Nursa: Flexible and high-paying nursing jobs

Beatriz Perez has a tip for nurses who want to earn more money and work flexible hours: Nursa.

What is Nursa?

Nursa connects hospitals, medical centers and skilled nursing facilities with on-demand professionals willing to forego employee benefits in exchange for higher hourly pay and more flexibility.

Perez says she went from earning $18 an hour as a full-time hospital employee to earning twice that while working a 3-day-a-week schedule. She still works 40 hours, taking double-shifts on two days. But the extra money and the ability to compress the work week is pivotal to managing her family and other life demands.

“I’m getting in my 40 hours, but I’m better able to live my life,” she says. “It’s a really good balance.”

How it works (for freelance health care pros)

Nursa enlists all types of nurses and medical aides. This includes registered nurses, certified nursing assistants, licensed practical nurses, respiratory therapists, certified medical assistants, certified residential medical aides, geriatric nursing assistants, certified medication aides, qualified medication administration personnel and certified caregivers.

To sign up with the site, all you need to do is plug in some basic information about you and upload your credentials. As soon as the site verifies your application, you can start viewing and requesting shifts.

While some shifts are last-minute, most facilities post shifts about a week in advance. And some schedule months in advance.

Nursa Review

Nursa focuses on per-diem shifts, working with hundreds of hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and medical centers in 28 states to supply on-demand help.

Professionals who sign up here are presented with shifts that meet their areas of expertise.

You choose the shifts you want to claim. Each shift offered shows the facility that needs help and what designations and skills you need (i.e. registered nurse, certified nursing assistant, certified caregiver, etc.). You’ll also see how many hours you’re needed and how much you’ll be paid before you select a shift.

However the facility has the final say of who gets the job. So, your chance of getting the gigs you want increase as you build relationships with the staffing facilities. After each shift, the nurse and the facility rate each other. The better your ratings, the better chance you have of being selected for jobs.

However, this site is not appropriate for people who are brand new to the nursing profession because there is no training. You’re expected to be fully trained and able to do a competent job at an unfamiliar facility.

Cancelations

Once you’ve been approved to take a shift, you’re obligated to show up. If you need to cancel, you can. But you need to go through Nursa, with as much advance notice as possible, so they can find someone to cover for you. However, frequent cancelations can get you booted from the platform.

If a medical facility cancels a shift at the last minute, you’re usually paid a $75 cancellation fee.

Pay

Pay varies by the requesting facility, shift, demand, and the skills required (i.e. whether they need an RN or an LVN). But it is often 40% to 100% more than the amount you’d earn working full time.

For example, Perez says that Certified Nursing Assistants, like herself, earn a minimum of $26 per hour. And she’s earned up to $60 hourly, when claiming a shift on a high-demand day. (The amount you’ll earn for any given shift is noted on the assignment.)

Meanwhile, Registered Nurses typically earn twice as much.

Nursa has an instant pay option, that allows you to get pay loaded onto a debit card within hours of completing a shift. However, you can also use direct deposit. With direct deposit, medical professionals are paid twice a week, within a few days of completing a shift.

Pros and cons

The benefit of working with Nursa, like other per diem agencies, is that you can structure a highly flexible schedule. You also earn significantly more per hour than you would if you were working as a full-time employee.

But there are two significant trade offs.

One is that while you get flexibility, you give up security. There’s no way to know in advance how many hours you might work in any given month, nor precisely how much you’ll earn.

Additionally, you don’t get any employee benefits. These include health insurance, retirement plans and paid time off. Those benefits are estimated to be worth close to 40% of your pay, so it’s not surprising that you earn more when you don’t get them.

That said, if you’re already getting health insurance through a spouse, the added pay you get from per diem work can allow you to save for your own retirement and vacations and still come out ahead.

For Perez, the scheduling flexibility is pivotal to her career goals.

In addition to having five young kids, ages from 4 to 12, she’s attending school two days a week to get her RN. Working her classes around a full-time work schedule was virtually impossible, she says. Now she schedules her work around classes and kids.

Tips for success

Perez believes that one of the reasons she’s been so successful on Nursa is that she is qualified to work in a variety of different settings.

In addition to bing a certified nursing assistant, she has a food handler’s license, so she can work in small nursing homes that need her to plate food. She is a licensed phlebotomist, so she can take blood; an IV technician; and has a certificate in basic life support. The more certifications you have, the more options you have when wanting to claim shifts, she notes.

She’s also built strong relationships with the facilities that are closest to her home. Those facilities often request her personally, so she’s able to schedule early and book the hours that work best for her life.

Perez is also happy to take less-popular weekend shifts. That not only helps the medical centers, it helps her because weekend shifts pay more.

“They always need help on weekends,” she says. “By taking Sundays, I earn $34-$36 an hour.”

Recommendations

This is a great site for experienced nurses to find per diem work. You can sign up with Nursa here.

We also recommend IntelyCare, and ConnectRN. If you’re interested in travel nursing, also consider TrustedHealth.