KalipsoRed

OMG! My agency just said that they might have to fork out $5000 for me canceling the contract?! Is it normal to have to fork over $5000 for canceling a contract?

Thanks 79Tango. I do have a firm start date for my part time ER job as long as I can get out of my contract. I went in to the job I'm contracted for today and explained the situation. It is something that happend rather fast and unexpectedly. I didn't really mean to get a job it just kind of fell in my lap after I applied for it 3 months ago. I feel that eventhough it is part time it is to good to pass up the opportunity for ER experience. I've been applying to ERs on and off for over a year now and haven't had a bite until now. I tried to be as honest and open about this with my agency and the new contract as I could. I know it's inconvient and maybe the fact that I'm bailing on a contract is going to get me blackballed from travelling ever again, but really, does any company have what's best for me as one of their priorities? Uh, no. It's more like if what is good for me is good for them then that's great; if not then I just need to deal. I hope that they find the fact that I showed up for the contract and offered to work out some arrangement to do both my new job and help them with their shortage a respectable gesture. Other than that I don't know what I should have done. If I had known sooner then I would have acted sooner.

Hi! I'm a nurse of 3 years. For the last year I've been doing travel nursing. While the company I chose to travel for is pretty good to me, the availability of assignments I wish to work are very small and I get very tired of feeling like I'm having to argue with my recruiters to get what I want. Futhermore I'm aggrivated about being made to feel like I'm being selfish or difficult when I take long streaches off or change my mind about a contract before I start it. I wanted to do travel nursing to see the USA, but all my contracts are in the midwest. I have cardiac stepdown/med-surg/tele experience but that doesn't seem to be enough experience to get me the jobs I want. So I started applying for permanent ER jobs around my home town and got a wonderful part time job at a smaller ER that does both peds and adults. It is also a hospital that is known for taking care of it's staff. Upon interviewing for the ER job I informed them that I had already agreed to a contract that was to start in one week and last until the beginning of Novemember. Now that the ER has a greed to hire me they are wanting me to get out of my contract after the first week (if possible) or by the beginning of October. I have informed my travel company as to what is going on....it really was a suprise to me that I got this job so fast so there was very little lead in to the fact that I have sort of been looking to expand my RN education through this employment. I have not signed the contract but made the verbal agreement to take the contract. I'm currently here in my hotel about to leave for the first day of training for this contract and I'm not sure what I should do. When talking to my agency they did not seem to keen on trying to help me out of this contract, even after the new hospital I'm wanting to work for called and trying to work with them. I'm going to go to training today because I feel obligated to at least talk to the manager of the floor that I took the contract with and try to work something out that will benefit her. I'm trying to get out of this situation without reunioning my reputation and to maintain my ethical virtues. However, I'm not will to let a great job in a good ER be passed up due to a contract that I'm just now starting. I think the fairest thing for me to do is as the manager of the floor that my contract is for if it will be easier for her to train me and ask me to work for 3 weeks or better to let me leave now and train someone who can work for the rest of the contract. Any advice on how to handle this the most professionally and ethical way?

Judy, Thank you for your input, but this opinion is the sort I detest the most. In my opinion it is difficult to be happy with what I'm doing because it is NOT helping anyone. I feel as though we end up hurting more patients due to neglect and under education prior to discharge than helping the patients I swore to care for. Thus your sentiment is truely an oxymoron to me. Nurses can't find happiness in all the 'good' we are doing because we aren't doing the 'good' we swore to due because of working conditions. The idea that we should find contientment in what we have and not fight for what is best is like saying that African Americans should have been happy when they won their freedom and not continued to fight for true equality. I think we all realize how horrible our society would be if just settled for what was offered all the time. What I would be interested to know from your pont of view, Judy, is that if in your 40 years of practice do you think that ratios and staffing has improved from when you started? Or do you think that while the numbers may have decreased the acuity is more intense and thus staffing really hasn't improved at all? This sort of abuse has to stop. For our sakes as well as our patients. I'm very aware that we (nurses) are not the only ones in medicine that feel streached beyond our abilities. I truly feel there is a way to make a decent profit, give excellent care and education to patients, and allow caregivers to have a great work enviornment. I think it has to start with all of us (MD's, CNAs, LVNs, and RNs) refusing to work like dogs. If you can't pee and sit down to rest for a full uninterupted 30 minutes to eat in a 12 hour shfit, nevermind another two 15 minute breaks in there somewhere, then you are being abused. If you can't get to work on time (instead of an hour early), take accurate and through care of your patients, and leave on time the majority of days you work then you are being abused. I don't care how bad it's been in the past. I don't care to much if it's better than it was, it's not how it SHOULD be yet and that is all that really matters. I'm not saying we start dissing our hospitals and the government. I really don't think that blaming any one particular part of this mess on one institution or another is going to fix it. I do believe that us saying 'no' to being treated like crap will. I'm not saying no out of anger or bitterness, but just because it needs to be said. Because it is the right thing to do. God, I can't wait to get a job outside of medicine because once I do I'm going to start campaigning for what is right as hard as I can.

