With a third wave of COVID looking more and more likely, it’s more important than ever that you know how to get the most out of these crisis assignments.

I was shocked at how many nurses were leaving thousands of dollars PER WEEK on the table because they had not followed these steps.

Research rates in your area

Weekly rates can vary greatly from company to company, especially crisis rates.

It is your responsibility to keep yourself informed on going rates in your chosen area.

I personally keep a profile with a couple of the big online job aggregator sites. This allows me to get a general idea of average pay in a given area.

Vivian and Trustedhealth are two with friendly interfaces and a large bank of jobs nationwide.

Understand GSA maximums

While I touch on this in other articles, its worth mentioning here as well.

With crisis rates, you will be earning a high taxable income. This makes it even more important to ensure that your company is giving you the maximum allowable tax free stipend.

The General Services Administration, or GSA, sets these amounts. These maximums are suggested and are by no means mandated amounts.

While some companies will match the amount given by the GSA, some companies cap their stipend at ninety percent of GSA maximum.

The GSA website, like most government websites, is hard to navigate. I have provided a tool for you here at Scrubstr to quickly get the GSA maximum for your city and compare it directly to your offer.

Shop multiple companies

To ensure that you are getting the best possible rate, you need to have active profiles with 3-5 agencies.

This will allow you to check rates against other companies and even play them off of eachother to increase your rate.

I will generally get a profile with a couple large national agencies and a couple smaller, boutique agencies (who tend to pay more).

Be flexible

The highest paying contracts go very fast, so being extremely flexible on location will give you more options and allow you to pull the trigger on submission much more quickly.

Be ready to start at the drop of a hat and you will be far more marketable in the eyes of a hiring manager.