Nero96

I like this comment, and the other response you gave me on another note I wrote. I think the 'loyalty' thing will be badly damaged when I find other travelers are receiving much more than me. However, speaking empathically, if I were the recruiter, how would I feel about a nurse who "rejects" me simply on the basis of a few dollars/hr? Perhaps they expect this routinely, and I, as a traveler of only 1 1/2 years and two companies' experience, am wasting opportunities. Having said that, a deeper issue, for me, arises. According to my imagined undrstanding, ERRANT (?) you get a price on a job from one recruiter, then you go to another recruiter and ask for a salary listing. That recruiter tells you $29. Then you go back to your present recruiter and say, "I got an offer of $29 from agency XX. Can you beat that?" First, is that indeed how it works? Second, if so, haven't you constructed the offer yourself, instead of it being freely made? Now this is where I hear accusations of being soft, touchy-feely, wanting to maintain relationships instead of realizing this is a business, and we nurses have, and have to keep, the upper, whip hand with those agencies. In spite of this attitude, which I have endured in several face to face conversations with other travelers, I see agencies going bankrupt all the time. I simply want to be responsible to the system that is allowing me this freedom to move around the company, easily plugging into different communities and hospitals. I don't want to abuse it. If I find it is, or has been, abusing me, I would move into a more aggressive mode.

I have been looking for mention of the 'loyalty' issue -- that if I commit to one agency, they will commit to me should a problem come up. When other travelers I meet speak strongly about their negotiating with several companies to get the highest pay/best housing etc, I wonder if I'm getting cheated. But I have seen travelers get blamed improperly for some things, and it may be that their companies may not put out maximum support for a nurse who earlier pushed hard about salary. My own experience with a company with whom I was in an argument about other issues, supported me when the hospital did not pay my contract due to money difficulties. I appreciated that support, although I eventually changed agencies. How much extra pay does negotiating actually get? I would consider pushing harder if it proved to be really worth it.

I'll be in Orlando area sometime in Feb, hoping to make Disneyworld an educational homeschool work/play experience for two kids (9 & 10). I'd enjoy talking to travelers going to be there then, especially with kids, or with FL med/surg/tele experience.

This thread brings up a concern for me -- I have heard many travelers brag about how roughly they negotiate higher salaries, better furniture, apartments, largely by playing off several agencies against each other: "I can get $XX from agency A, what will you give me?" My big concerns are two. First I'm not liking to abuse the privilege that being a nurse during shortage gives me. Second, will the agency be loyal to me if a license investigation issue comes up at some unexpected time, if I've pushed them around about a few dollars or a better sofa? Yet I do not want to find out I'm receiving much less money than other travelers on the same floor. Overall I lean toward developing loyalty with a company, a long term working relationship, where they protect me from unexpected problems. But I wonder about the money!