Hey, y'all! I am compiling stories from folks who have broken predatory new graduate contracts, and have faced financial and career consequences as a result (I'm looking at you, HCA). The hospitals have held all the power in these dealings, and it's time we receive justice. Many of us have struggled and worked hard to provide excellent care for our patients under dire staffing and resources, only to receive backlash when we decide it's time to leave these unsafe conditions. I want to help tell our stories and prevent this disgusting practice to end. Here is my story:
I recently left a position at an HCA facility before my new grad contract was up (I had completed 3/4 of the two years), and I now owe them thousands of dollars. The unit I worked on was chronically understaffed, overworked, and underpaid. I continued to work hard and try to boost morale despite the daily strife. I volunteered to work in the COVID units back in April 2020 when little was known about the disease, and how to protect ourselves from it. Then my home unit was also turned into a PCU COVID unit, where I spent many of my shifts until I left in December 2020. My mental health had been deteriorating as a result of the stress and exhaustion. I had many conversations with my manager about the unacceptable conditions, and how it was affecting my mental health. No attempts were made to remedy the unit's situation. I told my manager I was accepting another position to take better care of myself. I am now being harassed by their collections agency, Benefit Recovery Group, to pay up the money I owe for the "Residency Program," (aka a three month orientation similar to what an experienced nurse would receive if they were changing unit specialties).
I don't believe I should be penalized for leaving unsafe working conditions after I had made multiple reports. I also cited my health as a reason for leaving, and it's only ironic that a hospital would come after an employee for prioritizing their health. Attempts at contacting HR and my previous manager have been futile. I am now frustrated, angry, and hungry for justice for myself and others who have been wronged by hospitals.
Please message me if you want to share your story. I will respect your need for anonymity if that is what your wish. Thank you for your time.
Can't believe some of the comments I've seen here. I'm sorry that you came here for support and advice, and received so much backlash and bitterness.
That's exactly what some people are. Bitter.
You have every right to not continue working in an unsafe or hostile environment. That is IT and it is NOT okay. Yes, you were under contract and it'll be tough to navigate that case/situation and I hope it works out. I do
You were also correct in your responses. We ALL know how it can be working in places like this; if you say you haven't, you know someone who has. We need to support each other for our own sakes, for better working conditions, and for the safety of the patients. That, in no way, equates to a credit card or car loan or whatever else is posted on here.
Let's normalize advocating for that and actually taking a stand for it. And lets normalize supporting each other instead of this toxic mess.
Also: To the people trying to rebuttal OP for the claims of sexual harassment and questioning her placement of the claims in the post/replies....my nicest reply is to please see yourselves out.
She obviously didn't feel the need to mention it originally but eventually did when she felt the need to defend herself, rightfully.
She has every right to leave, and the company has every right to try to enforce the contract that she thought was a good idea to sign at the time.
It's just like Judge Milian on People's Court. A contract is a contract.
She might have a case if she can prove that what she experienced truly meets the criteria for sexual harassment, and that she went through the proper steps to have her employers deal with this as the law prescribes.
I've taken many inservices on sexual harassment over the years, and there is a certain protocol that one must follow. Hopefully she did that. It won't do much good to complain about sexual harassment after the fact, once she's decided she didn't like working there anyway.
The hospital structures a contract for the sole purpose of protecting its own interests. It hires lawyers and HR professionals to ensure this. The hospital does this knowing full well that they are dealing, overwhelmingly, with young staff with limited resources and limited understanding of workplace realities. And- most importantly- the folks who sign these contracts clearly can not afford a lawyer.
Think about informed consent. Law suits against hospitals for malpractice are extremely lucrative, and the hospital does everything in it's power to avoid them. It is explained to the PT that there could be negative outcomes like, for example, death.
If a patient has a negative outcome, there are plenty of lawyers willing to have a look and see what the case is worth. On the other hand, there is no money in representing a new grad who feels the working conditions aren't what they were promised.
OP- Did they promise anything in their contract that they failed to deliver?
Did you get the sign-on bonus money in your first or second payperiod?
There is no sign-on bonus money involved.
My understanding is that the basic contract is that if you accept a new grad "residency" job offer (aka regular job with a regular orientation), you MUST work X amount of time at the company or you will owe them some nebulously-calculated amount of money, which allegedly represents what they paid to train you.
New grad contracts are common. It costs a ton of money to train a new grad. The cost is over $100k. I saw a figure a few years ago that stated $129k. An employer wants to at least ensure they will get that money back.
The only bigger joke than those made up numbers is that a profession full of critical thinkers keeps repeating them like the gospel.
Specializes in Physiology, CM, consulting, nsg edu, LNC, COB.
People, the bottom line is that for many new grads this is a first job, a first real venture into adulting, no matter what their self-image is. They may not have signed a lease, bought a car, or encountered another kind of actual contract on their own. Therefore they are vulnerable solely due to their own naïveté.
It’s not productive to ask more experienced people how to get out of contracts, as this thread seems to demonstrate. I don’t see a lot of schemes proposed, and there’s a reason for that. If you are of legal age and sound mind the law assumes you can enter into a contract, and expects you will live up to your half of the bargain.
