Reasons Hospitals Will Not Have Traveler Back?

gonzo1, ASN, RN · May 16, 2012

Don't take it personally. This is no doubt a case of who ever gets to choose which nurses are used decided against you. You will probably never know why. I have traveled and have several friends that do too.

Most of us have been someplace we were really happy, and extended a couple of times, and then not extended while they brought in new travel nurses.

It does hurt your feelings, but you gotta move on. Reapply there sometime in the future and don't be surprised if they don't take you again. Seen it happen lots.

Maybe think about redying your hair. There is definately some ageism out there.

P_RN, ADN, RN · May 16, 2012

I have never been a traveler, but I do believe I have been age discriminated. My last work place every nurse over age 55 lets say, started to accumulate verbal warnings-2 codes on their patients in a month, overtime 3x in a pay period, my favorite was clocked in on wrong clock.

After I took Social Security Disability retirement, I would get calls from friends that so and so was fired. When I went back to personnel to find out why I never got my work retirement approved I was floored to find out I had been FIRED! Not so, but it took me a lawyer and several thousand dollars to prove it.

Right after my lawsuit was settled I got a call that a certain person (HN) had been escorted to the door. Hmmmmm!

I believe that is probably your case. But I doubt you can prove it without a lawyer, several ulcers, and persistent headaches.

adoula · May 16, 2012

I just turned 60 years old and am in good health. I am a neonatal ICU nurse with 35 years of experience. I have a BSN plus a number of years of graduate school. I have been traveling for 5 years. I have never had any complaints about my nursing care. A few places that I have worked the gossip, (especially about older travel nurses), has been excessive and not hidden! There is a hospital whose census has been through the roof and I worked there within the last year, (less). Several of the nurses who worked with me said they hoped I would return and some private messaged me to come help them. I submitted my profile when there were plenty of openings with no reply, (only a pending). Now the positions have all been filled that were posted with various companies. The first time I worked there I was called back within 24 hours.
Has anyone else experienced this? I know that they are not obligated to tell you why and do not. I wonder if it is my age? I have white hair and quit coloring it a few years back. I started to have gray hairs when I was 25 years old. It runs in my family. I do not look ancient either. I do not participate in gossip, but sometimes overhear it. I am professional and have good communication skills. I love my recruiter. There are no positions open in my hometown that I am immediately qualified for. I will have been a nurse 39 years in June. My adult experience is dated.

I did not get fired or anything and there were no complaints or anything about the care I gave. I just wondered why. I, too, have extended multiple times other places. As far as the hair. It is so thick and course, (though well cut), that it does not keep permanent color in for more than two weeks. That is why I stopped. My hair color is even, not yellowish, and looks good with my skin tone. Even if I did color it, one cannot hide their age. I am not planning to have plastic surgery any time soon, especially to fulfill someone's idea of what other nurses think I should look like. There are quite a few nurses in the units I have worked that are around my age and do not look as good as I do, anyway. I was surprised because a number of staff emailed me and ask if I would return to help them...Oh well, thanks for your input. In fact, I received compliments and notes about my care.???

Editorial Team / Admin · May 16, 2012

It could also be that the hospital has decided to do away with travelers- that's what the hospital where I work did. They closed two floors and "redeployed" the nurses working on those floors to others, and did not renew any traveler contracts. Even when there aren't enough nurses to go around, they still don't allow travelers. That included other occupations as well, such as CRNAs. If any of our (longtime) traveler CRNAs wanted to continue working at the hospital, they had to become employees, and many became PRN or casual employees. It's all about the money- travelers cost more money than longterm employees.

BuckyBadgerRN, ASN, RN · May 17, 2012

It could also be that the hospital has decided to do away with travelers- that's what the hospital where I work did. They closed two floors and "redeployed" the nurses working on those floors to others, and did not renew any traveler contracts. Even when there aren't enough nurses to go around, they still don't allow travelers. That included other occupations as well, such as CRNAs. If any of our (longtime) traveler CRNAs wanted to continue working at the hospital, they had to become employees, and many became PRN or casual employees. It's all about the money- travelers cost more money than longterm employees.

