about a year ago I accepted a graduate nurse position at a hospital in florida. I was required to sign a contract that stipulates I work for 2 years or pay back $13,500. I have already worked for a year. The dilemma that I face is that my fiancé had to relocate to another state for his job. I have had a really difficult time the past 6 months that he has been gone. I feel constantly alone and isolated, especially because I work night shift and everyone is asleep when I'm wide awake. I just put my notice in to quit, so I can move there and be with him. My question is, has anyone else ever broken a graduate nurse contract? Did you end up having to pay back money? Do you regret your decision? Did it have a terrible impact on your career going forward?
If anyone else has advice who hasn't been in this situation I would appreciate that as well.
I also work for this particular hospital system. Without naming names....it used to be called one thing and now its called another.
Hmmm.... I wonder which of the two major hospital systems in Orlando, FL changed the name of their subsidiary hospital group to reflect the name of their holding company?
I disagree that these should be illegal. The resources it takes to train a new grad are huge. New grads unprepared for practice combined with hospitals having to eat it is why there aren't enough new grad internships.
Lol if they aren't training New Grads properly, then it's on them to start training people properly instead of resorting to threatening people with financial devastation if they quit.
From the standpoint of an administrator - paying two nurses for the job of one nurse for 2-4 months KILLS productivity. I'm not saying that it's right to require a new grads to have a contract that requires the person to pay the hospital if they break it (unless they were actually given a sign-on or relocation bonus), and in fact, I don't agree with the practice. But just wanted to offer an alternative viewpoint. New nurses on orientation give the hospital NOTHING, from a productivity or financial standpoint. They don't break even on a new orientee until after the nurse has been working on their own longer than their orientation period was. Prior to that point, the new nurse is just money in the hole. Yes, it's the cost of doing business. But the new grad nurse certainly doesn't "do more for them" during that training period, and for a good number of weeks/months afterwards.
In many jobs outside of nursing, this is the case as well. But nursing is the only profession where I hear about these contracts.
mmc51264, BSN, MSN, RN
3,320 Posts
I had to sign a 2 year contract-however, I got $10K in tuition reimbursement and a 6 month orientation. That did cost the hospital money.
The amount to be paid should I have left, went down as time went by.
See what kind of deal you can negotiate