Any infor on Interim Health Care?

Good point eddy; Agency strength varies with the seasons practically.

Here in Denver, we have seen great changes and shifts between the nightmare of 9-11, Enron Crash, impact of airline power and loss of revenue, and the addition of AllAboutStaffing with the largest of facilities here of Health One.

Diversify with registry has been my survival.

It is this type of conversatin that impowers us and helps us to be strong in ourselves. Just like not counting on one facility for income, we should not count on one agency for assignments.

All my agencies know that I am diverse in my contacts. We went through the whole power struggle with loyalty. I cam to the conclusion that they have more then one nurse and so I should have at least more then one agency.

It works for me....

Nighngale1998 - I agree with most of what you said, but I prefer to keep a primary agency and one or two others as my fallback to plug in days if and when times are slow with my primary. Sometimes things DO get slow with any agency, so this is important.

Agency is also a "you pat mine I pat yours" business. I am honest and upfront with all my agencies. My primary knows that they are my primary, and they also know I have secondaries as backup. My secondaries know they are secondary, but of course that doesn't stop them from trying to convince me otherwise.

I have a lot of friends that tried to be everything thing to everyone when it came to the agencies in town. Generally what results is them being disliked by all, and in the end out of work.

I get a ton of respect from my primary and they go out of their way to keep me busy and happy. They do this because they know the commitment I have made to them. It is reciprical. They know me well, know what I like, what I don't, etc. Over the years, I have become good friends with the office staff, and we even share Christmas gifts every year. When I was sick, the office manager even came to my house and dropped off my check and a care package. Pretty cool.

The other big reason to maintain a primary is benefits. I get paid time off, insurance, 401k from my primary. These are offered at my secondaries too, but my primary has the best (I stress though that they are the best for ME, not necesarily everyone as it depends on what is important to you). Plus, to maintain good benefits you really need to try to put in most of your time with just one.

Anyway, just my thoughts.

Eddy:

Thank you for your comments. All my agencies know about each other. Quite frankly, the market here in Denver (where I primarily work) could not handle a full time schedule for me.

I have been with N F for over a year at this site and over a year in antoehr city. We too enjoy a personable relationship. They call me first for many of my favorite types of assignments (wellness clinic job fairs etc).

To me, the key emphasis is diversity. Loyalty too in that I would never take a call from one agency to dump them for a call fom another agency. Once I am scheduled I am commited.

My loyalty is to myself. Quite frankly, independent contracting is my goal (see Nurse Entrepreneur Forum).

"They" all know me as a great worker in my community. I have saved some "report cards" and documentation form clients to proove it.

Basically, the community you work in is probably going to be different depending on where you live. When I summer camp nursed, I fully expected to be able to agency nurse a little on the side for extra moeny. What a surprise it was to find out the closest hospital NEVER used agency. They did occasionally use travel nurses but those times were infreqauent. This was in an area that had a lot of nursing schools in the area and was rather rurual (upstate NY).

All of these comments and discussions are important in the learning process. Feeling the pulse of the community you are working in is also very important.

B.

I couldn't agree more with that nightngale! I have been in several different "markets" and each of them has varied tremendously. Some places you literally had to say STOP CALLING I'M FULL because you are scheduled for 60+ hours while others were the complete opposite.

The market is the biggest detirmining factor IMO. I am lucky to be in what I would call a very balanced market now days. I have been full-time agency and have rarely had a week go by with less than 40 hours. My perspective in my previous posts is somewhat skewed due to this current market I am in.

One of the things I have always thought about doing was having my own agency. My question to agency nurses is what do you look for. Having been a temp in various agencies, I know that though the client is important, so are the workers sent out. When temp agencies treat temps with the respect they deserve, I knew it was an agency I wanted to belong to. I believe this is no less what nurses deserve.

Again, let me know what you want in your agency.

Kris

In my time I have seen more "mom and pop" agencies fail miserably than succeed. It is very costly. Remember you have to pay your nurses and bills but the clients don't pay for at least a month after the invoice and often two months. Some will never pay. Ever wondered why nursing homes change names so often? Besides the fact that they were shutdown for poor conditions they also do this when they build up too much debt and file chapter 11. For some places this is almost an annual event! There are several nursing home companies that are actually in the business of buying and selling bankrupt nursing home property, building up debt and selling it off for a profit right after they default on all the payments and file chapter 11. They simply change names and keep going. However, you HAVE to pay your nurses and your bills and unless you have a lot of cash the financing on your payroll (until the client pays).

The agency thing is best left to corporate investors who know the "bad" companies, can absorb the loses when they happen, and get by in the slow times. It is far more work and expense than most individuals can handle. Trust me I have thought about opening one too, and those books that claim they can tell you how to do it (which I've read) are full of BS. I was an accountant for 10 years before I got into nursing, and I will tell you right now unless you have a million bucks to play around with, you are better off investing your money in T-Bills (which suck) than you are trying to open an agency. Even with a million bucks I would say you are better off doing something else!

The common belief is that this industry is SOOOO profitable. It most certainly can be, but it is also a way to lose everything real fast. The ones who profit from this are us nurses who work for the agencies and let them deal with the business part of it.

I am an agency of one; Come to the Entrepreneural Forum and join in conversation there. We are building our own future.

I am currently in a small business class set up through the local chamber of commerce (they are nationwide) instructing and aiding in "How To Run a Sucessfull Business". It is not for everyone. I do not mind the extra paperwork etc... I am enjoying the liberation and power in creating my own destiny.

I agree.. it is not for everyone but we should know our options.

Nursing homes are not my cup of tea by the way. I deal in med/surg, CPR instruction, and the whole gambit that diverse nursing has to offer.

Independant contracting is a completely different thing though. They are almost so different as to be non-comparable. Licensing, liability insurance, financial liability and risk, marketing and advertising costs, workers comp, social security, unemployment, financial reporting and auditing, and so on are completely different. Not to mention as an independant contractor you have little to no office overhead and you are not "funding" a payroll, just yourself.

I am all for nurses exploring independant contracting. It's a great gig, but takes a great deal of research and marketing yourself. The end result is well worth it though... as long as you are willing to put in the required work. However, when it comes to nurses trying to open a full-blown agency, I am VERY against it. No offense but few nurses have the financial/accounting, marketing and management skills/education to do such a thing. We were trained and educated to care for people and it is a very admirable career, but I don't recall taking accounting I or II, human resoure management or principles of marketing when I went to school for my RN. Further, I don't think too many of us have access to the funds you REALLY need to start a successful agency. I have seen too many nurses with bright ideas lose everything because they too thought they could compete in a market they have far too little knowledge about. I'm not trying to anger anyone, I am merely trying to keep someone else from making a BIG mistake.

I agree with you totally Eddy. Coincidently, I was posting to your remark and had not yet seen the post about starting their own agency etc...

The Skies the Limit If Your Heart is in it!