**Sigh** Isn't there an easier way to earn extra cash?

[babs_rn]

I already work full time in a MWF clinic which I LOVE...it is HOME and these folks are my FAMILY....but I can't make it on 30-36 hrs a week so I've been floating to other clinics with the same company on Tuesdays for overtime and mileage and all the nice perks they give us when we float...but the 3 hrs one way to work a full 10 on my day off is killing me....when I called the float coordinator she told me to call an administrator in Macon (only 2 hrs away) - but I looked that particular center up online first....and I gotta tell ya, my nerves can NOT handle the noise of 31 machine alarms and two full shifts in those 31 chairs on what is supposed to be a SLOW day (TTS)....no other needs around except for this clinic in Atlanta...within the perimeter, and since they expanded into two shifts on TTS, what is supposed to be a 3 hr drive home has stretched into a 5 hr drive home due to traffic...Atlanta is notorious for that. I've already had to get a new car partly due to damage sustained after hitting a tractor-trailer tire on my way up (it was 3:15 am and Interstate 16 is PITCH black that time of morning) and having a piece of metal fly into my windshield on the way home that SAME DAY....

I'm just tired. And the more I think about having to continue to go to Atlanta the more tired I get. I can always get back on with the agency per diem, but those of you who have done that know how that goes....it's not exactly something you can count on and I need something I can count on that won't make me totally useless to my loved ones......I'm already so tired I've lost my checkbook, ATM card (twice), credit cardd, just always misplacing things.

Any suggestions? Otherwise, thanks for just letting me vent a little....

:)

Babs

[babs_rn]

Hi Jnette...

I get up at 2 to leave at 2:30 to be there by 6. Drive home is a little longer due to traffic and, lately, weather - so it's an 18 hr day but then I get PAID for 18 hrs and since I have to have those hours it's worth it. Besides, as one who hates to be cooped up all day, getting paid 7 hrs that I'm not actually in the clinic but on my commute is a good deal. I wouldn't do it if I didn't get both travel time and mileage. The mileage translates into an extra tax-free $600/month.

Our float pool goes something like this:

You have your home clinic you work at or if they don't need you then you work out of it and your benefits and all come from that clinic so you keep all that. Float diff is $3/hr for actual hours worked and if you travel over 60 miles you get travel time to boot. Plus, of course, mileage/meals/hotel reimbursement although you CAN get a cash advance overnighted to you if you need it. When I did nothing but float, I insisted on my days being scheduled together so I could go and stay and work a few days and then drive home. Now I just do it to fill in my 40 hrs at the VERY least and preferably to pick up an extra 10 of OT - which travel time does count toward.

Company is Davita and they just came out with a travel nurse plan within the company too - 13 week assignments but I don't have any details on that because that doesn't interest me. I like to be at home at night.

Hope that helps!:)

[jnette, ASN, EMT-I]

Thanx for all the input, Babs ! Very interesting, indeed ! Yes, I'd say it's definately worth it, then. Kool. So how does Davita rate with Gabmro, Baxter, FMC, etc. ... just hearsay rating, ie. ? Does Davita have a website?

Well thanx again for sharing, Babs! Sounds really good to me. :)

[babs_rn]

http://www.Davita.com

Davita is one of the "top three" in the nation - along with Gambro and Fresenius and is the largest independent dialysis provider. I've spent a day at an anemia management class full of Gambro nurses and learned I wouldn't want to make the switch to Gambro (besides the fact that Gambro offered me more than their other RNs were making and it was STILL a $3.38 / hr pay CUT) - Davita is VERY big on education and on management of DOQI scores for each clinic -that is actually the downside because much of your profit-sharing is based on your clinic's score - and since we're a small clinic our two sickle cell patients and our multiple myeloma patient just kill that for us....nothing we can do about that, though, until the powers-that-be in DOQI land begin to accept that not everybody is going to fit in a nice little shell of numbers....but then, such is life in healthcare today. But there's lots of room for advancement. Of course you have your good clinics and bad clinics as you do with any company, but overall I'm happy with the company and don't want to leave it.