I don't pay for insurance because if I just save money I can pay for a yearly physical and other minor visits to the MD for a A LOT cheaper than what insurance costs each month. I have also found that insurance doesn't really cover much if something bad were to happen. I have many friends that have had to have major surgeries and such, are paying $200 or $300 bucks a month for the top tier of their insurance and still having to pay 25% or more in deductibles. If you just save $200 bucks a month in an IRA you'll have plenty of money for emergencies, you get to control it, and YOU get to make money of the interest and such. Heath insurance is a scam and one that is killing the healthcare industry.

In Missouri, Illinois, and Texas (at least all the places I've worked) they only have to let you go eat. You still have to take your phone with you and you still have to answer it and you still get docted like you had a 30 minute break. Mostly because if you wish to clock out 'no meal' you have to go tell the supervisor and she judges weither you 'chose' not to take a break or if you really didn't have time. It's all a load of crap if you ask me because in 3 years of nursing I can count the times on my fingers how many uninterrupted 30 minuted lunch breaks I've had. But I've only gotten to clock out 'no lunch' 4 times.

Well hum, As a cardiac step down nurse I made about 37K as a new grad. take home pay...that doesn't include 401K contribution or insurance benefits. It was abou $1400 every two weeks. My new job as a traveler RN I make about $1000 - $1300 every week, but I don't have heath insurance (because it was crazy expensive) and so far this year I didn't have work for 3 months.

I'd lock myself in a room with the over head pager device and start out "This is Nurse KalipsoRed and I quit because"....then start listing name along with the sins they commeted in detail. Example? "Hey MD Smith, you remember that patient that you were ****** off I wouldn't discharge because I felt something was wrong. Do you remember the the verbal beating you gave me for that? Well I don't remember you apologizing for being such a dick after that patient went into V-tach. You can come stand outside room 102 to gravel now and to praise me for saving you a law suit. Please start your graveling by stating something about how nursing judement is far more superior than doctors." (That's a true story by the way, but not the real name of the MD) "Next, will the committee that invented the 'new and improved' 20 page version of the rounding sheets come apologize for believing they are compentent and knowledgeable about bedside practice? You can begin your apology with "We're sorry we are such idiots..." " Makes me smile so big.

I say God's speed and I hope for a safe hectic work environment for you all until it blows over. Please don't take what I'm about to say as rude or not understanding. Think about it like you do when you see people from Texas freak out about a quarter inch of snow, but I think it's hilarious all the freaking out people are doing about a Catagory II hurricane. I've weathered a couple of those and a Catagory III at home on the Gulf Coast. We don't even worry about it until the start saying "Strong Catagory III possible VI on the way". I'm not saying we don't prep for the smaller storms, but it's just a normal walk in the park for us as a foot of snow is for ya'll in the winter. And since I live in a smaller town on the out skirts of Houston it isn't anything to wait a week or more to get electricity back after a hurricane. I just think it's a bit amusing to see the different perspectives. One thing's for sure, Mother Earth is trying to tell us something and that is: GET PREPAIRED. Just because it's not likely to happen doesn't mean we shouldn't all have a plan at our work enviornment and at home for weather that is uncommon for our part of the globe. Do your research and be better prepaird for the next rath of nature!

@ ZippyGBR I wasn't trying to make jibes at the UK. I've just read quite a few bloggers from the UK that mentioned something like 15:1 on medical-surgical floors and I think that is quite a heavy load. I've never experienced something that high here in the states, but I haven't made it to all the hospitals yet. :) I did not mean anything disrespectful by my statement. Sorry.

