Is this the norm?

[KATRN78]

I got hired at a local peds agency. I went through orientation. They asked me how far I was willing to travel and I agreed to 45 minutes away. That was lastweek.

On Tuesday someone from their other office called me and offered me a case thats 1 hour away. I declined and explained that 1 hour was too far.

Later on that day someone else called me and asked about my availability. I am very flexible, I have nights and weekends free. He said he was working on the schedule and would get back to me. I got no call back and so called on Thursday morning (yesterday) and was told "We didn't forget about you. I am still working on January's schedule and we were just talking about you."

I still do not have a case. Is this normal? Did I lose the job by not accepted the first case offered?

[tothepointeLVN, LVN]

Also if your new to the agency/PDN then taking a weekend or night shift can get you in the door. Also some agencies when they staff a new case will give a couple of days to one nurse and a couple to the other to give both the parents and the nurses a choice and a few weeks in one nurse will end up with the full time gig.

Also expect that in your first gig you might get bumped by a nurse with more seniority. On my first case I was put on full time and it was going well. I was replacing the nurse of 2 years who had gone AWOL. Well she unawoled herself called mom and the next day I'm off the case. The staffing guy felt so bad he was mad that his supervisor was letting that other nurse came back since the agency lost out on billing for 3 weeks because she just disappeared.

[KATRN78]

Thanks for all the great info! I will benefit from this, as will other new nurses, I am sure!