Agency nurses banned

oramar · Apr 3, 2002

I wonder what the reaction would be if they tried to put a lid on how much a lawyer or plumber could make. In the lawyers case there would be massive ligation. In the plumbers case there would be massive strikes. I must say both could be options in this case.

SOCRATES SOUL · Apr 10, 2002

Whooooooaaaah AIME!! Judging by the date of your post, this news occured the last week or so....I saw an artical in our Sunday Paper that private health premiums will surge due to the fact that over 36 MILLION $$$$$$$ was spent on agency nurse alone in the private sector in 1 year.......doesnt that astronomical figure further highlight the plight of our health system??

Being an agency worker in Sydney it hasnt seemed to affect anything here YET but I wait with baited breathe...yes I am also enjoying the freedom and versatility of agency work and have politely repeatedly turned down offers of work in various wards.....Im not ready for that yet again at this point in tiime!

Ultimately AIME this is a very unviable option to do something as drastic as cutting out our agency staff as it would mean forcing hospital employed staff to do the dreaded forced overtime when pool staff resources are depleted, which they often are in a single day.......and create further outcry from an already ailing profession....trouble is our unions are pissweak and really do NOTHING for us..........

Besides I can understand why private hospitals would have such a budget blowout with agency nurses......many nurses I talk too dont want to work in the private sector, including myself at this point in time, after all, the public patients come in thinking they are in a 5 star hotel and complain ruthlessly non stop and they dont pay A CENT, I can only imagine how bad the 'precious privates' would be....... :cool:

Aime · Apr 10, 2002

Hey Socrates Soul,

I've still got a few months to go before I really have to worry about where I'll end up, but in Vic. they're really pushing the aged care/psych angle for Div 2's. ( E N's ) My original aim was aged care, but now I'm not so sure. I'm starting to look at Critical Care, or Perioperative. Also, I have a good friend in Michigan who desperately wants me to go check out the scenery. I need to get some experience first, but who knows?? It's a definate option for the future. As to the agency thing, I hear a few nurses intend to head interstate to get away from the current bans, but so far the papers have been very quiet, so how it's affecting the hospitals remains to be seen, but that's one option I'll no longer persue. Hope you government doesn't catch the 'bug'.

nannurse · Apr 11, 2002

Like Aime I will be finished in a few months as a DIV 2 (EN). I originally was going into aged care, as that was the push from the class ( country Victoria) however as I have been doing my acute placement, many more avenues have opened up, and I am undecided. I was going to do agency work for the experience, and not work full time as I am a very mature age student, but the government has put a stop to that. I am hoping that the ban will be lifted before I am finished.

mattsmom81 · Apr 11, 2002

I guess the government figures nurses being primarily female they can treat us like sh*t and we won't squawk....I agree, male dominated professions are seldom subjected to bans or caps to restrict their profit. Aggravating.

One of our state's governors (Minnesota's wrestler governor Jesse Ventura) has put a cap on what agency nurses can EARN in that state but has not banned them altogether. Not yet. Thank goodness national healthcare did not go through over here in the states, so for now nurses earn a decent living and the government stays out of it for the most part.....agency work is popular here too.

Good luck with your situation, hope it resolves itself...too bad your unions aren't strong enough to pull for you!

Aime, Michigan is beautiful...but harsh in the winter so hope you won't mind snow and cold...I am originally from Minnesota which is close by. I don't miss northern winters at all...prefer the mild winters here in Texas.:)

Aime · Apr 11, 2002

Hi Nannurse,

You obviously get the same feeling as I do that the push with mature aged nurses is towards aged care, but as I've found out, there are indeed plenty of opportunities in other areas. I'm pushing the big five 0, but that doesn't mean I'm going to be pushed into an area where I don't really want to work. My biggest problem is that I'm in a major rural town, and acute nursing isn't all that plentiful, especially with our biggest hospital employing mostly Div 1's, so I intend to do further study after I get my registration, but if a door doesn't open, then I'll move if I have to.

And Mattsmom 81, yes I hear the cold is pretty hard to take in MI, but I really don't mind snow. Also, it gets horribly darned cold in my neck of the woods in the winter too. I may never get to nurse in MI, but I intend to visit as soon as I can raise the money. I'd love to tour your country, but I don't know how far I'll get on the first trip.

I really can't see the agency ban ever being lifted in Victoria, well not in the short term at least. I may be wrong, but I get the distinct feeling that our union was all in favour of doing away with agency nurses. The newspapers have been deathly quiet on the subject, so if the ban is causing any noticeable hardships, no one seems to know, but it will all come out in the wash I guess.

-jt · Apr 11, 2002

its already starting here too. Hospital corporations like HCA have been developing their own in-house agencies which dont pay as well as agency nurses usually are paid & are drastically cutting the rates they pay to outside agencies - to discourage nurses from working for those & to work for the hospital's own agency instead. One coproration that consisted of several hospitals cut the rates it paid to outside agency RNs by 13$/hr. The idea being the nurses will choose to join the hospitals own agency once they are not getting paid so well with the independent agencies anymore. Still it manages to lower the standard of pay for nurses in the area - especially agency nurses. There were some posts about it on this website a while back. One hospital corporation was in Tennessee and one was in the Midwest where it encompassed 5 facilities in the area. It looks like a plan to put the independent agencies out of business & kill the competition while at the same time lowering nurses salaries in a whole region.