Leaving and reporting

[futurepsychrn, ADN]

So I'm on my 2nd travel assignment in a very small hospital. The unit I'm on is a psych unit. Geriatric and adolescents. There are a HUGE amount of things going on in this unit that could potentially cause a problem with my license, and in my opinion could be considered abuse. Now I'm the nurse getting blamed for things that were happening before I even arrived. I realize it's the travel nurse that gets thrown under the bus. I've talked to my agency and they said they can investigate and pull my contract and put me somewhere else if they can't solve it. At this point though, I'm not sure I want to finish this contract, and I'm sure there will be repercussions and backlash from an investigation. I'm thinking I just want to cut my losses, leave, and report them. Any advice? Davey Do or Ned RN, I could use your expert advice. Thanks in advance.

[NedRN]

Document any specific issues you think you potentially could be blamed for in detail on your own private record. Do not use pt actual name but some descriptor that might refresh your memory say a year from now. That is about all I can suggest for any legal or license jeopardy without more specifics (which you should NOT post here). Finishing a first contract is a point on your side. If there are issues, it is also shared by management.

The other issue is financial. Without a doubt, your contract language was designed to protect only the agency, not you. Thus if you do not finish the assignment for any reason, there are contractual penalties that they could take away from you, potentially the easy way by reversing your last check and not paying you for time worked since then. So it is vital that you get something from the agency saying they will not do that - ask them specifically about that and try to get an email with that statement. Cannot give you the odds of whether they will do that, too many variables such as how long you have worked for them, how they see your future value, the actual out of pocket for housing, travel, and per diems that may have been paid in advance, and how they might assign blame for the assignment cancellation. I think every agency will do that in the worst case scenario with a truly rotten traveler if pushed, and some will do it automatically because that is their culture.

Good luck! Horrible to go through from personal experience - not that I've ever had a clinical issue (knock on wood), but once had a manager tell me he would make one up if I didn't go quietly (to get the hospital off the hook for the balance of my contract).