Is travel nursing here to stay?

As long as there are imbalances in need and supply there will be relocation, and I think travel nursing will be around in some format for some time.

Travel nursing has its highs and lows, but this seems to be a brutal period for the industry. I am sure it's not going anywhere, though.

I think travel nursing will make somewhat of a comeback; but not to the pre-recession numbers we were seeing. like any insudtry driven by money, travel nursing became a grossly abused field. I was a traveler 10 years ago and could go anywhere I wanted. The shortage was that pronounced. I left traveling and went back to home base work, both managerial and staff work, until about 2 years ago. I was able to find travel work close to home, but it was getting more competative. There were just that many more nurses traveling. Then when the recession really came into play, the skids went on. For every job that was posted, there were dozens of applicants. Hiring personel would quit excepting profiles becouse they could not go through them all. Meanwhile, recruiters were talking about how much better things were getting; not true. Hospitals have cut back due to decreases in revenue and increases in uninsured patient volumes. All thos travel nurses that were competing for jobs got smart and took perm positions. Its a simple economic case of supply and demand. The need for travelers will return, but I don;t look for it to return to the high numbers it once was. I am currently an ER department manager in a small ER in a rather isolated area. I have no trouble recruiting full time staff when I need nurses, which is not very often.

I have remained a traveler through all of this but I can say that the jobs are much tougher to find these days. I tend to believe that the jobs will come back with the economic recovery and also think that the demand on the health care system in the coming years will bring the industry back to its glory days. The system will still be short nurses, after all

I think MaleNurseRN said it all in a nutshell. I have traveled on and off and it is shocking to see such a change for travel nurses. Some have fallen back on saying that it will increase due to the retirement of the Baby Boomers. In this day and age, I don't see that happening. Nurses are staying in it longer because they can't afford to retire. Think it will still be slim pickings out there for a good while longer.