breaking a travel contract?

Disbdestiny · Feb 4, 2015

MsConstrued, I give you so much kudos for that! I'm currently in a contract & working at a place I absolutely hate! I've thought about ending my contract, but I don't want to be on bad terms with my current agency. However, the other side of me is saying the hell with this sh!! & quit. Ughh, haha.

MsConstrued · Feb 7, 2015

So I found out that I "owe" the company ~$1000 but they stated they do not report to collection agencies. That if I want to work for them again (after 12 months waiting period) I can have a payment plan made at that time. I don't plan on going back to them ever so basically I left without any consequences. My coworkers at that position already agreed to be my references for that job in the future. If I had known that I would have left earlier honestly.

NedRN · Feb 8, 2015

Well, you got lucky. But I wouldn't repeat it, it is not good for other travelers to believe that there are no consequences to their actions as there usually is!

MsConstrued · Feb 9, 2015

Good point Ned, I would only do it as a last resort and be prepared to pay up if necessary. I was willing to do that if I had to and luckily it worked out. We can do anything for 13 weeks (mostly)!

perfexion, ASN, RN · Feb 9, 2015

I worked with a traveler who says she breaks contracts all the time. She only worked 2 days in her last assignment. She didn't like the vibe so she quit. She didn't finish her last three contracts. I honestly don't know how she makes any money. She had to eat her travel expenses plus she had to pay the agency back for housing. She has never worked with the same agency twice. I imagine she's going to run out of agencies at some point. But other than the financial ramifications she incurred no other legal penalties. She probably will be, or should be, blacklisted, but that's a whole different discussion. But if it's for a legit reason I don't think anything horribly bad will happen. Your friend might just owe the agency a bunch of money.

NedRN · Feb 17, 2015

There are lots of agencies! It is very possible to work 20 years as a traveler and never repeat agencies or hospitals. There are always bad nurses (either skills or personality) who find it difficult to keep jobs. Unfortunately, travel is a good way for those nurses to keep working and while in the minority, enough stuff happens that we travel to hospitals who have experienced bad travelers. Strikes have even less due diligence and are even more likely than staff or travel to have bad nurses. In my own travels, I notice that the more remote the hospital, the more likely that they get bad travelers.

But bad nurses and other healthcare providers manage to find sequential jobs even as staff members. Every year we read about a diverter or angel of death in the national news who has worked consistently and damaged a lot of patients.

Better reporting systems tied into regulatory agencies such as nursing boards are the way to go. But they will always have some failures. Private blacklists are a really bad idea and are generally illegal as well. They capture more nurses whose former employers are disgruntled that they quit than unsafe nurses. The notorious Dallas Ft Worth hospital association blacklist is proof of that. A now defunct agency floated a multiple agency blacklist for a while but the bad publicity online cost agencies too many travelers and it shut down quickly. That one wasn't legal, but unfortunately the Texas one takes advantage of a loophole in the credit agency laws (of all places).

NeedMoreCoffee · Feb 19, 2015

Just a thought, I suffered an orthopedic injury a month into one of my assignments and was unable to complete it due to the nature of the injury, My company notified the hospital that I wouldn't be returning and I paid absolutely no penalties (except the lost income) my company even took me back after that .