CacaoNut2

What the "bean counters" don't understand is that the new, younger ones being hired do NOT do the SAME job that the experienced nurses do. We are the ones that teach the new ones how to be "real" nurses because they are not prepared to hit the floors running when they just get out of school. It will end up being the same as back when they tried to replace nurses with "patient techs", and people started dying. Soon more people will die unnecessarily because there are not enough experienced nurses on duty to care for all the patients that the nurses are expected to care for. It is not the nurses fault, and many of them will be quitting the hospitals because it will become too much for them...resulting in even less available nurse:patient ratio.

Ditto all that! You sure you're not working a hospital in Central Illinois?? Sounds just like my home town hospital unit. I tell folks that Nitro and Heparin gtts were our "bread and butter" on my floor there, and we titrated all those others besides. When I got to MO, they literally freaked out about the Nitro, especially. Only use nitro paste on anyone not in ICU/CCU. Imagine....no more hourly BPs with 8-10 patients I'm assigned to!! But you know.....I really miss my nitro gtts. And the paste just doesn't always do the trick.....just MHO! So interesting to find the differences in hospitals! I love it!

They are not all the same. CC and AMN are referred to as the "evil empire" among travelers. For one list of ratings of various agencies, go to "Highway Hypodermics". There is a list of travel nurse companies that are rated by benefits/perks/etc using a "syringe" for every item. Ratings go from "21" (highest rating) to "1" (lowest rating). It doesn't cover all the agencies, but gives an idea as to what benefits/perks/etc. are offered/available by a lot of the agencies....and which are not. Also, not all benefits are important to every traveler. This way it was easier for me to determine which agencies I wanted to look into when I decided to return to traveling. It all comes out of one bill rate, and there is only so much of the "pie" that can be used for paying the travelers. That includes salary and benes, so know what is important to you in your situation. It can make a difference in your overall take home. Hope this helps!