Kaiyas

My license becoming single state when I move makes a lot more sense. Thank you for that information! I was surprised too when they stopped the whole process and told me to contact them when I had a Florida license. The thing that bothers me is that neither one asked about if my NC license was single or multi-state after my move. Their words were "If we can't find you on the FLBON site, we can't hire you." Which made it sound like even if I was continuing to live in NC and only crossing state lines to work, they still wouldn't even consider me. I even mentioned the Nursys system to look up multi-state licenses and was told that they are only permitted to search for licenses on the FLBON website. Very bizarre (to me anyway).

There is no out for that on the contract. While my spouse is active duty military, he is retiring next March and won't be transferred again. We are moving to the area where this hospital is, so I'm not worried about getting moved and having to break the contract. There aren't any better options since all of the hospitals around here are requiring similar contracts. So no matter where I go, I'm going to have to sign something along these lines. I have read that a lot of new nurses seem to be quitting in their first year, so I can understand why facilities are worried about losing new hires and losing all the time spent training them. It just seems to me that using a sign on bonus (that would have to be paid back if you left early) would seem a better enticement than a contract that comes across as "You WILL stay here or we WILL sue you for X amount of dollars."

It is a good hospital. Lots of high ratings on glassdoor and on Google (from staff and patients) and everyone there I spoke with or saw was friendly and cheerful, which is always a good sign. It's a smaller hospital though that does only cardiac issues (No ER, L&D), so I guess that could count as a specialty. And I do believe it will benefit me and my career to work there. I am planning on staying at the facility for the 3 years required by this contract, it just seems scary having that contract hanging over my head. Especially since the "residency program" is nothing more than 8 weeks of orientation with a preceptor. Working as an LPN, I never ran into having to sign a contract like this. Ever. So it just surprised me that when they were going over the paperwork, the HR person went over every single piece of paper with me....except for this contract. She handed it to me and asked me to read it and then walked away. It was like she didn't want to talk to me about it at all. I read it and then told her I had some questions. She was more than willing to answer all of my questions about it and was friendly while doing so. It just struck me as weird that she didn't go over it to begin with.

I've seen older posts on this site about New Grad Orientation Contracts that require new nurses to stay on their unit for a set amount of time (up to 2 years) or else be forced to pay back orientation costs to the facility. Most of those posts told new grads to run as fast as they could away from the facility. However, a lot of the places I've applied to all have those contracts. Is this becoming more common? What happened to sign on bonuses in order to retain nurses? To clarify, they require you to sign a "new grad residency" contract, which is 8-12 weeks of orientation. If you pass their orientation period you are required to work on that unit for 2 years (and in some cases required to stay at the facility for an additional year). Failure to do so, as stated in the contract, requires the nurse to pay back orientation costs of 10,000 dollars, which is pro-rated down slightly the longer you stay. I understand that nurse retention is important, but this seems threatening and morale crushing. I completely understand having to sign a contract to pay back a sign-on bonus if you leave early, but having to "pay" for my orientation seems a little ridiculous. It makes me wonder what's wrong with the facility that would make nurses want to leave so badly that HR thought this contract was the only way to keep nurses working there. Should I follow the older posts advice of running from these facilities or do I bite the bullet and just accept that this is what I have to do in order to get experience?

Hi all! I couldn't find any information on this topic so I thought I'd share my experiences. I'm a new grad with a multi-state license from North Carolina. My family is going to be moving to Florida next year, so I came ahead of time to get a job and some housing set up. I've applied to numerous hospitals in south Florida and several called me back for interviews. When I told them that my license was from NC, every single hospital told me that I couldn't work there. They stated that I HAD to get a Florida license and they wouldn't even consider hiring me unless they could look me up on the FLBON site!! Now, since I'm moving to Florida, I know I will have to transfer my license here, but I thought that I could at least work for 90 days on a multi-state license while awaiting to get my Florida license by endorsement. But apparently that is not the case. So, I'm transferring my license, but now I'll be out of work for however long it takes the FLBON to approve me. What's the point of Florida even joining the compact if hospitals won't accept any license except a Florida one? Has anyone else run into this either in Florida or other compact states?