The new year is full of joyful resolutions, personal goals, and fresh travel job opportunities. With 2024 sneaking around the corner, let's take a peek at the top 10 high-paying allied health and travel nurse jobs to start your new year.
- Telemetry travel nurse
- Labor and delivery travel nurse
- Intensive care unit travel nurse
- Emergency room travel nurse
- Medical-surgical travel nurse
- Physical therapist
- Occupational therapist
- Speech-language pathologist
- Diagnostic medical sonographer
- Respiratory therapist
Top 10 High-Paying Healthcare Travel Jobs in the 2024 New Year
High-paying travel nurse healthcare jobs
Telemetry nurse
A telemetry nurse is a registered nurse (RN) who specializes in monitoring the heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, and other vital signs of patients, often in intensive care units or hospital step-down units. These crucial healthcare providers serve as the first line of defense for patients in critical conditions, ensuring that they receive immediate and appropriate care, along with the rest of the team.
Trained to detect, analyze, and respond to potential health crises using specialized technology like electrocardiograms (EKGs), these healthcare professionals closely monitor patients’ cardiac status. Thanks to their constant vigilance, telemetry nurses help in the early detection of potential health crises, enhancing the chances of successful treatment and recovery.
As we enter the new year, the demand for telemetry nurses is expected to significantly grow, driven by an aging population and the increase in chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart disease. Additionally, the rapid advancement of medical technology allows these special RNs to expand their reach and positively impact even more patients in need.
Telemetry nurse quick facts
👉Must be a licensed registered nurse in healthcare
👉Requires an Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN) or Bachelor Science in Nursing (BSN) degree
👉Must be certified in basic life support (BLS), advanced cardiovascular life support (ACLS), and trauma nursing core course (TNCC)
👉Earns an average yearly salary of $130,870
👉Enhance your telemetry nursing career with an MSN
Search for telemetry travel nursing jobs
Labor and delivery (L&D) nurse
Have you ever thought about those extraordinary people who help bring new lives into this world? Those are L&D nurses.
Labor and delivery RNs are the ultimate caregivers to mothers and babies during and after labor and birth. These health professionals provide the baby’s initial postpartum care alongside a nurse, midwife, or physician, monitor the mother’s condition, and offer psychological and emotional support to the family.
As the population grows, L&D nurses can expect steady career growth and plenty of employment opportunities. With more than 10,000 babies born each day in the U.S., L&D nurses are needed now and in the future.
L&D nurse quick facts
👉Must be a licensed registered nurse in the industry
👉Requires an ADN or BSN
👉Must be certified in BLS and ACLS
👉Earns an average yearly salary of $118,850
👉Enhance your L&D nursing career with an MSN
Search for L&D travel nursing jobs
Intensive care unit (ICU) nurse
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ICU RNs are critical care medical professionals who work in the intensive care unit of a healthcare facility to treat patients in critical conditions. These skilled individuals think fast on their feet to make decisions and handle intense healthcare events.
In addition to caring for those who have experienced a serious accident, trauma, acute illness, or extensive surgery, ICU nurses also communicate with and educate a patient’s loved ones. While an ICU nursing career may include challenges, it’s also a unique opportunity to bring care, comfort, and support to others.
Related: Why I Love Being a Critical Care Nurse with Gabby Harrington, RN
The role of ICU travel nurses is becoming even more important since people are living longer, leading to a higher incidence of chronic illnesses that require specialized nursing care. Serving on the frontlines of critical patient care, intensive care RNs play an essential part in a patient’s recovery journey.
ICU RN quick facts
👉Must be a licensed registered nurse in healthcare
👉Requires an ADN or BSN
👉Must be certified in BLS, ACLS, TNCC, and pediatric advanced life support (PALS)
👉Earns an average yearly salary of $114,000
👉Enhance your ICU nursing career with an MSN
Search for ICU travel nursing jobs
Emergency room (ER) nurse
Similar to ICU RNs, ER RNs are trained for intense health situations, but instead of the intensive care unit, ER nurses work in emergency departments. When you enter an emergency room, ER nurses are the healthcare professionals who check patients in and out, monitor vital signs, identify and treat health problems, and explain treatment to patients and their loved ones.
Like other nursing specialties, the aging baby boomer population and growing cases of chronic conditions keep ER RNs consistently in demand. Plus, with nearly 136 million patient visits to the ER each year in the U.S., it’s important for the ER RN supply to meet the demand.
ER RN quick facts
👉Must be a licensed registered nurse in the industry
👉Requires an ADN or BSN
👉Must be certified in BLS, ACLS, and PALS
👉Earns an average yearly salary of $112,090
👉Enhance your ER nursing career with an MSN
Search for ER travel nursing jobs
Medical-surgical nurse
Medical-surgical nurses, also known as med-surg registered nurses, have a pivotal role in the healthcare system. And according to the Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses (AMSN), med-surg nursing makes up 17% of the nursing workforce.
“Medical-surgical nursing is the single largest nursing specialty in the U.S. and beyond,” said the AMSN. “Medical-surgical nurses provide care to adults with a variety of medical issues or who are preparing for/recovering from surgery. They have a broad knowledge base and are experts in their practice.”
You can find these specialized medical professionals in a variety of healthcare facilities managing and coordinating patient care, from admission all the way to discharge. With a growing number of older adults facing complex health concerns, the need for skilled nurses specializing in medical-surgical care is needed now more than ever.
