Contracts

Acceptance of your contract occurred when you started performing on the contract (working). Your signature at this point is irrelevant. So yes, your are bound by the terms including penalties.

How did you start on that assignment without actually signing the contract? I thought signing was still a requirement for document/compliance purposes.

You can't whine about floating, as that is understood for the most part that travelers are first to float, even if they didn't specifically mention it to you. However, if you really do feel like you have an unsafe assignment (PICU patients when you are a floor nurse) or have been floated to a floor you haven't been oriented to (med/surg patients on a PICU floor for example), you can speak up and voice your concerns to the person making assignments. If the hospital still doesn't make you feel safe or you feel you are in way over your head, then you need to call your recruiter, tell them the situation and why you feel unsafe, and they should contact their higher ups and get you pulled from that contract.

As far as penalties, that's at the discression of the travel company. I've heard of truely unsafe working conditions and the traveler was not made to pay any penalties. I've also tried to cancel one of my own contracts on the grounds that I was misled in my contract (I thought I was being hired as an ICU nurse with the ability to float when in actuallity I was hired for a 100% Float position). As my penalty, I had to pay for my housing out of pocket til the end of the month, which would have been about $500.

And if you truely feel that you are in an unsafe working environment, you should want to pay the penalty before going back. But keep in mind, these facilities do rate you at the end of your contract. One bad review could make you unhireable. Or atleast difficult to hire.

I also was able to get out of a contract in Hilo, Hawaii that my travel higher ups deemed to be unreasonable with the patient load. I am hearing more about AMN doing "verbal agreements." I wonder why that is.