Thanks for all of your replys! I know well all know things need to change, but we just don't know how to get it done with the money constraints and legislation as it is. I want to start a campagin in my state called 'No more than 4' to hopefully improve regulations. I'm not sure weither unions or better regulations are the answer. Firstly, I'm not very familiar with unions. I grew up in a state that doesn't have many and thus I don't always understand how they work. From what I've read they have their pros and cons just like everything else. When I started this thread I was thinking more about the American Nurses Association doing some hardcore advertisement/public education about the benefits of med-surg nurses having no more than 4 patients. I got the idea because my friend who is a doctor was telling me that the American Medical Association advocated strongly for MD residents to have fewer patient loads in the interest of safety. They recently had some sucess and have lowered the legal amount of patients a resident can have.... Though he tells me enforcement of the new requirements is not very adequate yet and many residents are still being brow beaten into taking higher loads with threats of firing them. But at least they are working on having a leg to stand on! I don't know if a union is the answer or not. Personally I'm not in favor of a situation where a professional HAS to join a union to have a job. I would be more inclined for a mixed environment like ZippyGBR mentioned. But from what I've heard from some of our UK sisters/brothers in the profession, that set up isn't working all that well for them either as far as standard patient loads go. Thanks again to everyone who has shared their thoughts!

@Grn Tea, Thank you for your input, it is appriciated. I would, however, like to disagree with some of your comments. 1) The idea that "no one can make you feel inferior without your consent" is as silly as the saying "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words you say will never hurt me." As a person who delt with severe bullying due to obesity from the 3rd grade on, I understand your sentiment, but you are wrong. Words and actions do hurt, and make one feel worse and less competent. I was fortunate to be bullied in my youth and have such supportive and caring parents before I became a nurse. It is because my parents were so insistant on giving me value through all those years of being told I had none, and helping me see the uslessness of the words and actions against me by those that bullied me that I was able to recognize it when I started nursing. I knew how hollow and untrue the actions and words of derogitory doctors, nurses, and coworkers were and was able to quickly see that I was not a bad nurse, the system is bad, but not me. I think that is an awful lot to ask of someone to be able to recognize their worth as a nurse at the beginning of a new career. I certainly did not want to be the type of nurse to assume that I did everything right and not LISTEN to the opinions of those around me, because that is a counter productive way of learning. Like I said though, I had the benefit of recognizing bullying from my youth and thus able to recognize when a comment was just ment to hurt and one in which was ment to be constructive. I can't see how you can believe that newer nurses without this sort of childhood experience can possibly not be made to feel quite inferior in our line of work. In fact I would wager it is that feeling that causes the majority of losses of newer nurses (5 years experience or less) from the profession. 2) I do agree with you about unionizing. However, unless you are in a state that unions are common this is quite a confusing and scary step for a person to make. I'm from Texas, and while I know there are unions in Texas they are so few that I never met anyone who belonged to a union until I turned 24 and moved to Missouri. At my very first nursing job I would discuss my above concerns with nursing and I almost got fired for talking about 'unionizing' my hospital when I didn't know anything about what a union really was at that point! Just because I was saying we needed to work together and stand up for ourselves I almost got fired! How scary that was for a new grad who is $50,000 in the hole. I am working towards becoming unaffiliated with any institution and starting a campagin 'NO MORE THAN 4' to work towards unization in my state. I have also started training for a different career, because I have no illusions that such a campagin won't leave me jobless fairly quickly. 3) No there is nowhere that it is written that a nurse HAS to work for a hospital, however, it has been my experience that those without hospital experience are UNLIKELY to get a non-bedside position. Not to mention that those jobs are in high demand which means that more qualified nurses will get those nice non-bedside, 9 -5, feel great about life positions instead of newer less experienced nurses like myself. And really unless the economy changes pretty soon those jobs will become fewer so hang on to yours. Not to mention that some of us would like to be 'just' a bedside nurse if we didn't have to deal with giving people sh***y care. Again, Thank you for sharing your opinion.