Med-surg RN quick facts
👉Must be a licensed registered nurse
👉Requires an ADN or BSN
👉Must be certified in BLS and ACLS
👉Earns an average yearly salary of $105,630
👉Enhance your med-surg nursing career with a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) or a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree
Search for med-surg travel nursing jobs
High-paying allied health travel healthcare jobs
Physical therapist (PT)
Responsible for a wide variety of patient care, PTs mainly focus on movement to help patients manage pain and achieve more flexibility. Experts on movement, physical therapists are instrumental in helping individuals maintain their fitness levels, prevent injuries, and ensure safe and effective exercise routines.
Related: Want to Grow Your Career from PTA to PT? Here’s How!
The demand for therapy healthcare jobs depends on geographical location and area of practice, but PT unemployment rates typically stay low across the U.S. Between 2022 and 2032, the BLS projects a 15% growth rate, creating more than 13,000 PT jobs on average in healthcare facilities throughout the country each year.
PT quick facts
👉Requires a doctorate degree in physical therapy
👉Must pass the National Physical Therapy Exam (NPTE)
👉Earns an average yearly salary of $97,720
👉Enhance your physical therapy career and become board-certified clinical specialist through the American Board of Physical therapy Specialties
Occupational therapist (OT)
As the only job that helps people do the things they want and need to do through therapeutic use of daily activities, OTs are important in helping patients improve their everyday skills. OTs treat patients with injuries, illnesses, or disabilities that prevent them from living their best lives.
If you’re a travel OT, buckle up because you’re in for a wild ride. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the occupational therapy profession is expected to grow a whopping 12% between 2022 and 2032, opening nearly 10,000 jobs each year, on average. So, if one thing’s for sure, the new year holds a plethora of travel healthcare job opportunities in different facilities for OTs.
OT quick facts
👉Requires a master’s degree in occupational therapy
👉Must be certified in BLS and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR)
👉Earns an average yearly salary of $93,180
👉Enhance your occupational therapy career with a doctorate in occupational therapy (OTD)
Speech-language pathologist (SLP)
Experts in communication, SLPs work with and treat people of all ages affected by language, social communication, cognitive-communication, and swallowing disorders to help treat and prevent further concerns.
Additionally, speech-language pathologists provide aural rehab for patients who are deaf or hard of hearing, supply augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems for patients who struggle with expressive and/or language comprehension, and educate people on how to communicate more effectively, such as accent modification and other forms of communication enhancements.
Because SLPs are high in demand as more Americans get older and live longer, this healthcare job is expected to grow a rapid 19% between 2022 and 2032. And with extreme demand comes about 13,000 new job openings for SLPs each year. Now’s the time to launch your SLP career for a healthcare organization.
SLP quick facts
👉Requires a master’s degree in speech-language pathology
👉Must be certified in clinical competence in speech-language pathology (CCC-SLP)
👉Earns an average yearly salary of $84,140
👉Enhance your speech-language pathology career with a doctorate in speech-language pathology
Diagnostic medical sonographer
Without diagnostic medical sonographers, aka ultrasound technicians, the medical world would be left in the dark. Literally. Using ultrasound equipment and other medical devices, these professionals create images of internal body structures to help diagnose and monitor a variety of medical conditions.
Thanks to advancements in ultrasound technology, sonographers can detect even more medical issues, increasing the need for skilled ultrasound technicians. According to the BLS, the demand for diagnostic medical sonographers is projected to increase 10% by 2032, adding almost 10,000 jobs on average each year. With the healthcare industry continuously expanding, a career in sonography presents a promising future.
Diagnostic medical sonographer quick facts
👉Requires an associate degree in diagnostic ultrasound (DMS)
👉Certification as a registered diagnostic medical sonographer (RDMS) recommended
👉Earns an average yearly salary of $78,210
👉 Enhance your ultrasound technician career by focusing your specialization
Search for diagnostic medical sonographer travel jobs
Certified respiratory therapist (CRT)
If you or someone you know suffers from asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer, or another type of acute or chronic respiratory or cardiopulmonary condition, then you know first-hand how important respiratory therapists are to healthcare and to a patient's well being.
In addition to diagnosing cardiopulmonary and respiratory diseases, CRTs are also responsible for managing life support and ventilation equipment, assessing lung capacity and vital signs, analyzing chest x-rays and sputum specimens, conducting rehab activities, and counseling patients in cardiopulmonary health.
Related: CRT or RRT: Everything You Need to Know About Respiratory Therapists
Between 2022 and 2032, the U.S. BLS projects a 13% growth rate for the respiratory therapist occupation, which could open an estimated 8,500 job opportunities each year due to an increase in respiratory conditions like COPD and asthma. Want to make a positive difference? Put your respiratory therapy skills to good use in the new year!
CRT quick facts
👉Requires an associate degree in respiratory therapy
👉Must be licensed in all states except Alaska
👉Earns an average yearly salary of $70,540
👉 Enhance your respiratory therapy career by becoming a registered respiratory therapist (RRT)
So, now you know the top 10 high-paying allied health and travel nurse jobs for the new year. What’s next?
Answer: lots of career opportunities to start your new year off on the right foot by starting a new job with Fusion Medical Staffing. Here, you’ll find healthcare travel jobs with competitive compensation and even better, gain access to unbeatable traveler benefits, a dedicated team of clinical experts for added support, and the freedom to drive your own career.
