10 Travelers at once - advice?

[stayseerrn]

For my next assignment, I have to work for another nurther agency, but still get paid by current company. Basically, I am a subcontractor of this hospital's nursing agency. We have to go to a classroom orientation at the nursing agency before beginning our shifts at the hospital. When scheduling my classroom time, the lady told me, "we'll just schedule you at the same time as everyone else so that you can get to know your colleagues." I asked her how many there would be, and she told me there would be 10 of us. I asked if they were all going to be in the same department, and she said they were. So, my new facility just hired 10 travelers, starting at the same time, and in the same department.

How concerned should I be? Has anyone been in this situation before? Also, any advice on how to make sure this is a positive experience?

Any guidance would be appreciated!

[bagladyrn, RN]

Whether or not this would be a concern would depend on the size of the hospital/unit and where the hospital is located.

In a large facility 10 travelers might not be a large percentage spread out over shifts and schedules. On the other hand, it may indicate you would spend a lot of time floating. In facilities where the traveler always floats first, hospitals may hire travelers for their desired dept., then float them almost constantly.

If the hospital is in an area which experiences a big jump in "snowbird" population, this could just be their way of "gearing up" for the influx of senior citizens who usually start arriving in Oct/Nov.

Also, some large facilities schedule all their travelers to start on the same date once or twice a month so they can more easily schedule orientation classes.