Nightmare start to an assignment!!

Sorry all this happened to you and no this has never happened to me or any of my travel friends. Usually when you arrive at a place and they delay your start date for a week they let you stay in the apartment and deduct from your paycheck. I really would question working for this agency if I was you.

I'm literally sitting in a parking lot right now with Nowhere to go.

Piece of advice- 2 weeks is not enough time to sign up with a new agency!! I wish someone had just told me the truth, you don't have enough time. I took this assignment to be near grandma. FYI I can't stay with her because she's in a 55 and up community and she is not around this weekend. I saw her yesterday.

I feel like this has been enough to make me want to quit this profession (travel nursing). I probably won't, but let me tell you, I sure feel like I want to right now. :-/

It depends on the agency, if you have all the paperwork from previous agencies and state license for new assignment then two weeks is plenty. I would call the agency and tell them I'm going home because I have no where to stay, the fear of them losing your contract will make them figure something out. May I ask what agency is this?

Some agencies are more organized than others, or perhaps the QA person assigned to your documents. I have played the game of one more thing with agencies, and in the old days, it was more an issue of pulling over to find a wifi hotspot (which sometimes included Kinkos) but almost never a fax machine (that was the really old days). When I did need a fax machine, almost invariably an insurance office or a car dealership faxed what I needed for free (or allowed my agency to fax them). Today it is dead easy with a laptop: receive the document, fill it out and even sign it all on the laptop, and email it back. 10 minutes and I'm done.

None of that really addresses your sitting in a parking lot right now of course. That does suck. Sometimes the franticness of agencies has nothing to do with what the hospital has to have, and sometimes it does. Not much excuse for not having the housing done, holiday or not.

It depends on the agency if you have all the paperwork from previous agencies and state license for new assignment then two weeks is plenty. I would call the agency and tell them I'm going home because I have no where to stay, the fear of them losing your contract will make them figure something out. May I ask what agency is this?[/quote']

Well I had paperwork from last agency, but releasing my titers and blood work was against policy. And I had a state license already, so I thought no problem! I did all required online tests back in California, I faxed in the big main packet and contract and all that. I think the problem lies in that there are 4 people communicating between me and the facility. The facility outsourced to an agency which outsourced to an agency which outsource to my agency. I didnt know all this until recently. I didnt even know agencies did this. Are you kidding me? I am really getting screwed. I am Sick to my stomach. But I have a start date- I'll just have to get through this one.. Do I have a choice? Not really.

Releasing titers? You need a copy for yourself, then there is zero issue. If your old agency paid for titers, they don't have to release them to you and obviously would not want to do so for competitive reasons.

What you are describing is a bit unusual but does happen. Basically your assignment hospital has a vendor manager (or VMS for vendor management system) to handle all the contracting agencies. That is not necessarily a bad thing and it can be useful information for travelers to know, but often it is completely transparent to the traveler unless your agency lets you in on the secret.

What you are saying is that your agency does not have a direct contract with the vendor manager, but is subcontracting to an agency that does have a contract. That is not so great, and may well cut into your compensation as well.

The long communication chain that results can cause glitches galore. Your agency cannot just call the VMS or the hospital and solve issues directly. One more preliminary question to ask agencies about prior to accepting assignments.

it would be nice to know who these lousy agencies are as advice to the rest of us

it would be nice to know who these lousy agencies are as advice to the rest of us

Unless you do dialysis, you wouldn't use this agency. Any dialysis travelers can PM me for details.

NurseRies, I got your PM but I am not able to reply to it on this website. If you want to PM your email address to me, I can email you that way. If not, that's okay. I feel so bad for you right now. Your recent experience sounds like a nightmare! I can't even imagine. I am on my first assignment. If that had been my experience, I would have been in tears and would never think about doing another assignment. I guess it's kind of good that you are traveling with your husband. You guys can turn to each other in all this mess. I'm traveling by myself. Luckily, everything has been fine.

Are things starting to turn around for you guys?

i hope you are ok. what agency it's this?

i hope you are ok. what agency it's this?

Well I think the communication problems fell back on AMN who was directly communicating with the facility and my agency. There was too many lines of communication between me and the facility. My agency has great reviews from all travelers I have met.. So I honestly am not sure what to think other then that it may have been a series of bad events and bad luck. Everyone I have talked to says my agency is reliable and the best. So I do think that sometimes we all just encounter some bad communication, bad luck.