Definately some merit to this post! Agency nurses are expensive and I know that several hospitals around me do not use them nearly as much as they used to!

kcmylorn · May 17, 2012

I was a traveler back in 2004-2006 when I was in my late 40's. Times were different back then- older nurses were still getting hired, the thought of agism never crossed our minds. I had 2 travel assignments- each one I kept renewing every 13 weeks for an entire year. Back then the reason hospitals stopped hiring travelers was the Magnet excuse. The hospital would apply for magnet status and was not to have any agency supplemental staffing.. I don't think that's the case anymore. The travel industry became almost non existant back in 2007-2008. It seems it's just starting to pick up again- I get atleast 2 calls for agency recruiters every 2-3 days.

What I have noticed is, as I was signed up with a local agency to do perdeim and could only get a few shifts, I would get an e-mail or a voice message, call on it right away only to be told - it was already filled. Then I would get the agency suggest I take a private duty case for a quad aprox 60-70 min away from my house. I've never done private duty in my life. They would send me out on shifts for LTC, again I'm not a LTC nurse for $35/hr. All my experience had been inpatient- the past 10 of which was cardiac surg stepdown and tele. The position I responded to was a 1 day a week home infusion case for $50/hr- that position was given to a younger nurse, I know for a fact, I worked with the nurse who took that position- she let it slip one day. She also got in on a local hospital needing a hand full of agency nurses to do supplemental staffing for their tele units I was told the by the agency, my profile was turned down. I told the agency not to call or email me again, That I was sick and tired of all the opportunites going to the younger nurses.

I would venture to say- that in your case, that position went to a younger nurse with bare minimum experience.

I would love to go back travel again. At one time travel nursing was mostly older nurses sick of the day to day floor politics, but now- we could get our homes foreclosed on and cars repo'd before we would get an assignment. Those agencies get the same amount of money from a hospital for "a nurse", the agency takes it's big cut and the nurse gets what is left over. Maybe those recruiters are taking bigger cuts than ever to make up for the slow economy. Either way- I have refused to be a party to it. i have been finding my own temp positions and finally after 4 yrs got a permentant full time position in a speciality that is new for me. The temp positions I took, taught me new areas of nursing and new skills but you had to have the mega acute care experience behind it. For the past 4 yrs I have been doing nursing positions in offices- dept of health, public health, clinics. I wouldn't even consider going back to hospital nursing- the conditions are abusive and a disgrace. I have no respect for nursing administration anymore for what they have become. (Corporate **'s) All this bunk about keeping the experienced nurse at the bedside- Mr Peter Buhause needs to go back to the bedside himself to see what it has become.

brandy1017, ASN, RN · May 17, 2012

I have never been a traveler, but I do believe I have been age discriminated. My last work place every nurse over age 55 lets say, started to accumulate verbal warnings-2 codes on their patients in a month, overtime 3x in a pay period, my favorite was clocked in on wrong clock.
After I took Social Security Disability retirement, I would get calls from friends that so and so was fired. When I went back to personnel to find out why I never got my work retirement approved I was floored to find out I had been FIRED! Not so, but it took me a lawyer and several thousand dollars to prove it.
Right after my lawsuit was settled I got a call that a certain person (HN) had been escorted to the door. Hmmmmm!
I believe that is probably your case. But I doubt you can prove it without a lawyer, several ulcers, and persistent headaches.

So did you quit working over an injury or illness and than they tried to deny you your pension? But once you got a lawyer you were able to get it reinstated. I've heard of older workers being let go on pretexts and always wondered if you lose your pension?

BostonTerrierLover, BSN, RN · May 17, 2012

This is sick, I just totally blew a great mood over this, I hate this happened to you guys! I got DNR'd (Do Not Return)'d over someone's clerical error (who meant to DNR someone on a line above me), and have a similar story- it took 4 months, and over 40 calls to straighten out the error.

