First Travel Nurse Assignment Checklist: From Signed Contract to First Paycheck

You signed your first travel contract. Between now and your first paycheck there are about six weeks of logistics — and two money checkpoints most first-timers miss. This checklist runs in timeline order; the money items are marked 💰 because a mistake there costs real dollars, not just convenience.

Right After Signing (Week 0)

• 💰 Read the signed contract against the offer. Confirm taxable rate, weekly stipend amounts, guaranteed hours, and cancellation terms match what the recruiter quoted. Discrepancies are fixable now; they’re “misunderstandings” after you start. Our contract red flags guide lists what to look for.
• 💰 Verify your stipend is at the GSA ceiling. Look up the assignment ZIP in the Stipend Calculator. If your housing stipend is well below the max, ask why — that’s negotiating room you may still capture on extension.
• 💰 Lock your tax home documentation. You need duplicated living expenses (rent/mortgage at home + housing at assignment) for stipends to be tax-free. Run the Tax Home Validator and fix weaknesses now: set up fair-market rent receipts if renting from family, keep utility bills in your name, document ties to home.
• Start facility compliance immediately (drug screen, physical, titers, fit test) — compliance delays are the #1 cause of pushed start dates.

Housing (Weeks 1–2)

• 💰 Decide: agency housing vs stipend. Taking the stipend and booking your own housing usually nets $200–800/month — check your city’s stipend margin in the GSA Rate Explorer. Agency housing wins when you want zero risk or the market is brutal.
• Book housing with a 13-week term matching your contract, with a clause for early contract cancellation if possible. Furnished options: Furnished Finder, monthly Airbnb discounts, travel nurse Facebook groups for the city. See our Furnished Finder guide.
• Confirm commute in real traffic at shift-change time, parking situation, and safety of the neighborhood at night (you’ll be leaving at 0630 or 1930).
• Get renter’s insurance for the assignment (often $10–15/month).

Before You Leave (Weeks 2–4)

• Confirm start date, orientation schedule, dress code, and charting system with your recruiter in writing.
• Photocopy/scan every credential into one cloud folder (license, certs, physical, titers) — you will be asked for them again.
• 5–7 sets of scrubs in the facility’s required color, your own stethoscope, badge clips, good shoes.
• Set up mail forwarding or a trusted person at your tax home; keep your home-state driver’s license, voter registration, and car registration — they’re tax home evidence.
• Plan to arrive 2–3 days before day one: learn the commute, find the grocery store, sleep-shift if you’re on nights.

First Week on the Unit

• At orientation, get in writing (or screenshot): float policy, ratio norms, scheduling/self-scheduling process, call-off procedure, and who your unit contact is.
• Ask about incident reporting, code procedures, and where policies live — every facility does it differently, and travelers are expected to ask.
• Be visibly easy to work with. Extensions and references come from charge nurses who remember you said yes to reasonable requests and asked smart questions early.
• Track every shift you work (date, hours, unit) in your own log — you’ll reconcile this against your paycheck.

First Paycheck (Week 5–6) — The Checkpoint Everyone Skips

• 💰 Reconcile the paycheck line-by-line against the contract: taxable hours × rate, housing stipend, meal stipend, any travel reimbursement. Payroll errors on first checks are common and almost always in the agency’s favor.
• 💰 Check your tax withholding. Multi-state income means your W-4 defaults may under- or over-withhold. Estimate your real liability with the Tax Calculator.
• If anything is off, email (not call) your recruiter with the math. Paper trails fix paychecks.

Six Weeks In: Think About What’s Next

• Extension conversations start around week 7–8. Extensions skip the job-hunt gap and often come with a bump — know your ask before they ask you; the Negotiation ROI Calculator prices it.
• If you’re not extending, start browsing your next market now — compare pay and stipend margins across states and cities so there’s no income gap between contracts.

New to the whole process? Start with how to become a travel nurse for the full path from staff RN to first contract.

Prefer paper? A print-optimized version of this checklist lives at /checklists/first-assignment-checklist/ — print it or save as PDF, free.