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.
you end up getting yelled at by doctors for not doing something
This is eternal. I graduated in the 70s and we each had 12 patients, some were in for tests, some pre op (doing tests, pre op teaching, signing consents and ordering post op paraphenalia like TEDS. The last were post op from that day to several days out. Patients did stay longer then. It was primary care so we usually did not have a CNA. I can say I was very busy and never got out on time because I had to double check the tests of those in house now and going to surgery the next day..CXR, labs drawn, VS, etc.
Quote
I do know that I chose a more difficult unit to gain more experience and we are pushed to the limits
Everyone feels this way. I have heard this from generations of students from 1980 to now and you will hear it from each new group of grads until you retire.
It seems like you are in a Nurse Residency program, which seems to be a highly competitive program geared towards training new nurses for specific specialties. This is not an ordinary position. I myself was not hired applying for several nurse residencies. I do believe those limits on hiring thus made them require a contract based on their investment in you, instead of hiring somebody with more experience in nursing. Orientations and trainings are more expensive for sure since they pay you and your preceptor. At the same time, the allowances for the possibility of you extending your work hours once you are already working on your own since such extensions are acceptable while you are adjusting at your own pace, which an experienced nurse might not have much of those. You may be really good at it, and have not used those hours, but upon hiring those are the risks make by the employer which is why a contract is made. They hired you because you are very qualified and might not need that, but still...those are contingencies that they foresee the possibility. They invested in you, and your experience to work for them will be how you really pay them back. And not monetarily....unless you breach the contract...and whatever it says...will then be applied. This is my understanding how this thing work. I don't have much experience in this, since I am a new grad nurse. Applying to those new grad residencies seem to entail this. The nurse residency program descriptions I see describe other trainings that they are to provide specifically leadership trainings. The possibility that you have not received such are due to the repercussions of the Covid pandemic. I think every nursing job will always carry its risks of infection and unsafe occurrences/ratios, acute or chronic, known, or unknown, expected and unexpected since a hospital is a facility of patients with highly infectious diseases or high possibility of violence depending on the type of patients you work with. Covid just happens to be a chronic, unexpected occurrence with no current end in sight that has blind-sided your residency program training. Your position is coveted to begin with and highly competitive hence it is called a program, and not an ordinary hiring process. And since it is a contract you may not be able to go unscathed.
My take is for you to know what the residency program actually entails for you, which ones you did not receive because of the pandemic, and argue on a pro-rated basis since you worked 3/4 of the 2 years required of you. Other than that, as it is a contract offered to you, with you having the obligation to understand the limits of your contract before placing your signature, everything seems legally binding. Good luck to you with this. This can be a lesson to others applying for nurse residencies before they sign their contracts. So your experience will others in the future for sure. Thanks for sharing the experience.
All the hospitals in my area request the ASN grad to have a plan for BSN completion upon hire.
Yes, they do in my area also. The area CC has coordinated with a couple of the state u sites for easy transfer of credits and one of the state u's has in town classroom site. We are an isolated small city so I think this is the best of all worlds to have a physical presence of the degree granting institution in town. But when I graduated with my BSN way, way back, I was hired by a hospital that had 2 med-surg units dedicated exclusively to the new grads. All of the RN preceptors working on those units had volunteered to work as preceptors. The physical proximity of these units gave us easy access to the nurse chief preceptor who kept track of our progress and we were able to direct a lot of our questions to her rather than to floor staff. Towards the end of our orientation, nurses were sent to their respective units they were hired for and I thought it worked very well.
We are not obligated to be supportive of someone who signed a contract without thoroughly reading it, or asking advice from a knowledgeable person.
We shouldn't attack this person either, but wiser and more experienced nurses sometimes lose patience with younger people who don't seek counsel, then cry victimhood.
This thread seriously amazes me and reinforces in my mind anyway that, no offense intended, that all the nurses pursuing further education simply doesn't cut muster!
You spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on further education and do the same work if you are on the floors as a diploma qualified nurse and yet with all your education you are unable to find a solution to something as simple as a contract to get out of?
