Pros, Cons, Salary In Agency Nursing

Has anybody heard of Berry Staffing in Houston, Tx? Also is $ 30/hr days or nights at the low end or reasonable for agency? I have never worked agency so any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

I have recently signed up for agency nursing. I thought it would be better for me. I have found that it is not what it used to be. I did agency years ago, and I was able to tell them when I was available. They were really nice and supportive. I accidently agreed to an 8 day stretch then called back and told them there was no way I could do that and be safe. Please take two days off in between. They called me and said they could not find anyone. They then told me that since I didn't have anymore work the rest of the month I should do it. That was a week before I was scheduled. I did three 12's, night shift, with 12 hours of sleep total. I then called them and told them they had to find someone else. These were shifts during the week usually not hard to fill. I would have done it had they not found someone but they did. I realized I needed to be alot more assertive and proactive. Anyone else's experience with agencies? I am thinking of signing up for some other agencies besides this one. I can't work nights. Thanks.

When I worked agency, it was such a day to day thing. I did give them my availability ahead of time, but if I needed to change it, I just did. I never had any problems. I would look into a new agency that will treat you better.

Explain to them what you want in the way of shifts and hours per week, follow it up with an email and stick to your guns. I gave my agency my days avail each week but they knew that I did not work 3 12s in a row and did not want more than 3 in a week. They only tried to ignore that a couple of times before they realized I was serious.

I have recently signed up for agency nursing. I thought it would be better for me. I have found that it is not what it used to be. I did agency years ago, and I was able to tell them when I was available. They were really nice and supportive. I accidently agreed to an 8 day stretch then called back and told them there was no way I could do that and be safe. Please take two days off in between. They called me and said they could not find anyone. They then told me that since I didn't have anymore work the rest of the month I should do it. That was a week before I was scheduled. I did three 12's, night shift, with 12 hours of sleep total. I then called them and told them they had to find someone else. These were shifts during the week usually not hard to fill. I would have done it had they not found someone but they did. I realized I needed to be alot more assertive and proactive. Anyone else's experience with agencies? I am thinking of signing up for some other agencies besides this one. I can't work nights. Thanks.

They have found a sucker. I have be doing agency for a while. Don't comment yourself to long assignments if you can't do them. Think ahead. Anything personal l coming up. you are new they will do anything to fill the shifts. It's how the agency makes money You have to stop thinking as a nurse and start thinking as a business person. The people that you deal with may or may not be nurses. They don't care how much compassion that you have, to them you are just a warm body that will fill the position so they can get money. I have had Coordinators cry over the phone to get me to do crazy shifts (14 days in a row.) And then tell me after I did it that I could do 15 in a row. I told them no then they said they could do without me. I said O.K. I'll just go to another agency. Then it was back to crying again. From that day to this I have never done another 14 day, 5 is as much as I can do. I didn't learn this right away it has taken years. So hang in there, Kid. The Assertiveness will come, if it doesn't there are books out there on how to be assertive and of course we are here.

They know u come across as weak and they're using you. I have always told agencies 'I work for me, not for you'. Agencies are like anything - you get good and really, REALLY bad ones. I had one psycho nursing agency manager who would call me at all hours for shifts (and I mean like at 2 or 3am), and get angry when I couldn't go. Bar the fact that I'd already told her I was studying and couldn't do certain shifts anyway. She really had a mental health problem. I just told her well, there are 300 agencies in and around the city I was in, think I'll just give them a call, and I found a better agency. It is worth it changing over to. Their lack of staff, as I've said, isn't my problem - it's theirs.

My gf worked for a n/agency and she told me this is how it works:

The NUMs meet about 10ish, then they do their staffing. They pre-book extra nurses ahead of time (then cancel them all later), then they try to push people into nursing home shifts first (and will always say they have no-one to fill them), then they fill other shifts as they go. My gf was told to ring people who put themselves down 4 everyday first, but one nasty manager was telling her to ring some non-assertive (weak the manager said) nurses who would 'cave in' when pressured. If anyone pressures me now, I just stop them right in their tracks and say: "No means no, thank you, bye!' and put the phone down. And I don't answer blocked numbers now - that's what they do, block their number so you don't know it's them.

Calling nurses is very psychological, you feel pressured, you cave in.

And BTW those shifts you did were insanely inhuman. There is NO WAY I would have done them, and I don't feel guilty ever if they don't have staff. Just say if they try to guilt you anymore: 'My time is as precious as yours'.

Actually, come to think of it, I wouldn't have done any shifts with them after being spoken to like that. I would have gone to another agency, and believe me, there are better ones out there. I've done one shifts with some agencies, then rung up and quit due to lack of support, being spoken to very rudely, arguments galore with allocators - your agency sounds like they need to get their act together and fast.

