Travel Clinic LPN Jobs

The salary of a Licensed Practical or Licensed Vocational Nurse can vary significantly depending on the experience of the nurse as well as the experience, certifications, and location they are working in.

The median annual salary for a licensed practical or licensed vocational nurse was $48,820 per year or $23.47 per hour in 2020 with most earning between $42,060 and $57,860 according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Entry-level LPN traveling nurse jobs or those with the lowest 10% salary earned pay rates around $35,570, while the highest 10% earned more than $65,520. Typically, a travel LPN job will provide higher hourly and weekly pay than permanent positions for healthcare professionals in the same location.

Alaska pays the highest average salary according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics with an average annual wage of $67,620 and an hourly wage of $32.51, though Alaska employs less than 350 LPNs in the state. The next highest paying states include California, which also employs the most LPNs in the country at more than 70,000. LPNs in California get paid an average salary of $64,090 per year and $30.81 per hour, followed by Massachusetts ($60,400 per year, $29.04 per hour), Washington ($59,780 per year, $28.74 per hour), Nevada ($59,700 per year, $28.70 per hour), and Rhode Island ($59,090 per year, $28.41 per hour).

An LPN seeking the highest paying travel nursing contract through a healthcare staffing agency should also be considering the cost of living in the state the position is located in. When comparing adjusted LPN/LVN assignment salaries, Illinois is the highest paying state for LPN and LVN jobs. The other states with the highest adjusted salary for LPN positions are Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, and Arizona.

A clinic LPN is a healthcare professional who works in a clinic setting under the supervision of registered nurses and doctors. Duties of a clinic LPN often include providing basic patient care, administering medications, taking vital signs, and recording patients' health histories. They may also assist with minor procedures and contribute to patient education about health conditions, medications, and lifestyle choices.

Typical LPN Duties:

• Monitor patient health, including vital signs and overall condition

• Assist doctors and registered nurses with patient care

• Change dressings or insert catheters as needed

• Administer medication and treatments as prescribed by a physician

• Provide basic life activities such as eating, dressing, and bathing assistance to patients

• Perform routine checks of patients' vital signs

• Ensure that patients take their medications correctly

• Provide acute patient care

• Coordinate with other medical staff to provide the best possible care for patients

• Answer phones and take messages

To become a LPN travel nurse, you need to meet the qualifications of a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) generalist. These qualifications include graduating from an accredited nursing program, passing the NCLEX-PN nursing license exam, completing continuing education requirements, and having recent clinical experience as an LPN.

Education & License Requirements

LPN/LVN programs can be completed in less time than RN programs, allowing individuals to quickly begin their nursing career and working as a travel LPN nurse. LPN/LVN programs are very much structured around learning how to perform the necessary skills required to take care of patients. LPNs/LVNs are generally required to practice under the supervision of a licensed nurse. An LPN travel nurse must adhere to all state regulations for practice and are required to maintain certifications such as basic life support (BLS).

Yes, an LPN can travel with a Compact LPN License. The Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC) allows a licensed practical nurse or registered nurse to possess one license but practice in other participating states as long as the nurse is a resident of the home state and meets all requirements in both the home and remote states.

All NLC states recognize one another’s licenses and allow reciprocity for nurses to work temporarily in other member states without the requirement of obtaining an additional license. To conduct nursing practice in any of those NLC states, nurses have to register with the respective Board of Nursing.

While compensation offers can vary greatly depending on the contract or healthcare staffing agency offering, pay packages for LPN travel nursing pros typically have four major components: hourly taxable wages, meals and incidentals, housing, and travel.

Hourly Pay

Full-time nurses working at healthcare facilities receive a salary, but most LPN travel nursing employers offer hourly wage pay rates. Every pay package must include a taxable hourly wage, and the amount can vary depending on the shift, location, and specialty required of the LPN travel assignment.

Housing

Housing payments can be included in a payment from a healthcare staffing agency. This is typically offered to travel nurses in two ways. Either the company policy is to provide housing, or the traveler is taking the housing stipend. It is more beneficial for the traveler to take the housing stipend for two primary reasons. First, they will have a choice in where they stay. Everyone’s definitions of comfortable and acceptable are different. The second reason the housing stipend is more beneficial for them is that it can be given as a nontaxable amount to travel nurses.

Meals and Incidentals

Also known as per diems, meal and incidental stipends provide a daily budget for daily living expenses. These standards vary depending on the cost of living in cities and states across the country.

Travel Expenses

Travel is the last portion of the pay package. Many recruiters may not even offer travel reimbursement and instead put that money into the per diems or housing for their traveler so they are receiving the benefits over the entire contract, not just at the very beginning or end of the contract. While a travel stipend can be used to cover the cost of a flight for the traveler, it is more often than not used to subsidize the traveler’s expenses to and from most assignments. Travel expenses can be offered as a reimbursement rate per mile, though many agencies will opt to offer a flat rate to and from an assignment.

Finding LPN travel assignments shouldn’t be a full-time job. Fusion Marketplace gives travel nursing professionals the autonomy to find the best LPN travel assignments with a trusted travel nursing agency in only a few clicks with less paperwork.

With a professional traveler profile, Fusion Marketplace helps LPN travel nursing professionals work with healthcare staffing agencies to find their next LPN travel job. With complete transparency in all travel nursing jobs including benefits, pay packages, healthcare staffing agencies, and recruiters, Fusion Marketplace makes the unknown known to travel nurses across the country.