Does this sound fair to any of you?

Specialties Travel

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My niece's friend signed a contract, supposed to start on Monday. Well, the agency says the hospital wants to postpone her start date by a week. So, that means no work and no pay for a week. That would be bad enough, but they also won't let her move into their housing until then unless she pays for it. Don't you think a good company would at least put her up in housing without charging her when the mistake is theirs?

I don't know if I'm allowed to post that kind of thing here or not. I can pm you if you want to know.

The agency wouldn't be in business long if they routinely gave away money, but this doesn't sound like a routine situation to me. They're also not going to be in business long if word gets out that they can jam you up like this.

May not be routine but something very similar happened to me on my first assignment which happened to be 1300 miles from my home. I was about 50 miles from the city I was going to and they called my cell phone and told me. To make things worse they were in such a hurry for me to get there I wanted to start a week later to take care of things at home but nooooo.....they needed me right away.

Specializes in Everything except surgery.
I don't think it makes good business sense for word of things like this to get out either. They have lost at least two future contracts over it: my niece and another friend of hers. They had both signed up, done all the paperwork and were planning on taking an assignment with that company in the near future. Now neither one of them will. I don't think that was worth the few hundred they would have had to pay to house one traveller for a week until her new start date.

I can't say how glad I am that I took my assignment with Emerald Health Services! No bs like this from them...

Sorry fegus, did know from your original post, that your niece was the person that had this happen to, or that they had left home already. Of the agency should have put them up at that point. However, hospitals changing their minds happens all too often, so you are not talking about just one Traveler.

Know of hospitals that change their minds on a regular basis, and Travelers who know they are flaky will still want to go there. Falsely believing it will not happen to them, and who refuse to listen to sound advice!

Agencies have a basic contract with the hospital, and when the hospital wants to hire a nurse, they just do a confirmation of when the nurse is to start, how much the bill rate is for that particular nurse, and the length of the nurse's contract. Plus any other agreements that have been made with the hospital and the nurse. The agency makes an agreement with the nurse, based on the confirmation agreement with the hospital.

So the Traveler's contract is with the hospital, with the agency acting as the middleman if you will. The agency is an extended HR dept. for the hospital, assuring that the Traveler's references are verfified, physical, immunizations, etc, are taken care of. The agency also does all the communication with the Traveler, and passes along any of the hospitals wishes to the Traveler. The agency then assists the Traveler in finding housing, (if they wish), Travel, licensure, etc.

I am glad to know your niece and friend got what they needed, and hopefully they will be well taken care of in the future.

Specializes in ER.

I just wanted to point out that it makes no sense that they decided that she was not going to work for that week (they don't want her) and yet they expected her to pay for housing for that week (they do want her). They can't have it both ways. Either the nurse is free and clear to do whatever she wants, or she is working.

I would be very tempted to tell them to shove the whole deal- they broke the contract first- and move on.

Hi Brownie, it actually wasn't my niece it was her friend. There were 3 of them wanting to travel in the same general area of California around the same time. My niece has a place to stay and that hospital was too far of a drive for her. Her one friend (an American from Texas I think) was desperate because she had already left her last job and it seemed like an ok assignment, so she accepted the position there (she's the only experienced traveller in the group). My niece (Canadian citizen, here in the US on a NAFTA visa) got a position closer to her home base at another hospital with another company. My niece has another friend in Canada who wanted to come down for an assignment and she had recomended this company to her as well, but obviously she's called her and told her to stear clear of them.

I just wanted to point out that it makes no sense that they decided that she was not going to work for that week (they don't want her) and yet they expected her to pay for housing for that week (they do want her). They can't have it both ways. Either the nurse is free and clear to do whatever she wants, or she is working.

I would be very tempted to tell them to shove the whole deal- they broke the contract first- and move on.

The reason they said she can't start for a week is that the hospital orientation is only run every 2 weeks and she can't start until she's done that. The problem I have with this is that I feel the travel company should have known when the orientation dates were before they got the traveller to sign a contract with them.

If she hadn't signed this contract when she did, she would have probably wound up taking an assignment with another company. I really think her recruiter may have gotten her to sign the contract with the false dates knowing they were wrong, just so she would tell the other companies not to look for any positions for her. Now, with a little over a week until she starts, there is no way she can get another assignment set up that quickly so she is sort of stuck with the bad company. I'm sure she won't be using them again. I just can't believe they wanted her to pay for housing when they screwed up. My niece said she sent them a rather nasty email telling them to lose her file because she'd never take a contract with them.

Specializes in Everything except surgery.
Hi Brownie, it actually wasn't my niece it was her friend. There were 3 of them wanting to travel in the same general area of California around the same time. My niece has a place to stay and that hospital was too far of a drive for her. Her one friend (an American from Texas I think) was desperate because she had already left her last job and it seemed like an ok assignment, so she accepted the position there (she's the only experienced traveller in the group). My niece (Canadian citizen, here in the US on a NAFTA visa) got a position closer to her home base at another hospital with another company. My niece has another friend in Canada who wanted to come down for an assignment and she had recomended this company to her as well, but obviously she's called her and told her to stear clear of them.

Well, I am glad it worked out. The best thing in any situation, is to really check out the recruiter, just as well as the agency, and the assignment. And I agree with canoehead, I would have just walked away from the whole deal, because if the hospital would change the start date at the last minute, they will cancel a contract just as easily. And this may have been the reason the agency was hesitate to pay for housing, while the traveler waited to start the assignment.

But then again, if the agency knew this hospital could be a problem, the recruiter should have steered clear of them.

You'd think... I don't know how much the recruiter actually knows about the hospital, but they had been pushing it to my niece for weeks. My niece knows another traveller who is at that hospital now and she likes it there, so the unit must be ok. I know some people on allnurses have had good experiences with this company, but I wouldn't risk it. I think the girl from Texas would have walked away if not for the fact that would mean starting work even later. It's a shame that company and that recruiter are so buttheaded.

Specializes in PICU, Pediatric Cardiac.

Hi there

I just read this thread and I feel for your niece (or her friend). A similar situation happened to me at the hospital I'm currently at now. I finished my previous assignment on a Wed, was going to spend the weekend w/ my folks and then drive to my new destination Saturday night to start my new one the following Monday. My recruiter called me and told me I couldn't start until a week later b/c the hospital had not done my background check yet (not naming, but if u want the name email me) until that very morning. Needless to say, they had over 6 weeks to do one on me because I had already interviewed and submitted my signed contract and were refusing to take the one my company had on file...they wanted one of their own. And I wasn't allowed to start orientation until it came back and it took a week to process. So after much crying and swearing, my recruiter offered me a week of free housing since my original start date was suppose to be that Monday and it wasn't my fault..somewhere the ball was dropped b/n the hospital and the company and I wasn't liable to pay for the housing.

So I don't think your niece or her friend should pay for the housing because it wasn't her fault. Obviously the fault lies on the company because if they are ones who often supply travelers to this hospital, then they should know how often the hospital does orientation or they should have asked when inquiring about the postion. Thats is one of the things that should be asked by a traveler when they are looking at a particular hospital..how often in orientation given and when is the next one after the end of a current contract. That way the traveler can take the time off as a break if it doesn't start until a couple weeks later, or start the assignment as soon as you're done with the previous one (like I do w/ the exception of above mentioned issue).

Thats my 2 cents, after much ranting and raving again. Sorry about that..it still bugs me sometimes:angryfire I can give you a story about my orientation week too, and that bugged me even more. So a little hint...make sure the hospital you are heading for requires a recent PPD (like within 3 months of hire or within a year). Mixed information on both sides, hospital and company there as well.

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