I didn't do all of the shifts. I did the 3 12's and that was it. They magically found someone when I told them I could not physically do it. Thank u all for you advice. I have since found out they have plenty of 7-3 positions. Buuubyeeee. Movin on.

Probably various definitions and meanings. These things change over time.

What I think of is an agency that nurses list their skills with. The nurses are assessed, tested, proof of license, etc. Hospitals contact these agencies when they need extra nurses. Hospitals pay higher salaries for these agency nurses.

I am dating myself, this was actually common years ago when there was a nursing shortage. We still occasionally use agency nurses, especially nurses with OR skill.

We call it (fondly) 'rent-a-nurse'.

I've been an agency nurse, I have NICU skills. When a NICU has staffing needs above and beyond what they can accomodate, they call the staffing agency, the agency calls me and if I'm available, I go.

More $$, no politics and total freedom over your schedule are the benefits. The down-side? They can cancel you at the last minute and you get paid nothing. There's no guarantee of work available. It's a nice second job, but I would never depend on it for my primary income.

While it is true that there is no nurse centered organization for agency or registry work, depending on the circumstances, PanTravelers (an association for nurse travelers) has a ton of potentially relevant information.

One thing you didn't touch on is that in a lot of cases block booking is available through agencies (and in-house hospital per diem as well). This means an agency nurse is scheduled just like any other staffer, with the same expectations of showing up for the scheduled shifts. Block booking is often full time, 36 or 40 hours, and can be more. While the hours are not guaranteed, neither are hours for regular staff. Block booking is ideal for the hospital with enough ongoing needs, ideal for the agency who now doesn't have to deal with daily staffing, and ideal for the nurse who needs steady and predictable work.

The next step up is the so-called local contract. This is exactly the same as a travel contract (so PanTravelers content about contracts is very pertinent). Hours should be guaranteed (just as they should be for a good travel contract). Generally there are no provisions for travel like tax benefits or provided housing as they are usually not necessary since as a presumptively local person, you wouldn't qualify anyway.

In some markets like Chicago, there are very few travel contracts available for the national agencies due to the very robust local agency scene. Local contracts are very common and the way to go even if you don't live there but want to travel there for an assignment.

OK enough said about that. On another subject, what is possible through local agency can blow your mind! I met a husband and wife team at a strike (ironically as I'm pro-union) from Los Angeles. They had both worked exclusively registry for years, and both worked more than full time. The number of hospitals each had worked at in the greater Los Angeles area was staggering. I've worked at perhaps 40 different hospitals in a long career of traveling, but that was nothing compared to the number of facilities these two had worked at in a much shorter time frame. Talk about adaptability and hitting the floor running. Most travelers can just dream of being that competent.

One other point to mention about travel to agency nursing connection: To get the most financial benefit out of traveling, maintaining an IRS approved tax home (a place to hang your hat) is a good thing. One of the three legs of tax home eligibility (only two legs are required) is working at home. Tax homes are decided in an audit by a preponderance of the evidence, and actually working at home can really help solidify eligibility for business travel related tax benefits that all travel agencies provide. Thus if you live in a market that is big enough to have agencies, working a shift or two when home between assignments is valuable, and also can prop up your income if the time between assignments is lengthy. The ideal is actually being on per diem staff at a hospital, and some hospital per diem annual work requirements do fit well with the demands of being a traveler. Working for a local agency will suffice.

Again, it is not necessary to work at home to take advantage of traveling tax benefits, but it is ideal. I live in an area with no local agencies for hospital work, and no jobs period. So I have never worked at home, only traveled. While I have never worked in Chicago, I have worked twice for a local agency in California who only staffed three counties north of San Francisco. Basically it was a local contract and I found my own housing. Sometimes even travelers find benefits to working through local agencies who know their client hospitals personally.

I'd also like to point out that working for local agencies is a great way to get into traveling as it serves as a great objective skills check back. Working for one hospital only doesn't really tell you if you can survive in a different hospital with procedures and a culture that could vary dramatically from your own, and if you can adapt fast enough with a very limited orientation. I did that myself before I started traveling - I was living in the DC-Baltimore area at my first nursing job with lots of agencies. I did fine and went off traveling. Even that local agency work at a couple different hospitals did not fully prepare me for how different hospitals can be from each other, or even how differently the same surgery can be performed by different surgeons (I'm an OR nurse). But seeing different ways of doing things is for me part of the fun of working in new hospitals, and no doubt keeps local agency nurses involved and less likely to go stale as working at only one hospital might encourage.