10Live ICU RN Travel Jobs in Iowa · August 1 700+ 5-Star Reviews

ICU Travel Nurse Jobs in Iowa

Compare travel ICU nurse jobs in Iowa quickly, weighing unit type, shift, and pay from Des Moines to Iowa City.

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ICU · Iowa
10
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$2,178
avg weekly pay iMarket pay is the average weekly rate across active assignments matching your specialty and location. Each job’s pay tier compares its weekly pay to this average.
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    Compare Iowa ICU Roles by Hospital Capability

    Iowa ICU travel assignments change quickly with the hospital's referral tier. Roles cluster around Des Moines, Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, Sioux City, Waterloo, and Davenport, while smaller hospitals feed patients into those regional systems. An academic or tertiary ICU may divide work among medical, surgical, cardiac, neuro, or specialty teams; a community unit may care for a wider diagnosis mix and stabilize patients for transfer. Look closely at ventilator and vasoactive-drip expectations, invasive monitoring, device exposure, rapid-response coverage, and whether travelers float to progressive care. Also clarify which services are available overnight and how the hospital handles patients who need a higher level of care. Iowa's statewide hospital network creates options, but the unit's referral tier determines the actual practice environment.

    Offer review | Iowa ICU

    Iowa Rates Across Referral Tiers

    Updated today

    Treat pay, start date and schedule as assignment-level terms; confirm transfer duties and clinical backup in writing.

    10 ICU contracts are open in Iowa right now, with +2 added in the last 7 days and 2 already filled. Open postings have been live about 37 days on average.

    10
    Open ICU jobs
    37 days
    Median time active
    +2
    Added last 7 days
    269K
    Iowa hospital inpatient admissions in the 2026 IHA profile
    Why demand stays strong
    76K
    People employed by Iowa hospitals (IHA Mission Essential 2026)
    34,420
    Registered nurses employed in Iowa (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
    995
    Open licensed hospital nursing positions in Iowa, July 2025 (IHA)

    Live counts from the jobs feed, updated daily. Demand figures from public workforce data, sources noted with each figure.

    Location filters | Iowa ICU

    Iowa Critical-Care Locations

    Live · updated today

    Iowa listings may be filtered through Des Moines, Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, Sioux City, and regional Iowa. Keep the comparison grounded in the actual patient population, specialty or mixed-unit scope, transfer process, orientation, schedule and written pay components.

    Highest weekly pay · ICU
    West Burlington
    $2,275
    Des Moines
    $2,247
    Council Bluffs
    $2,233
    Sioux City
    $2,182
    Dubuque
    $2,142
    Mason City
    $2,121

    For an Iowa role, confirm transfer expectations and the actual ICU model before weighing pay. The accepted offer should match the posting on shifts, floating, orientation, hours and start conditions.

    Weekly pay reflects current open Advantis contracts — marketplace contract value, not a staff-nurse wage.
    Official sources | Iowa

    Iowa Hospital Reach and Rural Critical Care

    Hospital geography helps explain why Iowa ICU assignments differ between regional centers and rural facilities. The Iowa Hospital Association's 2026 profile identifies 121 hospitals operating across 90 counties. Iowa HHS separately reports 82 designated Critical Access Hospitals. Neither figure means every hospital maintains an ICU, and critical-access status does not establish critical-care capability. Together, however, they show a broad rural network surrounding a smaller group of higher-acuity referral centers and transport dependencies. Des Moines and Iowa City may offer more specialized medical, surgical, cardiac, neuro, or trauma coverage, while community hospitals can emphasize stabilization and transfer. For contract comparison, ask about staffed ICU beds, patient populations, available specialists, tele-ICU support, transfer destinations, and whether the role includes progressive-care or house-wide rapid-response duties.

    Hospital and Critical Access Hospital counts describe network structure; they do not establish that every facility operates an ICU.
    Iowa transfer, unit and NLC questions

    Iowa ICU Travel Jobs: What to Know

    What does an Iowa RN license cost me for ICU work?
    Nothing, if your license says multistate and you live in a compact state. Iowa's a compact state, so there's no fee and no wait for you. If you're single-state, or you live outside the compact, you'll pay the Iowa endorsement fee and wait on the board's timeline. Check it in Nursys before you plan a start date.
    What do Iowa ICU jobs ask for?
    You'll need BLS and ACLS. CCRN is preferred, not required, and it carries the most weight at the bigger Des Moines and Iowa City units. Most jobs want a recent year or two in critical care. Iowa hospitals handled about 269,000 inpatient admissions in the 2026 profile, so there's steady work. Each hospital sets its own list.
    What makes one Iowa ICU job pay more than another?
    How hard it is to fill, mostly. Iowa hospitals had around 995 open licensed nursing positions in July 2025, and they're not spread evenly, so a unit with nobody nearby pays more than one in a college town. Shift and how long it's been open matter too. The specifics of any one job are up to the hospital and the unit, and your recruiter has them.
    What should I have ready to apply for Iowa ICU jobs?
    Your license checked in Nursys, current BLS and ACLS, a critical care skills checklist filled out, two recent references, and your immunization records. Drug screens and background checks run on each hospital's own schedule. Get the file together first and you can apply the same day you see something you want.