I was laying in bed when my recruiter called, I was half-way through my 4th extension of 6 weeks. She said, "[My Name], they have terminated your contract, is there any reason this would happen?"

Me: "No, I just got off 30 minutes ago, and the staffer/bed control operator said, "see you tonight." I was supposed to be off."

"Can I call them?" Recruiter, (who had known me and my track record for 4 years) No, We will figure out what is going on in the morning, but for now, pack-up, there's nothing else to do on this current assignment anyway."

I was heart broken! I recieved a call the next am after being up all night panicking, and my agency said that they stated I "practiced out of their policy and procedure." (although this wasn't even me). My floor didn't call me when I was absent the next day- because they got a copy of the work order stop-DNR. When I found out they had reported those words against me, I got on it. I called and called, and called- until I got the manager who worked that night, and she said simply, something went wrong, it wasn't you who was DNR'd. It took another week to straighten out the mess.

A week without pay, that I had to pay my hotel room costs, and waited under suspicion from people at my agency. I got the call that everything had been cleared, and I could begin work the next morning at 6:45 AM, now 854 miles from the hospital, without a Hotel, back home. I was soooooooooooo angered! I never got the FIRST apology, save my agency, and my awesome recruiter-but it was ME who got to the bottom of what in the world happened that night in Staffing.

The sickest part of the whole ordeal was that it let the Nurse in question who was diverting ER Narcotics in large quanities, who tested positive for 3 different narcotics on a urine drug screen for suspicion work several days over the original incident, while I took the consequences of her actions. By the way, after the reason reached the agency, I was drug tested 3 times, Lol while she practiced all because someone highlighted the wrong line on the contract list!

It's a Jungle Out There!

:redbeatheBoston

lawandaluxnurse, ADN, BSN · May 17, 2012

Nursing jut sucks these days not other way to say it

Patti_RN · May 17, 2012

It's horrible this happened to you. There really is no way to know why you weren't hired; yes, it could be age discrimination, or it could be the director's cousin wanted the job. Not only do you not know the reason, but it's unlikely you'll ever find out.

There are other reasons (more plausible) that you weren't called back. It could be something as simple as the rate your agency charges compared to the rate other agencies charge. If the hospital's cost for having you there is $100/hour* and they can get another agency nurse for $85/hour, they'll choose the cheaper one. Or, the hospital filled many of those jobs by hiring employees rather than using travelers so you were competing with more travelers for fewer spots.

We always tend to take these things personally when it happens to us--and sometimes it IS personal (or a mistake as Boston Terrier experienced). But, more often these are financial decisions, or general policy decisions that have little or nothing to do with the individual involved.

*To anyone reading '$100/hour' this is NOT the compensation the individual receives by traveling. It's the total cost paid to the agency to have a nurse work at their facility. That money gets divided into pay/compensation, airfare, apartment costs, and agency fees, etc. So, new nurses, student nurses, or others who aren't familiar... don't expect to get a traveling job and make $100/ hour!

llg, PhD, RN · May 17, 2012

We always tend to take these things personally when it happens to us--and sometimes it IS personal (or a mistake as Boston Terrier experienced). But, more often these are financial decisions, or general policy decisions that have little or nothing to do with the individual involved.
QUOTE]
Excellent point. The reasons for not asking the OP to return may have nothing to do with her. My hospital has a policy limiting the amount of time any individual travel can work in our institution without taking time away from us. That is to prevent people who want to work for us on a regular basis from coming as a more expensive traveler rather than take a budgeted position.
The intent of the policy is, "If you want to work for us for more than a couple of months, apply for one of our jobs!" It has nothing to do with whether or not we like a particular person, age discrimination, or anything like that. We just don't want half our staff to become "permanent travelers" working here costing us more than they would if they were employed by us. I've known lots of hospitals to have similar policies.