Is this the norm?

Blackcat99 · Dec 30, 2011

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?

I belong to 3 different peds agencies. When I got hired in I told them I was only interested in doing the cases in my area. All 3 of these agencies told me not to worry and that they always had plenty of work available in my area. Not true. They always lie. They tell you what you want to hear and then they usually only call you for cases that are an hour or more drive away from your home. They will probably keep calling you and offering you jobs that are far away. I refused to drive to cases far away and one of the agencies finally did find me a client in my area. Good luck.

caliotter3 · Dec 30, 2011

All of them will tell you what you want to hear but when push comes to shove, they will spend their efforts trying to get you to fill their "problem" staffing needs. That can be expected, but it does not necessarily keep you working. And there are staffing coordinators who will get personal and let a perceived dislike for you keep them from ever giving you a fair chance at work. Often you will meet a nurse who is overwhelmed with requests while another nurse with the same agency has not worked in three weeks, three months, or ever. If a person feels slighted by an agency, for whatever reason, best to contact another agency. That is why some nurses are signed on with two to five different agencies.

tothepointeLVN, LVN · Dec 30, 2011

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?

This is normal. Expect it to take about 2 weeks to find a case. The thing is with agencies when they hiring you they are not usually offering you a job but a promise of a job/assignment.

Depending on whether you responded to a help wanted ad or just walked in and signed out will also have a impact on how much work is available. Unless they have an open case at the time you are hired they can't really promise you anything so far as location since they won't know what cases they will get only what they've had in the past. The can't really predict when a nurse who is on a case will suddenly get fed up and quit etc. The staffing needs are more variable than say a hospital where there are x beds so they need y nurses.

Refusing your first case won't have won you any special treatment. While its hard to find the right nurse fit for every client in PDN it's not really that hard for them to find nurse so they keep on throwing them at the wall and see which ones fit.

m2312 · Dec 31, 2011

I work at 2 agencies..one which is peds. Initially it took me 3 maybe 4 weeks to get cases close to my house. I would just keep calling them so they don't forget about you. good luck :)

caliotter3 · Dec 31, 2011

I work at 2 agencies..one which is peds. Initially it took me 3 maybe 4 weeks to get cases close to my house. I would just keep calling them so they don't forget about you. good luck :)

I like to go into the office looking for a case. Do that often enough, you will become a nuisance, and they will bend over backwards to get you out of their hair, or they will be too embarassed to give the case to another nurse on the phone, in front of you standing there in front of them with your big, brown, doleful cat eyes pleading for a chance to work.

KATRN78 · Dec 31, 2011

Thank you!

Blackcat99 · Dec 31, 2011

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?

I forgot to mention about one of my agencies. This agency has been actively searching for nurses for the past 6 months to specifically staff ped cases in my area. The fact is that there are no new ped cases presently in my area. That is a fact. So they are asking for nurses to staff cases that do not presently exist.

KATRN78 · Dec 31, 2011

Ok, so the story is unfolding a bit. They offered me reimbursment to travel there. They also said after 3 weeks they will put me on a more local case. All this in writing.

I think they need me more than I need them? IDK!

Blackcat99 · Dec 31, 2011

I am impressed. They actually put it in writing. That sounds great!!!

caliotter3 · Dec 31, 2011

Ok, so the story is unfolding a bit. They offered me reimbursment to travel there. They also said after 3 weeks they will put me on a more local case. All this in writing.
I think they need me more than I need them? IDK!

One time I was offered travel pay along with a slightly higher rate of pay to work on one case for a new to me agency that was in the process of hiring me. But that was that one case, for that one Director of Clinical Services, for that one agency, in that one instance. She came right out and told me she could never get anyone to travel that far so she offered me the incentive and I was happy to take it at the time. It was only for two shifts a week. There would have been some more thinking involved if it were for full time because it was a lot of miles and a lot of travel time for a generally low pay rate. Definitely not the norm. Your situation is not the norm either, especially to get it in writing. Good luck.

SDALPN · Jan 1, 2012

They only pay more or offer mileage when they are desperate. They could be desperate for a few reasons. Be cautious with this case. Could be distance....but be real....there has to be a nurse that lives nearer to the case. Usually they offer more pay if they are about to lose the case because the family is upset for some reason. The family can be upset because of lack of coverage or because they are a bad family and can't keep a nurse. They may offer more pay because its hard to staff. The agencies almost never tell you the truth. They tell you what they *want* you to know.

You really should make your travel distance an hour. After that I would tell them you are willing to travel further with mileage/time compensation. Most nurses will travel an hour. 45 min limits you and the agency will judge you on that. Then when the agency has a case you may be willing to go to, they won't bother to call you because they figure you'll say no and they'll call someone who is more likely to say yes. They dont want to waste time calling nurses that will say no. They will call the person who will say yes the fastest so they can get their job done in the office. Agree to take a further case and tell them that you'll be glad to staff that case until another case opens up closer. Or tell them you'll float (its good for experience anyway) and work a few shifts far away and swap the shifts for closer shifts as they come up.

Don't expect a call back from them. They are busy. Unless they have something for you, they aren't going to call you back to tell you they don't have anything for you. They would love to use you on a case as they aren't making money off of you by you not working. Never forget that they don't make money if you aren't making money. Anytime a shift is an inconvenience for you, tell the agency and ask them for a better rate since you will have to cancel plans. You can't use it all the time. But when you really have something else going on it works well. Its respiratory season. Lots of nurses are out because of cases going in the hospital. If those nurses are f/t the agency will get them shifts first...especially if they are benefitted. But also it makes it harder to get work if the other nurses are needing shifts too. Some agencies will choose based on who has been there longer on who to call first. Ask them to orient on a few cases that have frequent call outs. Then they can call you last minute to cover those shifts because you will have an advantage on other nurses that aren't oriented or haven't met the parents. Its also a good way to get your foot in the door of other cases in case a nurse leaves for some reason. Don't expect regular work unless you get a regular case. Then expect anything to go wrong and to lose the case. You never know what the parents are thinking. Its typically feast or famine. Work when you can get it because there will be times when work is slow or non-existent for a few weeks.