grish3

Let me elaborate further. Full-time staff are treated well because they are unionized. The pay is great, the benefits are pretty good, and nursing in general receives a lot of support due to "turn-teams" that will turn your patients every two hours or help with difficult bathing. There are break nurses that will cover you for your lunch and breaks, which can be up to 1.5 hours/shift depending on the hospital and unit you are working. My original post was in regards to how TRAVELERS are treated. I nearly left bedside nursing after 6 months with Kaiser. I felt like a number, an expendable body. They shuffled around your assignment every 4 hours and it was highly likely you would work in at LEAST two units during your 12 hour shift. I am a highly trained and experienced CVICU nurse and they took that as "she can work anywhere". They floated me between CVICU, ICU, tele, step-down, and med-surg. In one day, I could have as many as 13 patients. I had no experience outside of the ICU and they thought because I had a high skill level I could handle 5 patients in med-surg. ICU and med-surg are not the same thing; they require difference skill sets. I am used to splitting my brain in half, one-half for each of my two-patient assignment. I don't have the same work flow as someone who typically manages a larger patient load. While I managed the heavier load it made me very uncomfortable and I never really embraced it. If I wanted to be a med-surg nurse, I would have gone that route after college. If you dared to speak to your manager or staffing office representative and tell him/her that you felt uncomfortable and you felt you were endangering your own license by taking on work in areas outside of your comfort zone...they would threaten to end your contract on the spot. For those of you who haven't traveled before, this means you have exactly 48 hours to move out of your housing and it is very likely you will be financially punished by the hospital and your travel agency. In addition, you will be blacklisted from every working at the company, not just the facility, every again. They keep you between a rock and a hard place all the time. To further elaborate - The manager that hired me into the CVICU as a traveler once confronted me and said that he heard I was talking negatively about the medical staff to other nurses. I never had any personal problems with any of the physicians on staff in any department and particularly not the CVICU and ICU. I had no idea where this came from. In fact, I liked many of the physicians in the facility and really only had issue with one because I thought he was lazy and out of his depth. I never expressed that sentiment to anyone, not even my own husband. Where he got that information was beyond me. As a traveler, I trust no one. I don't gossip, and I try to be positive and helpful at all times. When I asked where this information came from he refused to answer. I felt like it was a "I got a secret but I'm not going to tell you" kind of conversation. I told him if he wanted to have any further conversations with me it would need to be in HR with another person present and fact would need to be presented. THIS WAS THE LAST STRAW. My contract ended a week later and I will never travel to another Kaiser facility again. I'd rather leave nursing. Fortunately, my next contract was with UCSF in San Francisco and it was a polar opposite experience. I loved, loved, loved it and stayed for 7 months. I would have stayed longer but my husband took a job in Phoenix and off we went. UCSF restored my faith in humanity after such a demoralizing experience at Kaiser and I no longer wanted to leave the bedside. The best thing I can do is to tell my story to other potential travelers and encourage them not to take an assignment at KP...you will regret it. P.S. The worst thing you could do is become an American Mobile traveler at Kaiser. You will be treated horribly and make less than your fellow non-American Mobile travelers. Ugh.

Now that I've traveled here for 6 months, I'll answer my own post in hopes that it helps someone else. Kaiser is abusive to travelers, I would not recommend it to anyone. I've seen three groups of travelers come and go and I'm the only one that resigned for a second contract and that was ONLY because my contract ended just before Thanksgiving and I didn't want to find new housing/new job before the holidays. The staffing office has no idea what they are doing and yet they seem to have a death grip on the entire hospital; additionally, the managers do not support the staff as they should and they love to be passive aggressive which does NOT work for me. I'll be glad to elaborate if anyone wants to message me directly. Jessica

I was recently offered an interview with Kaiser Santa Clara CVICU, interview is on Tuesday. Did you accept the assignment and if so, how was it?

I've been offered a travel assignment in Santa Clara, CA. I'm looking to travel to the Silicon Valley area because my fiance is interviewing for jobs there (we are currently in Honolulu). I am working with Emerald Healthcare. The job offered is with Kaiser Permanente (CVICU) which is where my hesitation lies; I've heard the horror stories about contracting with them. Stories that include contracts being canceled midway through because the traveler was replaced by another traveler working for American Mobile earning less $/hr. Does anyone out there have experience at the Santa Clara location? This is my first time traveling, any suggestions on what I should put in my contract or negotiate for? All feedback welcome and appreciated. Mahalo! Jessica RN