traveling nurse orientation pay?

[CaRN2015]

Hi, everyone

I have question regarding about the pay rate for the orientation time. I am recently signed a contract with the traveling agency and I spent one week orientation at the hospital that the traveling agency wanted me to work for. As a spoke with the recruiter, he said that the hospital will pay for the orientation time, and I also remember that on the first day of the orientation, the hiring staff of the hospital said that, "we paid for your orientation". However, went got paid and receive the payroll, I found out that they paid me with the minimum wage. I called the agency ask them about the minimum wage instead of RN rate per hour. They said that the hospital doesn't pay RN as RN rate for the orientation period. The agency pay for the orientation time with the minimum rate. I think they are trying to trick me and rib me off. What they are doing is very unethical. I really need help with the clarification about the RN rate for the orientation time. Thank you in advance for your time.

[JBudd, MSN]

You can ask HR at the hospital what they pay, but since the agency is your employer they may not be willing to go into it with you. The hospital pays the agency more than you get, that's how they make their money; so even if you get a number it wouldn't be what was passed on to you.

Your rates should be spelled out in your contract, if you don't have one that is a big red flag.

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

Moved to Travel Nursing forum for members expert advice.

[NedRN]

What does your contract say? There has been a trend the last few years for contracts going through a vendor manager, to not pay for some number of orientation hours at all, such as 15 hours unpaid. This leaves the agency with a number of unpalatable choices and one of them is paying minimum wage or some other reduced rate. The other option is to reduce your hourly and pay you that rate for your entire assignment. The idea is that you will make exactly the same over the course of the assignment, just with pay arranged differently.

The entire scheme by the vendor manager sucks of course, but the agency has to play along. What the recruiter did wrong is not tell you clearly what was going on ahead of time, even if they did put it in the contract and the employee handbook.

[Mavrick, BSN, RN]

What does your contract say? There has been a trend the last few years for contracts going through a vendor manager, to not pay for some number of orientation hours at all, such as 15 hours unpaid. This leaves the agency with a number of unpalatable choices and one of them is paying minimum wage or some other reduced rate. The other option is to reduce your hourly and pay you that rate for your entire assignment. The idea is that you will make exactly the same over the course of the assignment, just with pay arranged differently.

The entire scheme by the vendor manager sucks of course, but the agency has to play along. What the recruiter did wrong is not tell you clearly what was going on ahead of time, even if they did put it in the contract and the employee handbook.

Thanks for the heads up. I would never have thought to clarify and been caught totally unawares and pissed off. How snakey and I mean sneaky!

[PNW_NPstudent]

Ive personally only seen this done in per diem agency work, not travel nursing.

[NedRN]

Lucky you. Ask anyway so you don't have an unpleasant surprise.