brocantes

Well said! Here in Shreveport Louisiana, there are not many choices of hospitals. There are 2 major systems; one consists of 2 hospitals and the other of four. There is an all out campaign to rid the four hospital system of agency nurses. This includes working the staff nurses short-handed, dictating when vacation days may be taken, and making employees make up weekend days when they have called in sick (MD excuse or not). Of course, this can be at the whim of the Nurse manager. Many of our nurses travel to California and other states whre conditions and pay are better for contrat work. I don't believe the CNA/NNOC is active in Louisiana but perhaps now is the time. I personally know one nurse that was blackballed after a unionizing attempt here several years ago.

I'm in Shreveport Louisiana and overtime can be had here at one 4-facility hospital system. It's called premium pay (1.5 x reg. rate). You don't have to work over 40 hours to get it either. They use it when they need nurses badly which is often; esp. in critical care.

I'm not sure why you didn't get a response to your post but you stand a better chance of working in ICU than any other area.

I haven't seen a lot of response to this post so I am wondering what you guys would like for your agency to do or not do to that would make a difference.

You should be comfortable with what you do before trying agency nursing. I've never had an assignment that I couldn't handle but I am comfortable with critical care nursing. I find that if you help the staff, they will help you. This doesn't mean that you won't get dumped on. Never brag on how much money you make to the staff because it causes resentment and it is in poor taste anyway.

This would be very interesting to know. I don't know of any in this area (LA.) that seem to offer motivation!

You will find that you must buy your professional and general liability from the same company. No one wants to sell you just one because in some cases there is a fine line between the two and this way there will be no argument on who is going to pay for what.

Great advice from Eddy! Also, if you have someone helping you, I believe working through the agency yourself will give it a jump start. You meet nurses from other agencies that frequently will sign on with your company plus you get great pay. Don't take any shifts that your nurses could work. Good luck!