—your personality and what makes you feel grounded determines which lifestyle works better for you. Exploring various practice settings through travel assignments helps you identify what environments you enjoy most before committing to permanent positions in those specialties or locations.

Relationship and Family Impact

Travel CRNA work is significantly easier for single people without family obligations than for those with spouses, partners, or children. If you're single and unattached, you can move anywhere for any assignment without coordinating with anyone else's needs or schedules. You'll make friends in each location, enjoy brief romantic connections without long-term expectations, and focus entirely on work and exploration without relationship maintenance. However, even single travelers sometimes struggle with loneliness and lack of consistent social connections, particularly if they're naturally introverted or struggle making friends quickly in new environments.

Traveling with a spouse or partner requires them to be either fully on board with the lifestyle or able to work remotely. If your partner can work from anywhere, travel becomes a shared adventure you experience together. However, if they have location-dependent careers, you're essentially asking them to sacrifice their profession to support yours—a dynamic that breeds resentment over time unless they genuinely prefer not working or can transition to remote work they find satisfying. Partners who don't work might initially embrace traveling with you but eventually tire of being in unfamiliar places where they don't know anyone and have no independent identity or activities beyond being "the CRNA's spouse."

Traveling with children is possible but complicated. You'll need to either homeschool or enroll kids in new schools every few months, significantly disrupting their education and social development. Most travel CRNAs with children either don't travel or leave families at permanent home bases, traveling alone and returning home between assignments or during time off. This separation is hard on marriages and parent-child relationships, creating the worst of both worlds—you're not building wealth through lower living costs or experiencing geographic flexibility as a family, but you're also not together consistently. Some families make it work through excellent communication and utilizing travel income to fund quality time during breaks, but many travelers eventually transition to permanent positions specifically because family life isn't compatible with constant movement and separation.

Career Advancement Implications

Long-term travel CRNA work can both help and hurt your career depending on your goals. Travel experience makes you incredibly adaptable and broadly skilled, familiar with diverse practice settings and anesthesia approaches. If you eventually pursue permanent positions, employers value your versatility and ability to integrate quickly into new environments. You'll have worked in more locations in five years than most CRNAs experience in entire careers, giving you perspective and skills that make you attractive to programs seeking experienced, flexible providers. Your resume shows breadth of experience that permanent staff limited to one facility simply cannot develop.

However, extended travel can also limit career advancement in some ways. You'll never develop the deep institutional knowledge and political capital that leads to leadership positions. Chief CRNA, department director, and administrative roles go to people with years of history at institutions, not travelers who've been there three months. You won't build the mentor relationships or professional network that advance careers in traditional paths. If you travel for 10-15 years then want to transition to permanent employment, you might find yourself stuck in line-level clinical positions while former classmates with less experience are running departments because they stayed places and climbed organizational ladders.

Some CRNAs intentionally use travel as a defined early-career strategy rather than a permanent lifestyle. You might travel for 3-5 years aggressively paying student loans while experiencing different locations and practice settings, then transition to permanent employment once debt-free and ready to settle down. This approach gives you travel's financial and experiential benefits without the long-term career limitations of never establishing roots anywhere. Other CRNAs love travel so much they make it their permanent career, accepting that they'll probably never move into leadership and instead valuing the lifestyle freedom and financial benefits over traditional career progression. Neither path is wrong—knowing what you want from your career helps you decide whether travel is a temporary adventure or a sustainable long-term choice. Important travel considerations include:

Weekly pay rates typically $2,500-$4,000 plus tax-free housing and meal stipends
Contract lengths usually 13 weeks with options to extend at many assignments
Furnished housing provided by agency or paid via stipends for self-arranged housing
Rapid orientation periods requiring quick adaptation to new facilities and systems
Geographic flexibility allowing you to work different locations seasonally or year-round

CRNA Travelers: Seeing the World!

Traveling Nurse Anesthetist: CRNA Contract Jobs & Opportunities