I have an offer to enter into a Critical Care Nurse Residency Program that will give me seven months of training for critical care. However, I will need to sign a contract to stay at this particular place of employment for three years. And if I decide to leave before the three years I will have to pay a penalty of $8,000.00 for early termination of contract.
So, I would like to know other nurses opinions about this before I make the decision because I do not see it as being a very good deal.
Remember that the $8,000.00 is NOT for a signing bonus!
18 beds is a nice size unit. Like FirestarterRN stated, look at the job market in your area and decide if you should wait. If the ICU is where you want to work then this might be a golden oppurtunity. I would think your 3 years obligation would not start until you have finished your training so you would have plenty of time to size up the unit and staff. Make sure you have a safety out if you should decide not to work there, and have it in writting!
Try to negotiate for no more than 18 months. JMHO.....
As soon as you try to lower the commitment it throws up flags to the manager, you don't want to stay for 3 years. I wouldn't even consider you for the position if you tried to negotiate this part. I am not going to waste my time or staff training you just to have you walk away after 18 months.
I sure wouldn't sign for the privilege of working for them. They need me, they can train me and then treat me right. Then I'll stay. No way would I sign myself into indentured servitude.
I understand that if they are going to spend the time to train you that they want some kind of assurance that you are going to stay with them but honestly I would never sign myself into an agreement that say I am forced to work for someone for XYZ amount of time or else pay a huge penalty. What happens if you start working for them and you find out that something is going on that you feel endangers your patients? Its going to put you in a position where you are forced to work for someplace and you will have no way to leave if you find out something isn't to your liking. I know you really want the opportunity but I think its a pretty big commitment and a steep punishment if you ever decide you want to leave before the three years are up.
You can't be sure how many people have applied for this position. NO, they don't need you like you think. This is a poor attitude that will surely end some of your aspirations in the future. If you have no experience a manager isn't going to trip over their tongue just to get you to come and work for them! The rules are set out for you, choose wisely because it can make or break a career. Attitudes tend to follow you around like a bad debt.
The reason that they began and still have the residency is because the hospital is in a small town and they have a difficult time getting registered nurses to work there.
Also, I did not know that there was an $8,000.00 penalty until I had the interview because the nurse recruiter did not tell me.
Well, sometimes surprise can be an eye-opening event! I would think there might be some prorated amount because if something happened to you just short of your 3 years and wasn't somthing you could avoid. Contracts are sometimes written where there might be an out for you in an emergency. Get a copy of the contract and seek out either a lawyer or a paralegal who can decipher it. I think the best way to deal with this is NOT to think of ways to get out of the contract early but more how you can make it work for you for your career. I think the recuiter didn't tell you was because they were never told. They didn't want to scare anyone off right away.
I think the realities of shifting supply v. demand and lack of revenue in this recession will make this sort of thing more common. The cost of training newbie RNs is so huge.
If I were in charge of some hospital's HR department, I certainly wouldn't want to sink over 10k into training some new grad to just have the employee up and quit on a whim or passing prospect of something else. At the same time, as someone entering the new grad market soon, I certainly wouldn't want to sign a contract like this.
I say dont do it. Just my opinion. Unless this is the only ICU job available anywhere near you I would pass on it. What if you are terminated? What if you get sick or have to go on disability? For $800 I might think about it if I really wanted the job but $8000 is nothing to sneeze at. Thats a car. Thats a huge chunk of my student loans. Nah, I cant see it. The only way youre getting that kind of money out of me is if you gave me something to begin with, like a sign on bonus. But me pay YOU only because you trained me to staff YOUR unit!!!!! Me thinks not!
shodobe
1,260 Posts
18 beds is a nice size unit. Like FirestarterRN stated, look at the job market in your area and decide if you should wait. If the ICU is where you want to work then this might be a golden oppurtunity. I would think your 3 years obligation would not start until you have finished your training so you would have plenty of time to size up the unit and staff. Make sure you have a safety out if you should decide not to work there, and have it in writting!