Does anyone know how to start a revolution? I'd like to know because I think our profession is in serious need of a nationwide strike...quite possibly a global one. Of the 4 hospitals I've worked at 3 of them have awful working conditions....and I've worked in 4 hospitals in several states and different cities so I don't just think its the 'region' I'm in. From the horror stories I've read about nursing in the U.K., I guess I should feel lucky to have an 8:1 ratio, no aids, on a post op ortho floor. I love caring for people...I became a nurse to care for people, but I'm just darn tired of our 'profession'. We are still treated like waitresses and ****** on severly by upper management and hospital administration in my opinion. There is very little professional respect given to us...there is a lot of talk about giving us respect, but it rarely happens. We mistake all the hot air about respect from our managers/hospital administrators for real respect, just because they talk about it a lot doesn't mean they are doing it. What is worse is that I feel that it is horribly misleading to encourage ANYONE into our line of work. We talk about being fufilled by helping others and what not in our profession, or at least that's the line of bull I fell for when I decided to become a nurse. Hospitals (75% of them in my experience) don't want us to provide care to patients. You'll be lucky to see your patient again after assessment and med pass. I understand that medicine is a business, BUT here's the kicker: Don't ask me to be compassionate, caring, and customer serivce oriented if your bottom line is more important than my patients. I can't provide good service to 7,8, or 10 people at a time. There's a reason that research is showing that a basice med surg nurse should have no more than 4....you know why? Because that is the number of patients the RESEARCH is showing to be a safe and feesible. And to be frank I'm tired of being the hospital's scapegoat for unmet unreasonable expectations Why do we allow are selves to put up with being gripped at for staying late but knowing we can't leave until we are done? I've seen nurses clock out on time just to stay for 2 more hours to finish up. THAT IS NOT OKAY! I've seen nurses clock out that they got to have a lunch when I know for certian that they didn't, just because they don't want to get in trouble with management. This is perpetuating false beliefs in what we are capable of! We brow beat each other when other nurses are not willing to work like a dog and stand up for themselves. It's usually because then we get screwed into taking on the load that that nurse wouldn't take, but really what we should be doing is saying no too. We tell other people who have less loads but still high loads, that they are lucky and should quit complaning about their job. HELLO! We should ALL have reasonable loads and just because you are taking care of 8 people instead of 12 does not mean that either load is good! We should all be able to go to work and on a regular basis (75% of the time) be able to have 2 breaks and a 30 minute lunch, do a through check of our patient's charts for errors and missed orders, have time to spend with our patients and know their needs, and leave ON TIME!! That shouldn't be a dream! That should be the average day! We should be complaining about missing a break, not missing urinating for 12 hours! I do not, cannot, understand why there are nurses out there who stab us in the back with the ideal that they took care of 20 people back in the day so we need to shut up and quit complaining about our 8. Well the fact was you were getting screwed back in the day too, I'm sorry they treated you that way, but that doesn't make our current loads right. We need a revolution. We need to say no, not just for our sakes but for our patients! And it isn't just nurses, this is for most of the people in medicine. 80 - 100 people for a doctor to see in a hospital in a 14 hour shift is crazy unreasonable too. I have a friend who is having to do this right now and I told that to a doctor I worked with and his response is that my friend was 'lucky'. Crazy!!! It's all maddness I tell you and we aren't helping anyone by not be more vocal about it!!!!!!

Actually what it sounds like is the first hospital you worked at was really nice and where you are working now is normal. Welcome to nursing.

Be upfront about being employed now and that you go this job after you had filled out your application for a job at their hospital. That is understandable. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SAY DURING YOUR INTERVIEW THAT YOU HAD NOT PLANNED TO STAY AT THE JOB YOU CURRENTLY HAD FOR A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME. That is just a really bad and stupid thing to say in an interview. It makes you look like you are just 'using' a job and can dispose of it whenever you see fit. (Which is the reality but that is not what potiental employers want to hear so just don't say it.) Just play up the fact that you really enjoyed working for the hospital that you use to work at and that the job you have now is not turning out to be a very good fit. If they ask you why the new job isn't working out mention the fact that you feel the new job is unorganized, unsupportive of its staff, and lacks resources for new grads. Try not to say anything more than that or to go on and on about why your new job sucks so bad. If you get the job after your interview they will ask what your start date can be, make sure to include time for a two week notice at the job you hate. Yeah, I can understand wanting to dump a crappy job, but it's bad corporate etiquette to do it any other way and will reflect poorly on you.