VaultRN Data Methodology
How we collect, verify, and publish travel nurse pay data — with full transparency.
Last updated: January 2026
Data Collection
VaultRN collects contract data directly from travel nurses who voluntarily submit their contract offers and accepted packages through our platform. Each submission includes: weekly gross pay, hourly base rate, housing stipend, meals stipend, contract duration (weeks), clinical specialty, and state of assignment.
Data is submitted at the time of contract signing or offer receipt, ensuring recency. We do not scrape job boards, aggregate from third-party APIs, or use estimated data — every data point represents a real contract offer received by a real travel nurse.
Privacy Protection: k-Anonymity
We apply k-anonymity with a minimum threshold of N≥5. This means no data point is published unless at least 5 independent contracts exist for that specialty + state combination. This prevents any individual nurse's contract from being identifiable in the aggregated data.
All personally identifiable information (name, address, SSN, phone, email) is stripped before any contract data enters our aggregation pipeline. The link between a nurse's identity and their submitted contract data is cryptographically hashed and broken — no join between identity and market data is possible.
Aggregation Formula
Current Rate: 4-week rolling average of all contracts submitted in the prior 28 days for a given specialty + state combination.
Trend Calculation: Comparison of the current 4-week average against the prior 4-week average. A change of >2% is classified as Rising or Falling; within ±2% is Stable.
Historical Window: 1-year rolling window. Contracts older than 12 months are excluded from current rate calculations but retained for trend analysis.
Geographic Fallback: When fewer than 5 contracts exist for a specific city, the system expands to the CBSA metro area, then state, then Census region — stopping when N≥5 is achieved. All fallback data is labeled with its geographic scope.
Data Quality Tiers
| Tier | Contract Count | Confidence | Citation Guidance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Verified | ≥50 contracts | High | Suitable for direct citation |
| Estimated | 10–49 contracts | Medium | Cite with sample size noted |
| Limited | 5–9 contracts | Low | Note data limitations in citation |
| Not Published | <5 contracts | Insufficient | Page noindexed; data not displayed |
Data Integrity Controls
Every submitted contract is validated against statistical outlier detection. Contracts with weekly rates more than 2.5 standard deviations from the rolling mean for that specialty + state are automatically quarantined for human review before entering the dataset. Contracts more than 3.5 standard deviations from the mean are rejected outright.
We maintain synthetic "honeypot" data points with known correct values to detect coordinated manipulation attempts. Any market that drifts more than 10% from its honeypot baseline triggers an immediate integrity review.
Update Frequency
- Salary data: Refreshed daily at midnight UTC
- Contract database: Real-time as nurses submit
- Trend calculations: Recalculated daily
- Seasonal adjustments: Updated quarterly
- Taxonomy aliases: Reviewed weekly by clinical staff
Dispute & Correction Process
Facilities or organizations that believe data about them is inaccurate may submit a dispute via /facility-dispute or email legal@vaultrn.com. All disputes receive an acknowledgment within 4 business hours and a resolution within 14 business days.