I am a new grad and hired with 2 nursing agencies

Nurses General Nursing

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Hi everyone,

It's my first time posting a topic here and looking forward for some opinions. So I'm sort of in a tough situation I guess. I had been hired in two agencies, one agency is for different long term care facilities and the other one is different hospitals. However, I am recently a new grad and no doubt I am very excited to finally start my career but a couple things do worry me. Agencies don't really offer in-depth training that I need to transition and be confident enough in my skills. I'm not exactly sure if I had made the right decision in accepting agency job offers as I have not been offered a parttime or fulltime at one hospital yet. I am receiving shifts that the hospital agency emails to me (which of course are mostly specialized) but I've been too hesitant to take a shift even in a General medicine unit. My recent and last clinical placement was in LTC so I thought I could maybe take on an LTC agency. Now after reading a couple of posts of agency nursing I don't know if I should let go of one of the agencies that hired me, or keep it and see how it goes on my first shift?

I feel it may be too risky, but I get mixed opinions. On one side, I should keep it because as a new grad I do need the experience and it is a tough job market for new nursing graduates if you don't have experience. On the other hand, I am putting my licence at risk because of lack of experience..

Sorry for the super long post.. I need to really get this off my chest.

I'm still in nursing school, but are you essentially like a float nurse kinda?

I guess its sort of like a float nurse but I don't have experience as a float nurse either so I can't really imagine working as a new nurse to different hospitals and units..

Not considered to be a good idea. It takes a good year to get used to nursing itself and used to a particular workplace. You can't do that when you are not necessarily going to the same facility or unit twice in a row. If you want to give yourself a chance to acclimate, look for a full time position in a LTC facility if you can't get hired in an acute care facility. If they can't offer you FT, then part time in two facilities would give you a better chance to get used to things.

Specializes in Community Health/School Nursing.

Most agencies do not care about your experience. They are about the money when it comes right down to it. I worked for an agency and told them I only wanted to do school nursing at the time....they continually called me begging me to do double shifts on a specialty floor knowing I did not have the experience and told them I did not feel comfortable with it. They get paid approximately double what they pay you. Many (not all) agencies just want a warm body to fill a shift.

Only work what you are comfortable working. Don't be a hazard to your patients. :-)

Specializes in Clinical Research, Outpt Women's Health.

Crazy. They are setting you up for a big time FAIL. An agency nurse needs to really know her stuff. Most agencies I have worked with in the past would never hire a new grad without training. The hospitals they supply would have fired them for that and had minimum standards even for agency nurses.

This is true for LTC also.

Thank you for all your feedback.. I feel I should let go of agency nursing for now and move on.. I'll just wait for a better opportunity where I can hone my skills and confidence :)

Good decision. Too much at risk at this point. A friend from school worked agency as a new grad by lying about her experience. She said she was barely able to survive due to her very real lack of experience.

Good decision, at the end of the day it is your license on the line not the agency.

Ohhh that's unfortunate... did she end up quitting agency afterwards?

Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.

How you get those positions? :wacky:

Most agencies will NOT, and I do mean not hire a new grad with a 10-ft pole. :blink:

I'm not sure and it's not like I completely lied about my experiences. I thought this would have been a chance to gain experience and with endless opportunities by going to different units. I did not research enough about agency nursing at the time and was a bit misinformed.

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