Gah! I want to cancel my contract!

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Specializes in Burn, CCU, CTICU, Trauma, SICU, MICU.

So, its my first week at the facility. Non teaching, small community hospital.

Now that i'm here, i've learned the icu travelers spend the majority of their assignment on tele. i oriented to the icu, only to get a patient with a hr in the 150s with pvcs, a sbp of 70 maxed on levo and dopa, going through 2, 22g periph. iv's, non intubated but gasping on a 2l face mask (2 l on a face mask, whats the point?!), that the family had been there and wanted to make a dnr but the docs simply didnt call back all night, so they just sat on her waiting for morning. that it happens "all the time", that is "normal" to run pressors through periph. there. another patient was on a heparin gtt and none of the nurses had been paying attention to the low platelets and didnt even know they were low. they "dont allow" deaths in the icu and its expected to have to run the patient and their family to the floor, no matter the discomfort, because they are worried about their stats! and even had the pleasure of watching an attending walk in, intimidate everyone and watch the whole unit jump hurdles to make him happy again or else he might "call the manager!!" even their nurses are telling me they are looking for a new job because they are worried about their own licenses!!! let alone me - not knowing their policies, the way they do things, and the way they do things seems unsafe!!!

gah!!!

opinions and thoughts from other nurses who have been there?

who has gotten a contract canceled? what happened? do you feel i have grounds to try to cancel it?

what are cancelation fees like?

can it be avoided if i get another contract immediately?

i am also in company provided housing...

please help!!

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Specializes in ED, ICU, PACU.

If you feel that you are jeopardizing your license then you do have grounds to cancel the contract.

You first have to inform your company in writing of your concerns and give them a reasonable amount of time to rectify the situation (reasonable would depend on the specifics and could even be 24 hours in the case you describe). Make sure you state in your letter what you want resolved and the time limit to rectify it. You must also state that you consider the situation(s) to be a constructive (a legal term) breach of contract. For example, a constructive eviction would be if the landlord kept you out of your apartment by changing the locks and not giving you a new key-you have been evicted, but not formally evicted (that's the 'constructive' part). If the company does not resolve the problem by the time limit, they then have violated the contract and you now have the right to leave without penalty (unless otherwise described in your contract).

Be prepared for a bunch of BS, stalling and false information given to you by your company. Also, the hospital gets wind of the complaint, they may invent cause to terminate your contract. Best thing you can do is to get another staff nurse to put something in writing concerning you competency and the situation (but I doubt that you could get this).

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Specializes in Burn, CCU, CTICU, Trauma, SICU, MICU.

that is another one of my concerns....

if i say i want them to rectify it (how can you possible rectify a hospitals unsafe practices based on a traveler complaint?) and they call the facility and say that i feel xyz ways... it will look like they rectified it, the hospital will nod and smile - and then find a reason to fire me or make my assignment there terrible!

this happened only one other time in my career - where i couldnt get a facility to get my hours to my company. they said they were faxing the time card, company says they werent receiving it, no one was trying to fix the problem, no managers would talk to me and i was very upset! i kept coming into work for 3 weeks while all of this was happening and got the contract canceled on the basis of saying that i was saying negative things about the way they were running things while on the campus. i was out on my butt for having a complaint!

i dont want to be out on my butt again, but i also dont want to work somewhere that might put my license at risk.

i feel very cornered!

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Specializes in OB.
that is another one of my concerns....

if i say i want them to rectify it (how can you possible rectify a hospitals unsafe practices based on a traveler complaint?) and they call the facility and say that i feel xyz ways... it will look like they rectified it, the hospital will nod and smile - and then find a reason to fire me or make my assignment there terrible!

this happened only one other time in my career - where i couldnt get a facility to get my hours to my company. they said they were faxing the time card, company says they werent receiving it, no one was trying to fix the problem, no managers would talk to me and i was very upset! i kept coming into work for 3 weeks while all of this was happening and got the contract canceled on the basis of saying that i was saying negative things about the way they were running things while on the campus. i was out on my butt for having a complaint!

i dont want to be out on my butt again, but i also dont want to work somewhere that might put my license at risk.

i feel very cornered!

Does your company have "clinical liasons"? They may call them something else, but they would be an RN experienced in your area of practice with whom you can discuss concerns about unsafe clinical practice. It's unlikely that you will get the facility to make any changes, but having discussed and documented this with the clinical liason, if they agree that it is unsafe practice will help to justify if if you terminate the contract and may keep you from having to pay any penalties. This worked for me the one time the situation was that unsafe - the liason and my recruiter discussed the situation and told me they felt it was perfectly justified for me to give notice - no penalties to me. Also, having a paper trail will help to keep you in good standing with your company if the hospital decides to trump up some reason to end your contract.

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Specializes in ED, ICU, PACU.
that is another one of my concerns....

if i say i want them to rectify it (how can you possible rectify a hospitals unsafe practices based on a traveler complaint?) and they call the facility and say that i feel xyz ways... it will look like they rectified it, the hospital will nod and smile - and then find a reason to fire me or make my assignment there terrible!

They can't rectify it; but, for contract purposes, you have to go through a process to protect yourself if you cancel the contract. Otherwise, the company can say that they knew nothing about it and you are the one that breached the contract.

If you state that you consider it a breach if they don't fix the situation, then whatever the hospital says will be looked at as retribution for your complaint.

My advise was based upon you wishing to end the contract and get out of there. The things I mentioned were said to try and get you out without penalty. You should never stay anywhere where your license is in jeopardy.

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Specializes in LTC, Med/Surg, Peds, ICU, Tele.

The situation you describe sounds horrid, that's what I think.

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