per diem nurses

:balloons: hello cshelly12! welcome to allnurses! :)

i have worked both as a travel nurse and a per diem nurse before. a travel nurse is one who works in various locations for a contracted period of time for a set wage written into the contract. a per diem nurse works on an "as needed" basis, but gets to choose how many days they wish to work. nursing agencies offer per diem, and so do many hospitals.

the pay is often more per hour when a nurse works as a travel nurse or a per diem nurse. there are limited to no free benefits offered to travel or per diem or pool nurses. nurses on staff at a hospital who work full time, or part time do earn benefits (such as health insurance).

travel nursing companies now offer health insurance and other benefits for their nurses as extra incentives. some companies pay for these benefits for the nurse, and some do not...the nurse pays out of pocket for these expensives. it's all in the contract what the nurse gets, etc.

a nurse who "floats" can be a staff nurse, a per diem nurse, or a contract (travel) nurse (if it is written in his/her travel contract to be a floater).

hope my responses are helpful to you. :)

Where I work, per diem nurses will not be cancelled before travelers because the PD RN's are employees of the facility, which the travelers are not. If the traveler has a guaranteed number of shifts, and a shift with a traveler and a per diem nurse is a low census, then they'll both be there, doing paperwork or something else. To cancel an employee before a traveler would be a slam-dunk winnable grievance for the per diem nurse. Ask me how I know!

I once got literally sabatoged into becoming per diem at a facility that I worked registry regularly. They started sweet talking me when a lot of staffers quit to "join em" and I said no, I was faithful to my agency and didn't wanna fool around. They started cancelling me fairly often and so I finally bit the bullet and joined this lyin cheaten home wrecker of a facility.

I still saw my registry on the side, in secret but this facility kept providing me with shifts, gifts, baubles, things my registry took for granted. I was smitten, I was in deep smit and slowly began cutting off all ties to my registry, I stopped returning phone calls, cards, letters. The one thing I couldn't bring myself to do was give back my badge. I would gaze at it from time to time and snicker to myself at my new found lover, the facility.

But too soon the honeymoon was over and I started to notice things about the facility I had overlooked at loves first blush. They say familiarity breeds contempt, how was I to know it would breed a nasty rash up and down my neck?

This place really let itself go. All the well wishers who had been so supportive trickled away one by one, soon it was just me and the facility. The communication stopped, the hostility reared it's ugly head, the housekeeper quit, my assistant was let go, the facility no longer seemed interested in what I had to say. It was cold and lonely. It was only a matter of time before I packed my locker up for good and flung the facility badge at their feet, never to set foot there again.

Thank god my registry has a forgiving heart and took me back. We are slowly working on our trust issues and I see real hope for our future. Even our communication is improving. Who knows, we may even branch out and create our very own little "registry".

Suzanne, you're right. I should have mentioned that we made sure it was in our contract that employees would not be cancelled before contracted nurses. They tried to get away with it once or twice, stating they had a "contract" with the traveler. We pointed out they had a "contract" with the per diem nurse also.

Haunted,

:lol2: My dog is sitting here looking at me trying to figure out why I'm laughing so hard. Very clever.

Sandy

Suzanne, you're right. I should have mentioned that we made sure it was in our contract that employees would not be cancelled before contracted nurses. They tried to get away with it once or twice, stating they had a "contract" with the traveler. We pointed out they had a "contract" with the per diem nurse also.

At my last job, travelers were never cancelled. The hospital had to pay them whether or not they were there, so they never cancelled them. At the hospital two of my former coworkers are at now as travelers, it's the same deal - per diem and regular staff will be cancelled, but they always go in.

At my last job, travelers were never cancelled. The hospital had to pay them whether or not they were there, so they never cancelled them. At the hospital two of my former coworkers are at now as travelers, it's the same deal - per diem and regular staff will be cancelled, but they always go in.

It was the same when I worked as a traveler BUT travelers were the first to float. A pretty crappy trade-off if you ask me. As a traveler, most of my living expenses were covered. I would much rather have been cancelled than have them try to send me to some strange unit where I have no experience.