Weekly pay for travel nurses in the Nursing home sector remains dead last compared to other areas of health care, a continuing trend from summer months.

The August Specialty Pay Report published by Vivian Health found that travel nurses in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) were paid on average $1,966.19 per week, a less than 1% drop compared to July but 6.29% increase year-over-year. 

Looking back to weekly pay between August 2022 and August 2023, Vivian data found SNF travel nurse weekly pay peaked in January at $2,025.07. Vivian compared travel nurse pay between June and July, covered here by Skilled Nursing News.

Nursing homes were another post-acute care category listed by Vivian – the weekly average pay for these travel nurses was $2,087.52. Long-term care travel nurses overall saw weekly average pay of $2,074.11 in August.

Other post-acute care settings saw much higher weekly rates in August, with hospice travel nurses netting $2,239.66 and $2,350.34 for those in home health.

Vivian’s August travel nurse pay report across all care settings indicated the national average for travel nurse pay was $2,430.33 per week for the month, down from $2,687.13 per week at this time last year.

In other words, there was a 9.56% decrease in weekly pay for travel nurses between August 2023 and August 2022, the report found.

The top three nurse specialties were in acute care, with cardiac progressive care unit nurses being paid the most, followed by pediatric intensive care and cardiovascular pediatric intensive care unit nurses.