You haven’t been taken, defrauded, or predated upon by your employer. You haven’t taken the steps you ought to have in the first place, I.e., reading before you sign and doing your -your- due diligence.
What you do now is to take a good look in the mirror, take responsibility for the obligation you agreed to, and take it as a life lesson. And perhaps offer to do a lunch-and-learn for your school as part of a first year of practice seminar, so others can learn from your error.
If you believe you were in a hostile work environment, your responsibility is to follow the protocols for reporting it and going thru channels to resolve the complaint. That is every worker’s right and responsibility, and is part of your side of the contract. If you can demonstrate that you did not receive the orientation to the job as their side of the contract specified, that’s a different matter. (“I don’t like it here” doesn’t count.)
Therefore they are vulnerable solely due to their own naïveté.
43 minutes ago, Hannahbanana said:
You haven’t been taken, defrauded, or predated upon by your employer.
Maybe it doesn't seem like these two statements are somewhat in conflict, but to me they are. Unless you were referring to naïveté more as a personal defect rather than largely a matter of inexperience.
The most common advice given is to have the contract reviewed by a lawyer and then perform additional due diligence regarding the things that no employer is going to write in a contract, anywhere, ever.
I would like someone to explain the likelihood that said due diligence will amount to anything practically useful, acknowledge that it isn't legally useful at all, and admit that what some of these replies amount to is a bunch of people who are already on the inside begrudging those who CANNOT leverage the same sort of experience that comes from already being IN, then turning around and claiming that's just fine anyway, because reasons, and there's no need to advocate for anything better than the way things are.
Specializes in Physiology, CM, consulting, nsg edu, LNC, COB.
1 minute ago, JKL33 said:
I would like someone to explain the likelihood that said due diligence will amount to anything practically useful, acknowledge that it isn't legally useful at all, and admit that what some of these replies amount to is a bunch of people who are already on the inside begrudging those who CANNOT leverage the same sort of experience that comes from already being IN, then turning around and claiming that's just fine anyway, because reasons, and there's no need to advocate for anything better than the way things are.
Not entirely sure what this all means. Naïveté is, by definition, a lack of experience or exposure, as in “the opioid-naive patient.” However, I think it reasonable to assume that most adults have signed up for something they later came to regret because they didn’t read the fine print, and this is how they learned to be more careful next time. That’s not closely-held insider knowledge, that’s the voice of experience. The world at large isn’t likely to change its behavior regarding contracts, but we can learn to be more careful about buying what they’re selling. “Experience holds a dear (meaning, expensive) school, and a fool will learn in no other.”~ Shakespeare
In another new grad contract thread in 2017, someone made the claim that training a new grad can "cost up to 60k" good to see it has only doubled in the intervening 4 years ?
In that thread I posted the following about grossly inflated "cost to train" claims used to justify extraordinary commitments in HCA new grad 2-3yr contracts where new grads only get 6 weeks of precepted orientation:
On 11/2/2017 at 8:50 AM, SummitRN said:
Yea yea yea... this is the spew put out by hospitals and some folks gunning for their thesis approval in management/edu track degrees.
The number keeps growing every time I hear it quoted!
Don't buy into that BS without exercising critical thinking.
For starters, compare it to the cost of a non-new-grad RN turning over their position:
They give costs almost equal to this mythical cost of of new grad training. Isn't that a bit odd?
So let's compare how much more a new grad really costs!
~8 weeks combined of training, orientation, and classes MINUS 2 weeks combined that an experienced hire receives for their on-boarding, training, and unit orientation.
6 weeks at $21/hr (no differential often no benefits) new grad pay = $4500 for a new grad with 6 weeks of precepted orientation and "residency."
I will spell it out. These new grads are given useless advice such as to observe the place while they're there at the interview, "talk to people" and spend a day shadowing.
All three of these are something just short of useless, assuming that when they're inside the facility the patients aren't covered in flies and the manager doesn't outright say, "well this place sucks bad but if you want to work here you can."
I don't know the last time I saw anyone allowed to shadow, of course now it's "because covid" like everything else, but it was well before covid that employers were in a position to not need to let any outsider/applicant shadow. The take-it-or-leave attitude starts early on in places that are big enough to roll that way.
Even the very fact that these contracts are tied to some (fake) ultra-special "residencies" even though said residencies sound suspiciously just like the plain old "orientation" I received a long time ago, speaks to what I am referring to. I don't think it's that confusing! They are being verbally told one thing, the reality is much different, and there is NEVER GOING TO BE a contract that they can leverage in their favor when things are far from what they were purported to be.
That’s not closely-held insider knowledge, that’s the voice of experience.
I also disagree with this. I really do hope you are not trying to be ridiculous with me.
The experience, in this case, is the result of being on the inside. Of already having the job. Of not having to guess about how corporations do and don't engage with nurses.
londonflo
3,002 Posts
Did you get the sign-on bonus money in your first or second payperiod?