This is a clear example of why nurses don't get ahead.
Problem...? Contract... Assessment.... Done by lawyers hired by the hospital... Solution....
Just as the hospital identified a cost re new grads etc and sought out contract lawyers to resolve this issue.... Shouldn't the solution be to essentially do the same?
The New grads get together, pool their money and get a good contract lawyer to look at their existing contracts and exactly as someone mentioned re predatory lending,.... There are precedents already set and can be utilized!
I really should have become a lawyer because any competent lawyer would bite your hand off for this.
I actually think I might have a solution now that I am thinking about it. I will get back to you after exploring it.
But when I graduated with my BSN way, way back, I was hired by a hospital that had 2 med-surg units dedicated exclusively to the new grads. All of the RN preceptors working on those units had volunteered to work as preceptors.
What an ingenious idea. Could you write an article on it? This is the stuff new grads need. It sounds like this would be a good idea for helping with the total stress of orientation among the new grads and a cohesive team of precepters! Stopping new grads from complaining that because of their unit choice,they have a rougher time with orientation and giving them the resources they need. A level playing field.
In the last 10 years the ICU and step-down units have flourished.
I think this was to: Get better insurance payment and attract more new grads with titles like step-down, flatter the new nurses to sign on and this:
I have students who can no way take more than one patient, given two , obvlious to anything more than the medcart , go on to tell me they were wanting a job in ICU. And they ask for a job there and get it. Lets flatter their egos.
Quote
intermediate level of care for patients with requirements somewhere between that of the general ward and the intensive care unit.
I had students on an IMC where most were discharged that day or the next. Labels do NOT make sense whether it be step-down or IMC.
The hospitals are not unaware to the new grads striving for a great job title that they have neither the experience or education (post basic nursing education to execute)
I would suggest trying to research laws re contracts in your state. Check out NOLO for more info. I've read that contracts are not always enforceable, depending on state law. Also a contract is supposed to be mutually beneficial. It doesn't sound very beneficial to you. You could try to see if the local Legal Aid Society could look into it. Or if there is a law school see if they have a legal clinic where students provide help.
I wouldn't give money to a collection company voluntarily. But if they are that aggressive they will probably pursue it in the courts and garnish your wages.
The calloused replies make me wonder if eveyone here is even a nurse or ever worked at a hospital.
As a new nurse, I also signed a contract with the same company. But they paid the sign on bonus in quarterly installments, upon completion of each phase of service, so you earned it and kept it. This must be something new. At the end of one year I left to escape the toxic environment and kept my money too.
You need to take your contract to a lawyer and have them send a notice to your ex employer if they are over reaching their rights.
Questions to ask would be were the conditions of employment spelt out? Do you live in an at-will state? Was a money figure spelt out in the contract? Was the contract even legal? Was it enforceable?
Did you feel that as an inexperienced nurse you felt you were not a safe provider of care for COVID patients or were trained for that purpose?
Even if you end up owing money, you can still negotiate a deal. I would reach out to the local TV station too, but first talk to a lawyer.
I understand locking in an experienced nurse into a contract, but most new grads historically quit their first job within a year. SMH
Seriously, this is why nurses need to unionize. We have been eating our young for too long, and that is the major reason for the nursing shortage. Our only strength is our numbers, and we need to pool our resources together to prevent these mega chains of hospitals from getting the better of us.
There are so many ways in which employers are treating nurses like minions and not like the highly trained professionals they are and we need to do more about it to make it stop.
We are not obligated to be supportive of someone who signed a contract without thoroughly reading it, or asking advice from a knowledgeable person.
We shouldn't attack this person either, but wiser and more experienced nurses sometimes lose patience with younger people who don't seek counsel, then cry victimhood.
I agree.
However, though I know communication loses a lot without tone, facial expressions, etc., some of the responses to this seemed really harsh...
The calloused replies make me wonder if eveyone here is even a nurse or ever worked at a hospital.
