[nightingale]

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

[Sleepyeyes]

Gosh, in my experience doing agency only occasionally, it definitely depends on the facility. Had to refuse one assignment--it was a 30-bed vent unit, and I'd never done vents, and wasn't about to learn that way.

In another place, I wasn't told that I was "the" RN for the building, and in the middle of report a CNA ran up to the desk yelling "Fire!" The staff LPN giving me report looked at me and said, "Oh my gawd, what do we do?" -- I sorta felt compelled to take over there; no time to refuse.

And in yet another facility, I followed another agency nurse who apparently had worked a few shifts there, and was not real popular with the staff. She informed me that she'd just DC'd a Foley on a new admit at 11pm, while I was in report. I wanted to make sure the pt. was voiding before I started my 6 am med pass, and went in to check on her. Guess what? wrong patient's Foley was DC'd. The staff nurses were ready to hang the agency nurse until I discovered, waaaaaay back in the beginning of the month, an order to DC that same Foley. Ergo, agency nurse unwittingly corrected a staff nurse's mistake. DC'd Foley on right patient, thencalled the Doc on the other to see if maybe he wanted Foley reinserted (pt. heavy, fragile skin, hemaplegic, on Lasix, and requesting to keep it), but even half-asleep, he was adamant--leave it out. To make matters worse, after I dealt with all that and got my 6 am meds out on time, the staff nurse screwed up report completely and reported me to my agency as the nurse who DC'd the wrong Foley instead of the one who discovered both mistakes and fixed 'em. I was kind enough to go back the next day and explain the whole thing to medical records. But if I hadn't caught the staff nurses' mistake, they'd have hung that other nurse out to dry. No, thanks, I don't wanna work there ever again....

[nightingale]

So.. SleepyEyes.. how often have you worked agency?

Are you basing your vote on those two experiences? Just curious.

B.

[Sleepyeyes]

Ummm... actually I was explaining why I didn't vote--no choice for my answer, which would be, in general, I'm treated pretty well, but it definitely depends on the particular facility.

[nightingale]

Oh, I see. Excuse my assumption. I saw that someone voted and you posted. Guess whoever voted did not post also.

I appreciate your comments SleepyEyes. I am glad your experiences have been mostly positive.

B.

[Brownms46]

I voted, and based my experience on my last assignment! But as far as for the many years that I have been agency, I agree with Sleepyeyes...it depends on the facility. I have been in situations where I was treated as staff...after passing their prove youself tests, I have been treated as a welcome addition, and I have been treated like poop on more occassions than I care to think about! And more than not...I was treated like poop!... I have heard the statements...like agency is lazy...most are sorry nurses who can't handle perm positions, have poor skills...yada ...yada ...yada! I heard these statements since the time I first started as agency....waaaaaay back in 1981!! And believe me I STILL hear and read those same statements today!!

What I can't understand is...if you need help at the place you're working, and help comes...why treat them badly??? Mind you there are good places, who treat agency very well.....but there are a whole lot of places...I wouldn't go back to ...some of the places I have been...if I was starving....and they were the only place left to work as a nurse. I'm not the only agency nurse that feels this way...and one agency once called me and asked me "What will it take for you to go to this hospital...They're desperate...Name your price"!!! I told my very sweet and naive recruiter...that they didn't have enough money for me to go back!

Finally I was talked into going back...and give it one more try. Those people had totally changed their attitudes...as I wasn't the only nurse who had put them on a DNR list!!! So the moral of this story....be careful how you treat the agency nurses who come work with you....because one day....they may not come anymore...

[Sleepyeyes]

Yeah, Browns, we get thrown into the same toxic environment that drove the staff nurses away, IMHO.

[cheerfuldoer]

I casted my vote for: There's room for a lot of improvement!

I always loved to work agency since I was a divorced Mom raising three girls, it afforded me the opportunity to work around my children's schedules while trying to be both mom and dad to them.
On more than one occasion, I have felt abused as an agency nurse, but chalked it up to staff-envy. I did my best to prepare myself mentally for the challenge of working as an agency nurse before reporting for duty, that way I wasn't too disappointed that I was working without assist or a caring staff at some places.

I've also worked at places where I've been very warmly received, and would always choose those facilities over others, even if it meant more patients to care for, more paperwork to do, etc. The staff DOES make or break an agency nurse's shift.

Last night I was watching a rerun show on ER where a patient had received the wrong blood...died...staff immediately blamed it on an agency nurse when in fact, the guilty party was their own HN. Go figure! I had to laugh at that one because it happens a lot. Staff are more constant than agency, so it's easier for the agency nurses who come and go so sporadically to be blamed for every little thing gone wrong.

Even so, I would work agency again, I would become a Traveling Nurse again, and whenever I worked with agency nurses as a staff nurse, I did my best to make each of them feel "at home" on the unit by being as helpful as possible.

[Brownms46]

EXACTLY.... I just wonder why no one gets a clue. I recently worked with a LTC nurse who had never worked in a hospital ...in the two year since she graduated! She was agency and this was her first time on that floor! The way the staff talked to her...was terrible to say the least! But this is the reason they were so short of nurses...and why 90% of the nurses working on this unit...were agency! Also the reason this unit was desperate enough to allow a nurse with no hospital expereince to be there in the first place. She couldn't draw blood...so I or another agency nurse did it for her. She had a pt in resp distress and didn't know what to do...so agency came to her rescue. if she couldn't find something or didn't know how to do something...we helped her.

Although this was time consuming...we felt it was better to treat her right....assist her with taking care of her pts....to not let her fall on her face, and therefore allow her pts to suffer in the long run, and possibly be working without her help the next time! I prefer a little help to no help at all! But that is just me..

[nightingale]

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

B.