Unlike other staffing agencies, at Phoenix we tell you the bill rate of your assignment. On top of that, we don't profit on your extra hard work (OT, CBOT, DT, On Call Hours) - we only cover our costs of Worker's Comp and taxes.
Interventional Radiology case teams can be comprised solely of an IR Registered Nurse, an IR Radiology Tech and the Interventional Radiologist (physician). Which means that the nurse assisting in the procedure is one high performing individual with vast knowledge of the entire anatomy.
At Phoenix, we have 70 years of experience – in Interventional Radiology and Special Procedures (along with Cath Lab and EP). Not Med/Surg, ER, Tele, not LVNs, CNAs or oncology. Not to say we won’t help our hospitals with other modalities (after all, we would never turn away an ICU referral from one of our team members!), but our bread, butter, honey and spice is Interventional Radiology, Cardiac Cath Lab and Electrophysiology.
We understand when a Special Procedures RN says the Cardiac Cath Lab is boring. Which means we can search and filter to find the really interesting jobs faster. Our knowledge and experience let us get you to the best travel jobs sooner and screen out the red herrings because we know the labs, managers and directors, from before the time of Managed Service Providers.
Medical travel staffing for Interventional Radiology and Special Procedures needs to be different to be successful. We can truthfully say that every single one of our recruiters has been in a hospital and viewed cases from start to finish. It’s a required part of our recruiter services training. And we’re not going to approach you like a used car salesman promising to be your new best friend – we’re going to approach you as the medical professionals you are… and staffing professionals we are.
We’re calling you because we know that you are uniquely qualified and we know the value of your skill set and the best place to practice, learn and grow. Good staffing agencies will ask these questions for you. The other kind says “and make sure you ask all of your questions in the interview”. It’s just that simple.
There are plenty of medical staffing companies that recruit interventional radiology lab professionals (both nursing and allied) that we believe are doing a disservice to the work you do. We also believe that each IR / Special Procedures RN has a unique set of skills that came from your experience in different labs combined with how you were taught and learned. The combination of those experiences is as unique as a fingerprint.
It’s about working together to make life easier, which makes healthcare better. Once you leave the hospital, you are expected to manage your credential expirations and health licensures. We believe we offer best in class employee health benefits:
Careers in radiology can be bifurcated into two paths – special procedures and cancer-related patient care. Special Procedures entails blood flow issues throughout the body whereas cancer-related IR encompasses radiologic imaging for biopsies and other patient cancer treatment and they are very different. For example, a gunshot wound coming into the ER might need the IR team to repair blood vessels or remove a DVT (deep vein thrombosis) from a patient after they developed a blood clot in the leg after a long flight.
Outside of Oncology, options for certifications for special procedures are relatively scarce. Since almost all units utilize Radiologic Technologists, the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists has the Vascular Intervention certificate for allied health members. For nursing, the National Institute of Health Stroke Scale certification is usually required.
The Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) is a nonprofit, professional medical society representing more than 8,000 practicing interventional radiology physicians (including those in residency), medical students, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, radiologic technologists and paramedical professionals. The society’s core purpose and mission is to work with its members to deliver patient-centered care through image-guided therapy.
When people work with different companies, we hear this all too often – “Why is Rookie Ryan making the same as Pro Patty when Patty has 20 more years of experience?” Our policy does not allow this to happen. The more relevant experience you have, the more you get paid.
The types of medical equipment, the on-call structures, the department organization…that info is not posted in your typical travel interventional radiology job description but is absolutely critical to you feeling comfortable on your first day or feeling like you’re playing catch up. And these nuances are not as important when you get into floor nursing so a lot of agencies do not care. We care about the details!
A travel IR Nurse (RN) is an important part of the medical team who assist the interventional radiologist during a non-invasive vascular surgery or “case”. Patient treatment can entail repairing varicose veins, ruptured blood vessels, breast cancer treatment, liver or kidney biopsies or a ton of other diagnostic cancer services.
During a vascular catheterization, the interventional radiologist nurse will sedate the patient and circulate the room, along with monitoring the case (computer charting the case timeline). While some hospitals may have the luxury of staffing a procedure with more than 2 clinicians, oftentimes a travel IR RN might be expected to have the experience to perform in that environment. The pressure can be high stepping into a new lab with new team members and a lot of patient responsibility.
Interventional Radiology nursing jobs can be very lucrative, but travel agencies generally don’t use the term “salary”. So how do we compare? In order to properly compare a salary position to a travel job, you need to compare what gets deposited in the bank, less any extra expenses (like a second place to live while you work in another city).
Travel Special Procedures RN pay, for example, would include compensation buckets for the following:
Additionally, some extra expenses to include in your comparison:
As a healthcare facility staff member, your nursing salary is primarily comprised of:
Travel jobs are able to bestow tax benefits as some of the funds are used to cover secondary living expenses used in the course of work, however it makes rates hard to compare. The best way to compare a salary job to a travel job is converting the salary to an hourly rate and “grossing up” the stipend to compare all-taxable hourly rates apples to apples.
Travel jobs usually refer to compensation as the “Gross Weekly”. This is the amount that is all of your working hours multiplied by all of the wage rates, but does not include any additions for on call, OT, or CBOT because these are all “unscheduled” hours and you haven’t worked yet so the “Gross Weekly” estimate is just the scheduled hours (just regular hours).
When compared to a hospital job paycheck, the actual amount that gets deposited into your bank account is considerably higher due to the tax advantages of the stipend.
Historically, the highest rates in the country have always come from big name institutions on the East Coast (such as Johns Hopkins Medicine) and the West Coast and California in particular (Sutter Health Network).
Since Covid arrived, the rest of the markets have caught up and have made geographic boundaries obsolete. Now the best rates are usually in places with the most specialized skill set required and base need. The increase in stroke programs has made IR RNs and IR Techs more specialized so rates have increased there as well.
The longer answer is….how can you say what the best is? Every single interventional radiology nurse has their own preferences for the types of cases and medical equipment, the size of the lab, the patient demographics, what they’re allowed to do (circ, monitor, scrub, run the stim, etc).
The best advice is to travel with a company that knows the details about the labs or at the very least, will fight with you to get all the information.
The better question is…what can you get from the jobs that are on the job boards? Not a whole lot when it comes down to the nitty gritty. When it comes to IR, talking on the phone with one of our lab advisors is a big help. Maybe this time you want to look at a job that give you a little more outdoorsy life, whereas another job lets you see family in the city. Every single time you search interventional radiology lab jobs is an opportunity to gain new life experiences, both personal and professional. And we’d love to be there for the ride!
For days and days…the lab gossip never stops. And we love to hear about the fun stories from the pre-Covid days! If you want to know any back stories or get the real deal info on a lab, give us a call. We cherish the chance to hear about your experiences and to share ours. It’s how we get better!
Take a few interviews and hone the skills. See how different medical facilities run their travel staffing programs. Each manager will ask different questions, so practice makes perfect!