As a new nurse, I also signed a contract with the same company. But they paid the sign on bonus in quarterly installments, upon completion of each phase of service, so you earned it and kept it. This must be something new. At the end of one year I left to escape the toxic environment and kept my money too.
You need to take your contract to a lawyer and have them send a notice to your ex employer if they are over reaching their rights.
Questions to ask would be were the conditions of employment spelt out? Do you live in an at-will state? Was a money figure spelt out in the contract? Was the contract even legal? Was it enforceable?
Did you feel that as an inexperienced nurse you felt you were not a safe provider of care for COVID patients or were trained for that purpose?
Even if you end up owing money, you can still negotiate a deal. I would reach out to the local TV station too, but first talk to a lawyer.
I understand locking in an experienced nurse into a contract, but most new grads historically quit their first job within a year. SMH
I love the idea of getting local news interested! Perfect! Give them a black eye and a warning for future nurses! There is an article in the Dallas Morning News about a hospital there, Parkland, that has gone after almost two dozen nurses that quit early or even if they were fired! A couple nurses got lawyers and were suing the hospital. The article is from 2020, but is currently under a pay wall. I had read it before then. Very sad what new grads have to put up with now! Wrongway by me did this too, and they were so brazen that not only did they require you return a bonus if you left early, but the whole amount with interest! Unbelievable, normally it would be pro-rated, at the very least! Some of the new grads were smart and didn't take the bonus and left within six months. Others were counting down till the contract was over and they could escape.
From what I've read contracts are not always enforceable, depending on state law. But I'm guessing red states like Texas, would be against workers and for business. But you really need a lawyer to see if you have any chance to fight this. As I mentioned before you could try to do the research yourself thru NOLO or appealing to a Legal Aid Society or law school clinic if there is one near you.
I broke my new grad contract. No hospitals in this area (I can't speak for the whole US) will hire a new graduate RN without a 'program' and a contract. You don't sign, you don't work. My particular hospital had no didactic portion. They assigned me to a nurse with no formal preceptorship training, paid that person 7% additional per hour (like... an extra $3-5/hr ish) and they sat at the nurses station shopping on Amazon and told me to find them if I had any questions. And this was the ER!
We did the math, for the 12 weeks, 36 shifts for 12 hours it was about $1500 cost to the hospital. So where did they get that high number they felt their training was worth?
I was told when I turned in my notice that I was now considered unrehireable and that would be relayed to future reference checkers. I contacted my union and they informed me (and HR) that this was unacceptable, and additionally the state of California had passed legislation that these programs were in fact predatory and the contracts unenforceable. I have not received a bill from my previous hospital and started a new job right away, where I have ratios and breaks and resources far beyond the first place.
I'm glad you had a union that could help and lived in a state that put workers before corporations. Sadly it all comes down to state law and if you live in a worker friendly state.
Apparently the hospitals in this state know it is unenforceable, but are gambling on new grads fears and lack of legal knowledge to try to keep them working longer, probably under poor conditions. Why improve working conditions if you can threaten them with financial penalties instead to better keep them in line! I thought it was bad when Wrongway demanded they return the whole bonus with interest, but to hear nurses not even given a bonus but threatened with a financial penalty instead to repay their orientation, that is just disgusting! Orientation is a part of doing business and should be paid by the employer, not off loaded unto the nurses. If they are so concerned about the cost of orientation and high turnover they should work on creating a good environment where nurses would want to stay!
Nurses are not alone in this situation as many doctors too face such contracts which if they quit or are fired are still not allowed to even work within so many miles of their employer.
londonflo
3,002 Posts
This is eternal. I graduated in the 70s and we each had 12 patients, some were in for tests, some pre op (doing tests, pre op teaching, signing consents and ordering post op paraphenalia like TEDS. The last were post op from that day to several days out. Patients did stay longer then. It was primary care so we usually did not have a CNA. I can say I was very busy and never got out on time because I had to double check the tests of those in house now and going to surgery the next day..CXR, labs drawn, VS, etc.
Everyone feels this way. I have heard this from generations of students from 1980 to now and you will hear it from each new group of grads until you retire.