Scheduling

[Moon child]

So I have just signed my first travel nursing assignment... Yay!

But the only bad thing about it, is that the hospital that I will be working for has told me that they will be doing all my scheduling themselves. Aka "filling me in the gaps where needed."

I will also be working night shift, so working shifts that aren't in a row is going to be horrible for me.

Has as anyone else encountered this in travel nursing? I was under the assumption that I signed myself up for the days I was available through my agency and those were the dates the hospital got my help.

I feel like maybe I'm being taken advantage of since I'm new and I am unaware of how this all works.

Let me know your all's thoughts! (:

[NedRN]

Actually, that is fairly standard. Self scheduling for travelers is extremely rare.

Schedule is something worth discussing in the interview as something important to you (and many others). Some schedulers really go the extra mile to meet everyone's needs, even travelers, and others do not. There are some travelers who want gaps between shifts, and others who want stacked shifts. Sometimes you can be accommodated.

By definition, hospitals that use travelers are short staffed and have to plug the most urgent holes. You might consider that abuse, but a well managed hospital is still going to try to treat staff better than travelers - that is just natural. Some hospitals really keep staffing levels high, and you are more likely to get shifts you want. Obviously many California hospitals are good examples of this with staffing ratio laws that are near optimal.

Oh, congrats! Steep learning curve your first few assignments, but you should learn how to get what you want. You may even have a good schedule on this assignment!