IndigoCarmine

It sounds like you've got three different problems, here: 1. they offered you a weekend option. Hospitals that offer "Weekend Option" do so to make sure their weekends are guaranteed covered. It usually means you work TWO 12h shifts a week - either F & S night or S & Su dayshift, period. As a full-time job it means more cash but decreased benefits and very little vacation time but hey, you already have five days off, right? As a traveller it means you do this for the entire length of your contract. You told them you didn't want that, so they offered you a 36h contract. THREE shifts a week. And now you have them. Problem is, they aren't the shifts you want. 2- Many hospitals require working every other weekend from all their staff and travelers and agency nurses. Nothing weird, there, but seriously annoying if you work 36h a week. Seems they've got you working every weekend. Technically, yes, this IS very obnoxious BUT they haven't actually done anything wrong. Are they taking advantage of you? Absolutely. Do travel nurses get taken advantage of by their sites? Yes. But travel nurses are brought in to fill in the scheduling gaps. Where are the biggest gaps often found? Weekends. Problem is, they're punishing you for not taking their original offer. They clearly needed someone to work weekends, attempted to make it appealing with the Weekend Option, and are just making you work weekends 36h a week instead of 24. It's really mean. 3. You want to renegotiate a contract already in progress. This is sort of like wanting your long locks back after you didn't like the haircut. Once the contact is signed, unless something truly egregious happens, you're stuck. I think it was a good call (and more than fair) of you to try and trade Christmas weekend off for 12 weeks of weekend enslavement. I'm sorry they didn't go for it, but sadly Travelers are meant for coverage and a unit's allegiance will always be to give house staff time off. Just know that in the future you can certainly request specific days off in a travel contract. Once signed, they HAVE to give you those days off no matter what, the same way you've been cornered into working Christmas by not asking for it off in advance. Also, it's just dumb luck that this year Christmas is a weekend. But believe me, if it wasn't, they'd have stuck you on it anyway. THEN they would have gone back to scheduling you every weekend, because they can and that's where they need you. If it's really, really killing you can break the contract and risk financial retribution from your company but I do not suggest this: that's A LOT of money to pay back. Honestly I think the best thing to do it just ride it out, have an awesome holiday with your family starting December 26th and wow that unit with your confidence and flexibility and ease. It will pay off. You do have to prove yourself to get rewarded. They don't know how awesome you are! So show 'em and maybe they'll lay off you for a bit and give you a better schedule. Travel nursing requires flexibility, thick skin, patience and the ability to withstand being low man on the totem pole in exchange for more money and an easy getaway. I'm not saying it's good that it does, I'm just saying that it does. Don't let this sour you on travel nursing. It's an awesome way to broaden your skills and meet cool people and not worry so much about unit politics. Use this as a learning experience. You will negotiate a better contract next time. Go show those folks how great you are!

Ummm..."per diem travel job" means just that. A per diem position, not a full-time one. Moving cross country for a oer diem job seems sort of crazy...nothing personal, but I don't understand what you were expecting...

I just wrapped up two years in NYC with Aya (formerly Access Nurses, NOT Axis, as someone else posted. Do some research.) and honestly I had no major problems. With each contract I signed my recruiter (who was lovely, and always available by phone or email) made sure to snag me more money. The company is smaller than others so definitely had fewer jobs overall than an agency like AM, but since I never left NYC this was not an issue. Talking to other travelers on my unit who worked with ther companies I was making comparable money, so I know I wasn't getting shafted that way. Once they suddenly changed payroll companies so my direct deposit went in two days later, but since I got paid weekly instead of biweekly this wasn't a big deal. Their health insurance package wasn't great, so I skipped it. But I had a fine experience with them and would certainly use them again.

"One would suggest you haven't been following things closely as you tought then, for the annoucement did mention nurses, and was covered by local news media at the time." One would suggest that your tone is rather rude. I thanked the poster for the article. My deepest sincerest apologies for not knowing about whatever was "covered by local news media". I don't have a tv and do most of my radio listening on the weekend. The internet is my main news source and that article didn't come up in my search. Have a terrific day.

Thanks for that! All the other pieces I read were vague. Administration, clinic jobs and hiring freezes were the focus. No mention of nurses (not that all those cuts wouldn't affect nurses anyway, because of course they would!)

