Accepting Job Offer without Seeing Contract

Published

  1. What should I do?

    • 0
      Accept assignment assuming details as discussed.
    • 3
      Re-request contract before accepting or vetoing contract.
    • 5
      Turn down assignment as unable to see contract prior.

8 members have participated

Hi All,

Just received a job offer for a travel position. I asked to review the contract before accepting the position. The recruiter told me that no contract would be drawn up unless I accepted the position. I am new to travel nursing, but I thought that was a little suspicious.

I am currently working with NursesRx. I am not sure if this is normal procedure for them. Anyone who has worked with them before would you please advise.

Anyone with travel experience I would love to hear from you. Can I demand a contract prior to accepting? Should I refuse to accept without seeing this?

Thank you for your time. I look forward to your responses.

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Specializes in ICU, Dialysis.

NursesRX is an AMN company and they are known for having contracts ranging from very favorable to them to down right oppressively costly to the traveler. I would NEVER officially accept an offer without having the contract in front of me. I have said " I am agreable to this offer pending the details of the contract are also acceptable to me." Be careful, lots of recruitment companies think we are cattle that they can prob and poke as they please to get us where they want us.

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That's stupid. Even if I say, "Yeah, I'll take the assignment" and I don't see or sign contract what part of it is legally binding and where is the proof that I agreed to the contract in the first place? The whole point of having a contract to sign is to ensure that both parties can SEE what it is they agreed to and on what day and at what time.

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I verbally accepted my offer before the contract was drawn up but my company gives a detailed breakdown of my assignment including the breakdown of my pay. I work for Flexcare though.

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That is a wild and scary story. So American Mobile is refusing to let travelers see a contract until they agree unseen. Once that is done, the contract is sent and found to be unacceptable. The traveler now turns down the contract and AM penalizes them per terms of the contract that was not signed for cause. AM next sends the "penalty" out for collection and dings the traveler's credit score.

While I don't know for sure that this is happening exactly like this, it does fit well when you put all these recent stories together. Again, I will urge travelers, especially new ones, to avoid American Mobile and all its agencies. With so much competition for our business, there is no reason to take on added risk with a known bad actor. For everyone's benefit, I've posted again a list of all of American Mobile's agencies below (copied with permission from PanTravelers).

American Mobile (AMN Healthcare Services Inc.)

American Mobile has total revenue of 1.14 billion dollars annually as of 2007. About 70% of that is travel nursing and allied health. PanTravelers estimates this represents the full time equivalent of close to 7,000 travelers. These numbers have dropped to around 4,500 travelers in 2010. Publicly traded under the stock ticker of

AHS, American Mobile's corporate site. Dates listed are when American Mobile purchased the brand if applicable.

American Mobile brands are:

  • American Mobile Healthcare
  • Medical Express 2006
  • NursesRx 2000
  • Preferred Healthcare Staffing (brand disused as of Feb 2009)
  • Platinum Select
  • HRMC
  • O'Grady-Peyton International (international) 2001
  • Staff Care (physician)
  • Merritt Hawkins & Associates (physician)
  • Nurse Choice
  • RN Demand (brand disused as of Feb 2009)



  • RN Extend
  • Med Travelers (allied)
  • Rx Pro Health (pharmacy) 2007

  • Thera Tech Staffing (allied) 2003
  • Medfinders (vendor management) 2010
  • SingleSource (vendor management) 2010
  • Nursefinders (vendor management, travel, local staffing) 2010
  • Nursefinders Homecare 2010
  • National Healthcare Staffing (travel) 2010
  • Linde Healthcare/Kendall & Davis (physicians) 2010
  • Resources On Call (allied health) 2010
  • Club Staffing (allied health) 2010
  • Shiftwise (vendor management) 2013
  • Onward Healthcare (nursing and allied) 2015
  • Locum Leaders (locum tenens) 2015
  • Medefis (vendor management) 2015

In addition: NurseZone This is a comprehensive nursing site, but does stealth marketing for AMN. AndTravelNursing gives the impression of an independent job board. AM also owns a number other related companies in education, analytics, consulting and so on.

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Hi. Thank you for your comments. I didn't think it was good policy but I did not want to be too suspicious either.

As for avoiding American Mobile companies, that was completely my plan. Unfortunately, I do not have a SSN yet and they were about the only company that would even consider assisting me without same. This has changed since January when there were several companies I could have chosen between without having a SSN. Apparently hospitals are becoming stricter.

I will ask again for the contract prior to accepting, but will heed all your warnings. No contract. No acceptance. They would not even provide to me in writing what would be in contract . . .they wanted to discuss it over phone.

BigT, I will use your approach and hope it works.

Thanks again.

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Big T said it exactly right. It turns around the situation for a salesperson (the recruiter) and puts them in a box. You should also say something similar to the interviewing manager so she doesn't think you've committed, "I'm very interested in working in your unit, but I have to check contract details with my agency, who is new to me."

PPR is an agency well known for good service (although below average pay) and they used to do a lot of foreign recruitment (from India I know) so they should be well versed in SSN issues (if they still deal with foreign trained nurses). Have you searched the Allnurses Canadian forums for agency recommendations that are not AM brands? Doesn't Cross Country bring foreign nurses in?

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So writing the hiring manager would be a good idea? I wasn't sure if that was over stepping. Thanks.

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So writing the hiring manager would be a good idea? I wasn't sure if that was over stepping. Thanks.

Sorry about that implication. No, I was talking about what you say to the manager on the initial interview. There is nothing they could do about interfering with a third party agency's hiring practices. Other than if they get complaints from travelers they could consider not using a particular agency again.

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