Why is it so hard?

Because there are not many and those that are great agencies are not in need of many new employees. Once word gets around that so and so agency pays well and treats their nurses like valued professionals, people flock to them for work.

Its all about the money. We are their pawns in their chess game. Very few agencies treat their bread and butter right. :-( Until nurses stand up for themselves, the agencies will keep doing it. And since you don't work closely with the other nurses, its not as easy to get them all involved.

From a mom's perspective...when we first made plans to bring our son home, I called 46 agencies, ruled out 20 over the phone, and conducted 26 interviews with DONs and ADONs. And only seriously considered TWO. So many shady practices, poor business plans, inadequate training, lack of good supervision.