Treatment of Agency Staff

Specialties Agency

Published

  1. How are you treated as an Agency Nurses?

    • 24
      I am treated as well as regular staff.
    • 13
      There is room for lots of improvement.
    • 4
      Minimal improvement would help me perform my patient care.
    • 9
      I am dumped on without mercy!
    • 5
      I am dumped on and have refused assignments!
    • 0
      I ahve reported this facility to the Board of Nursing!

55 members have participated

This question comes up again and again. So my dear colleagues, let's take a poll and see where we are at with this question on this BB.

How are you treated? Please feel free to cooment or explain your vote or why you did not vote.

We learn so much from each other. There is not right or wrong answer here. All of our opinions are very valuable.

B;)

My experience has been more like BadBirds.... when dumped they dump on everyone.

I laughed one time when a nurse, who was regular staff, told me she got the worse patients assignments and went on to explain how sure she was of that.

Perspective is everything.

B.

Specializes in Everything except surgery.

I think I know when I'm being dumped on...if everytime I work...I get the first admission, and my rooms are stretched out to all three halls! Also I once went to a hospital...on a late call. I took report, and went to work. Meantime I'm watching the staff sitting around laughing and talking, drinking coffee. I finally took time to find out what the census was. I soon realized...that I couldn't possibly had a fair amount of pts...with the amount of nurses on the unit! I foudn out..I had SIX more pts. then anyone else...and a couple of totals!! :eek: Needless to say I had the CN RE do the assignement!!! They tried to say they hadn't realized it!! Yeah right!! I thnk it's more than just perspective..:chuckle!

Perspective is one component.

I do not go back to a floor or facility that I am dumped on. That is how I handle. It makes a statement.

Of course, I am per diem agency and that frees me up to make more choices; it is, just about, the only way I will do nursing anymore.

B.

I just started working agency at the beginning of the year. So far, it seems to be working out much better than "regular" employee. I will say, that I have found night shift is universally more accepting than day (I float shifts, as well as hospitals & units) There are some hospitals where I just won't work anymore on their day shift - partly staff attitude towards agency - mostly just the basic staff attitude (as confirmed by the night shift). I will say, that at this point I expect to stay as agency - even with the occassional dump - I LOVE the freedom, flexibility and the broader level of experiences.

As a full time staff RN in a community hospital, I just wanted to add my experiences with agency nurses. I work in a small 10 bed ICU on the evening shift. We use agency nurses VERY frequently due to staffing shortages and actually have policies on how they are to be "treated". For example if there is a need to float someone from ICU to another area in the hospital, they float "regular" staff and keep the agency RN in the unit. True that a scheduled agency RN will be cancelled first if census changes mean we need less staff. As far as assignments go, we try to maintain continuity of care so the RN who had the patient the day before will get the same one(s) back leaving the agency RN to pick up the assignment of a nurse that isn't there that particular day. If agency RN's are being treated poorly in our facility it's more likely a clash of personalities I suppose though I know that they start off with biases due to the fact that the salary of an agency RN is often double than what the staff RN's are getting. But please, all you agency RN's, keep coming! We couldn't manage without your help and the varying experiences you bring with you.

Specializes in Everything except surgery.
Originally posted by nightngale1998

Perspective is one component.

I do not go back to a floor or facility that I am dumped on. That is how I handle. It makes a statement.

B.

Exactly, you have to speak loudly with your feet!.:cool:

Specializes in Everything except surgery.
Originally posted by darn1219

As a full time staff RN in a community hospital, I just wanted to add my experiences with agency nurses. I work in a small 10 bed ICU on the evening shift. We use agency nurses VERY frequently due to staffing shortages and actually have policies on how they are to be "treated". For example if there is a need to float someone from ICU to another area in the hospital, they float "regular" staff and keep the agency RN in the unit. True that a scheduled agency RN will be cancelled first if census changes mean we need less staff. As far as assignments go, we try to maintain continuity of care so the RN who had the patient the day before will get the same one(s) back leaving the agency RN to pick up the assignment of a nurse that isn't there that particular day. If agency RN's are being treated poorly in our facility it's more likely a clash of personalities I suppose though I know that they start off with biases due to the fact that the salary of an agency RN is often double than what the staff RN's are getting. But please, all you agency RN's, keep coming! We couldn't manage without your help and the varying experiences you bring with you.

I must say that is hospitals that are organized, with written policies about how agency will be used, I have been treated better than those that aren't. Some hospital don't even bother giving agency nurses any kind of orientation, but expect them to walk in cold, and perform.

When you spend part of your shift trying to find everything, and have to bother other staff to find out, how you do this or that, this takes away from that nurses time of actually doing pt. care.

Yes, I can walk in and function with zero orientation, but how much more effective could I have been if I didn't have to waste time searching for this or that??? Especially the hospitals that use pcs. One hospital decided that I could be oriented to their pc system, at the same time I was taking care of 6-7pts, with one of them post-op!! They took up almost 3 hrs of my shift with me sitting in the nurses station, with someoone trying show me how to use this awful system they had!! Now that make real good sense. Their response ...no one else had a problem with it!!! Yeah right....that is why a traveler told me, that the hospital was on the DNR of most nurses in the area, and asked didn't anyone warn me!!! I never went back!!:cool:

I'm sure with your response here, your hospital will have less nurses who vote with their feet. Good post...:cool:

Specializes in Community Health Nurse.
Originally posted by nightngale1998

Just curious...Brown and Cheerfulldoer: are you treated badly most of the time?

B.

Hello Nightngale...sorry I'm just now reading the question you posed to Brownie and myself. In answer to your question...No, at most places where I have worked as an agency nurse or traveling nurse, I have been very warmly received, appreciated, and respected which is the main reason I continued working in that capacity as a nurse. I can count on one hand the number of places I've worked that were not appreciative or receptive to agency nurses (or travelers). I remember one hospital in particular out in Southern California that constantly called the agency I worked with requesting my nursing expertise at their facility. Often times, the Supervisor would pay me a visit before the end of my shift, and ask me if I could come back the next day. I always said yes as I loved working with them as much as they enjoyed having me work with them. Even in the worst of situations, I have made the best of the shift because I'm old enough to realize that there are rough edges to everyone's personality at times, and if handled with TLC and a smile, they eventually soften.

One of my favorite quotes (by Andy Rooney) is "I've learned that under everyone's hardshell is someone who wants to be appreciated and loved." AND "One can preach a better sermon with their life than with their lips." I try to remember these things when I'm working with people that aren't too thrilled to have me in their presence...as SOME work environments can be. :)

Registry (agency) personnel can be a true asset or a pain in the behind. It depends on the person.

Specializes in Everything except surgery.

Or persons...on either side...:)

It is interesting hearing the feedback. Thank you to all the posters.

There are times i do not think i have a grip on the "real world" of nursing because I float from hospital to hospital in Denver. It has its' positve and negative side; the positive side is that I can pick and choose which facilities I DNU or do not use. ;)

B.;)

I've worked agency for the past 9 years now. At times fulltime and at times as extra cash on my day off. I haven't had any bad experiences so far. I've worked NICU, PICU, CCU, Telemetry and Med Surg. I'm pretty comfortable in all of these areas but if I'm not sure of something I ask questions of the charge nurse. In my experience they would much rather we ask than to assume that we know, different hospitals have different policies. I like belonging to My NICU where I am staff but I don't know what I would do without the agency experience and supplement to my income. RNs don't make much when they work staff where I work.

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