Where I work, if the pts MD is one of the less harried ones and the conditions are favorable (meaning that the unit isn't packed to the rafters...betcha thought I meant the PATIENT'S conditions! Ha! I wish.) then they might place a second cervadil for an additional 12 hours. Or, weirdly, leave the original cervadil in place for an additional 12 hours. Depends on the doctor. Usually, though, it's 12 hours on cervadil, an hour's rest, followed by pit.

I've found myself in an annoying pickle over the last couple of years: I work at one of the few NYC L&D units that don't require AWHONN's Advanced FHM course. I hate working there and need to move on, but essentially can't without that dang certification. Trouble is, there aren't any courses. It's insane. You're required to have this thing yet nobody offers it. It's an all-day course and the closest it's offered is hours away. A friend of mine resorted to driving to Syracuse last year-- mid week!-- and staying two nights. Crazy. One major hospital system here requires passing the NCC EFM exam, which is really quite expensive. Annoying, too, because seemingly no one outside New York City seems to want it. Recently AWHONN added an online EFM exam. Well, it's about time! The online EFM Post Test = 24.5 contact hours. By comparison, their Advanced Fetal Monitoring = 12 contact hours. One would think this would indicate that the exam is "worth" more than the actual certification, but I'm wondering whether or not the hospitals are even aware of the existence of this exam and if they are, whether they deem it valuable. Would they accept a passing score on the test as a substitute for attending the Advanced course? I'm curious whether anyone out there has taken the course. Is it timed? Is there a "certificate" that can be printed at the conclusion so one might put it in their file at their job? Anyone taken this exam yet?

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T7M-4C4FNKD-S0&_user=9052571&_coverDate=11%2F30%2F1990&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1258427391&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000110488&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=9052571&md5=90420ae93ffe76dcff166b18169b3297

Actually, flu vaccines aren't on the NVIP list. I don't really fear the standard flu vaccine, either. But the swine flu vaccine gives me the willies.

I think "paranoia" is a harsh word. For me, my issue is a lack of responsibility and a lack of liability. I don't like the idea of getting any shot or med and having no recourse if something goes terribly wrong. I'll admit that considering the massive number of people who for the swine flu vaccine in '76, very few people developed Guillain-Barre, and even fewer still died. But Jeez, I sure don't want to be one of those few! Who would? The fact is more people died from that freakin' shot than died from that strain of flu that year. There's no doubt in my mind that habing healthcare workers get the flu vaccine is to set in motion the plan to vaccinate the whole country. I'm not saying the government is trying to kill us all, I'm only saying that flu vaccines are tricky at best and there is no good reason to believe that the new swine flu vaccine will be any different. The manditory flu shot for healthcare workers in NYS is NOT a law yet, but the wheels are in motion, for certain. It's an "emergency regulation" set to expire November 11th. It cannot become a law without a public forum, for which, no surprise, no date has been set for.

The hospitals themselves don't pay you back, but NLRP absolutely will allow for some of your federal loan money for nursing school to be repaid if you work at an HHC hospital. I think it's one year of partial payback for each year worked and you can apply for two years. You should go check. It's a lot of paperwork and hassle, but totally worth it.. You WILL need your original promissory notes and the loans need to NOT be consolidated with other school loans. No notes, no payback. Consolidation? No payback. (that happened to me. It sucked.)

The problem is if healthcare workers are mandated by the state for flu vaccines, it sets the stage for the swine-flu vaccine to be required as well. A rush-job if ever there was one. Not a lot of testing. Not a lot of confidence. No liability on the part of the manufacturers thanks to the PREP Act of '06. Next thing you know, it'll be mandated for the whole population. THAT'S the problem. And I'm not even one of those conspiracy-theory-types!

Holy Cow, omeconium! WHAT a nightmare! So glad you persevered and got what you wanted. WIN!

I work three 12hr night shifts a week as a travel nurse (1930-0800) and I wouldn't have it any other way, no sir! As a traveler I'm discouraged form working any holidays (imagine that!) but back in my staff days Thanksgiving, Easter and Jewish holidays were a total crapshoot while Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and NYE and NYD were rotated yearly as a disastrous three-shift-holiday-destroying run. In other words, if it was your turn to work Christmas you worked 12/24,25,26 and if it was your turn to work NY you worked 12/31,1 & 2. LAME! One of the biggest reasons I left my staff job was how we handled holidays.