what is a per diem contract?

It means PRN (as needed).

Thanks, so pretty much like bank nurses over here then? we are employed by the hospital and we give our availbility each week then we are sent to wards which need staff. I am a bank nurse and can work in pretty much any medical or surgical area including ICU, CCU etc. We are not guarenteed any work though and we also don't have to do a minimum amount of hours, so if we don't want to work there is no rule saying we have to. Does this sound similar?

Yup, sounds exactly like what we call per diem or PRN nurses over here!

Thanks, so pretty much like bank nurses over here then? we are employed by the hospital and we give our availbility each week then we are sent to wards which need staff. I am a bank nurse and can work in pretty much any medical or surgical area including ICU, CCU etc. We are not guarenteed any work though and we also don't have to do a minimum amount of hours, so if we don't want to work there is no rule saying we have to. Does this sound similar?

Actually, what you describe sounds more like PRN FLOAT. I am PRN at my hosptial, but just for the NICU. We are not sent to whichever unit needs staff. There is a separate float pool that does that - some of them are PRN, some are regular staff. We (PRNs) do float to other units on occasion, but we do so in rotation with the regular staff nurses on our unit. We are also not guaranteed hours and have no minimum hours.