Will preface this with noting that physicians should be able to make a good living due to the sacrifices required to achieve independent practice, that I don't support the vast expansion of midlevel independence, etc. Please don't hurt me.
As a travel nurse, I will note that the huge, huge pay I've heard about is fairly limited. I've made in the 110 range for a while (Midwest, ICU) and the only people making significantly more are either getting some of the very limited contracts for hard to fill areas or they're getting an overtime hourly rate. The agencies also leave out a lot of fine print; with nontax stipends and such, your take home is a lot lower unless you have both a mortgage somewhere else and you're renting a room somewhere near the hospital for market rates (my 110 drops a bit when I factor in employer-side taxes). The huge pay contracts are usually of limited duration and the hospital has no issue terminating it after a week if they want, so stability is basically nonexistent. Some of them, like the Krucial contracts that pay out huge $$$, house you in dormitory-style accommodation where your bags are searched for alcohol, you can't enter anyone else's room, and you have a curfew to leave the hotel between shifts with someone signing you in and out so you spend the whole contract working or being a monk in a motel. Benefits and such are more limited than staff jobs as well. The hospital treats you as being at the bottom of the pile, so inappropriate assignments are common-- I haven't ever circulated the OR and the last time I had a laboring mother was 11 years ago for like maybe 5 hours of clinical but that hasn't stopped them trying to make me work either. I'm not going to bleat "losin' mah lyyuu-sens" but I have no urge to be named in a malpractice suit with more exposure than otherwise for working outside my usual areas of practice.
It's great money, I plan on doing it for the next year to build reserves to pay for pre-med, but it's got definite downsides and doesn't reach attending level pay except in certain low-stability contracts. I doubt it'll be around for more than 2022, acuity will drop as covid vaccination and stuff like Paxlovid become more common. I also expect states to start enacting laws at the direction of hospitals to cap our pay; there's already been House hearings on our pay so there might even be a federal response.
good luck convincing a 20 something year old that they’re not going to like something 10 years down the road.
