I committed the cardinal sin of travel nursing

NedRN · Jun 13, 2018

I'd follow up by saying: Thank you for the notice. I am unable to comply so I will stop work immediately. I cannot meet the conditions you say are contractually required. Rather puzzling of course as the hospital appears to have accepted my documentation to allow me to start, but as I have to take your notice seriously and professionally, I have found other work. As you have initiated this termination without apparent good cause, I am expecting to be paid for my work in full.

ChrisMMS · Jun 13, 2018

NedRN always beats me to the punch ! However, the advice they provided is the best possible way you can handle this situation that they have put you in. If you've been working at the facility for this long there is no possible way that your credentials aren't accepted. I'm a recruiter and if the paperwork isn't done on our end there is almost 0 chance that our nurse gets to start at the facility so something doesn't add up on that regard. Best of luck to you on your next contract!

NedRN · Jun 13, 2018

I'm not sure I would phrase stuff exactly the way I did. Fast example. You have to try to be as soft as possible so an agency doesn't take a strict view on the contract. Yes, the problem is self inflicted (by both the traveler and the agency), but now you want a soft Brexit with minimal hardship to all. I can't even imagine what to say to the hospital on this one by the traveler or agency,

jive turkey · Jun 14, 2018

I had a rough start to my current contract. The actual unit itself is fine, but before I even started I had a bunch of issues with compliance. I handed in my current medical documents but they were all rejected. I was told that I had to redo everything from titres to physicals to vaccines (and pay for them myself) and I stubbornly, out of principle, refused to resubmit them. The compliance dept has been threatening me with cancellation ever since I stepped foot on the plane. I'm now going on my third week of this assignment and I still refuse to submit these documents, and I am absolutely not going to redo that stuff. Since I was sure they were going to cancel me, I submitted myself for another assignment and I was offered another position in another city that starts in two weeks. I haven't signed the contract yet because I was expecting to get cancelled by now. I received one final "warning" email yesterday from my agency but I haven't heard from them today. This is the fourth final warning email they have sent me. So now I'm worried because I don't think they are going to cancel me and I already have a new assignment lined up. I don't know what to do. I know I messed up and I know what I did was wrong, but I still need advice. Help!

What was the issue with your paperwork?

How is it possible they allowed you to start the assignment if you weren't in compliance? With the exception of maybe your TB test not being up to date or being required to get ACLS, PALS at some future date, I find it odd they consider you not in compliance but let you work.

perfexion, ASN, RN · Jun 14, 2018

I agree Jive, which is why I immediately started looking for a new contract. I figured I wouldn't even be allowed to start. The problem with my paperwork was that they wanted it on their own letterhead. That's it. That's why I absolutely refused to redo it. The documents I gave them were current. I just did everything in January of this year. I wasn't going to go back to the doctor to redo everything on a different piece of paper. But I guess the hospital didn't care that much.

NedRN · Jun 14, 2018

It is not hard or unethical to change a letterhead on compliance docs. Of course, the format will be different but irrelevant. Depending, the hospital may not even see all of them them as the agency or vendor manager may hold them and they are only seen if audited. They will alway see profile docs like skills checklists of course to land the assignment with the manager. Other hospitals want a full copy of everything in house to make a regulator audit easier. In any case the image the agency wants to present of a loyal traveler who works only for them is broken.

If you had posted earlier before you found another assignment with this new info, my advice would have been very different. This first agency is not going to terminate you and my advice would have been to stay. Now, you will have to do something like my earlier thought, or bail on your second commitment.

Argo · Jun 14, 2018

One key here is that You have NOT signed the contract for the second assignment. I would get out of the second assignment and just explain it to the second recruiter honestly. Finish the first contract and leave that company after it.

Leader25, ASN, BSN, RN · Jun 14, 2018

Good sticking to your guns,...they seem very unreasonable,many of us encounter those pencil pushing pump and pearls gang once in awhile.

momofm1998 · Jun 22, 2018

I ADORE what NedRN Pro posted to tell the offending agency!!! If you never care to work for that agency again, I would take NedRn's advice. To redo all those labs is a stack of cash and time on the clock. For a letterhead??? really??? All these guys have given super advice..

Kooky Korky, BSN, RN · Jun 28, 2018

Why didn't they tell you about the letterhead in the first place? Or did they and you ignored it? Or what?

you don't want to be railroaded, but you want to avoid a bad reputation, too.

Good luck.

perfexion, ASN, RN · Jun 28, 2018

They didn't initially tell me why they wanted everything redone, Kooky. They just told me to redo everything and after going back and forth with them for several weeks, they finally told me the reason was that they wanted everything on their letterhead. But why wouldn't I question it? Everything I provided was current. But initially they just told me to get it done and they gave me a deadline.