Extra work on assignment in Cali

[tallynurse]

Hi, I'm on an assignment in California and our census is very low. I got called off all last week except for 6 hours. While I do have some guaranteed pay, I really can't afford for this to keep happening. I'm also worried they might cancel my contract if census doesn't pick up soon. My question is, a traveler who traveled in Cali a few years ago told me about something where she would be called in to work other hospitals when they were short staffed last minute and unable to keep the nurse patient ratios where they are required to be. But I don't know what this is called. I'm in the San Diego area. Can anyone point me to some companies that do this? Also anyone have experience with their contract being cancelled because of low census?

[caliotter3]

There is a company or two that is always advertising for nurses for this type hospital position in the Los Angeles section of craigslist jobs. The same companies, or similar, might also advertise for the SD area. Worth a look at CL.

[NedRN]

It is called a nursing agency! More specifically a per diem agency or sometimes it is called a registry, but you won't ever see those words in the name of the agency. Try a Google search for San Diego nurse agency per diem. A couple of national per diem agencies came up like Maxim and Nursefinders. There will be others in such a large market as San Diego and if Google doesn't find them easily, follow the link for Indeed and the individual postings will show agency names. The staffing offices will be local.

You can also work per diem directly for hospitals and in California, and usually the pay will be higher than a private agency (sometimes substantially like $60 versus $40), but the hiring and on boarding process takes longer. As a final tip, the agency you are working for may have per diem in San Diego which will save you a lot of work signing up.

[PacoUSA, BSN, RN]

Does low census usually occur more at a community hospital rather than a teaching facility? I would think a traveler could be floated off to another unit in this case. Probably an argument for going with teaching hospitals for assignments to lessen the chance of low census?

[tallynurse]

I work NICU so there aren't as many float options. This hospital only floats to nursery and that's very rarely needed. I have also worked at teaching hospitals but they didn't not have NICU residents so I don't know how that would affect staffing.

Thanks for the suggestions. Does anyone have any experience with any per diem agencies to give recommendations?