Per Diem or Full Time

[skyheaven477]

Hi all,

I have been working per diem for almost six months now and I truly enjoy my position.

The full time positions were not available at the time of hire and I accepted the per diem position at the time. I work as much as a full time nurse but no benefits. I don't work on holidays or weekends. I am waiting on a specific full time position to open up in my unit. I enjoy working with my peers and love my unit. I work with pediatric ambulatory patients. As per diem I also get to work in other floors or units. I am currently also working per diem in an adult medsurg floor.

This are some of the advantages about being a per diem nurse and as a new nurse I am also gaining tremendous experience. My only dilemma is not having health insurance (and benefits too). Recently an evening position opened up in the medsurg floor where I work per diem. It is an evening position from 400pm-12am, working holidays and two weekends out of the month. It is up for grabs and I have been encouraged to apply but I will lose my per diem status and the possibility of working in my pediatric ambulatory unit in the future. I was told by my manager (pediatric-ambulatory unit) that if I accept the evening position in the medsurg floor then I will not be guaranteed a full time position if one does open up in the pediatric ambulatory unit.

I feel very confused and a bit stressed out because I truly enjoy working with the children in an ambulatory setting but the medsurg position is full time and comes with benefits. I truly need the health insurance.

Any suggestions or guidance are truly appreciated. Thank you so much for all of your help and God Bless.

Baby Nurse

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

If you work more than (some trivial number of) hours per week, they have to give you the chance to sign up for their group health insurance right now, or you have to go to your state health connector or the federal health connector to have health insurance anyway with premiums dependent on your income (if it's low), so that is a non-issue. You can call any independent insurance agent in your area for information on plans available to you.

Therefore I would say if you're waiting for a specific opening in the unit you work in now and love, keep doing what you're doing. The opening will occur sometime. Meanwhile you have opportunities to work in other areas and gain valuable experiences doing it, and you have your weekends and holidays off (which can be worth more than money!). Any idea how many people would kill for that sort of arrangement?

[OCRN3]

I would wait to work on the floor I love, besides, who would willingly want to work nights, weekends, and holidays if they don't have too? I would buy health insurance if that was a concern.

Sent from my iPhone using allnurses.com

[KeepItRealRN, BSN, RN]

Grntea has a point. Obamacare mandates that you get health insurance, and if you get it through your employer you will pay the full amount, and if you get it through an exchange be prepared for sticker shock. As a per diem working full time I guarantee you will not qualify for an Obamacare subsidy.

Be that as it may. Sounds like you really want to work in the pediatric unit. So a decision has to be made. Be aware that working per diem has an element of risk to it. I've worked places where per diems work as much as they want, however I have also seen those same places have a dry spell where per diems don't get any work at all for a period of time. With that if you decide to wait for the pediatric unit to have an opening and continue to work per diem, then I strongly advise you to put money away for a rainy day, in case you hit a dry patch where there is not work for a period of time. Myself I wouldn't feel comfortable until I had enough money saved to pay my bills for 6 months at least.

[RNperdiem, RN]

Have you looked into buying health benefits on your own? When I was a student and worked per diem, I bought my own insurance policy at a reasonable rate.

[skyheaven477]

Thank you so much for your feedback! :-) Food for thought.

[skyheaven477]

Thank you, yes that would be my next step at this stage of the game.