signing contract papers

[sassyrn07]

hello all,

i am a graduate nurse who has just been accepted into a 12 month icu internship program. i was asked to come in tomorrow to sign contract papers, ( they orient me for one year, i commit to their hospital for two years). i am very unfamiliar with this process and would like to do my best not to be taken advantage of. can anyone offer me advice regarding questions i should ask before signing this contract? are there nurses out there who would offer me guidance so i can be as educated as possible before i sign. during my interviews, the employee benefits package was summarized for me, at this time can i ask exactly what i am entitled to? i feel slightly clueless and would really like to look at an employee policy/benefits package before i commit or is that not how it's done?

[mitchsmom]

You may want to try and talk to a few nurses on your new unit if you can, maybe they can give you some scoop.

If you have scheduling needs or limitations, you may want to address that. For example, in my contract I wish that I had negotiated for 3 day weeks with every3rd day off.

I also wish we had written down the agreed-on raise schedule - I was told I'd get a raise after 6 months but when the time came, it didn't happen and it wasn't in my contract so there ya go.

While I've got my hindsight goggles on, I'd throw in on-call specifications (like no more than x amount of call in x amount of time frame).

You may also want to throw in vacation requests while you've got bargaining power (for example, a new guy on our unit got 6 weeks to travel across the country, something that he had already planned).

I would think that you would be able to look at a benefits package before you sign on - insurance, 401k and that sort of thing I think is usually kind of set.

I guess the amount of bargaining power you have depends on your area and your hospital - there is a big need for nurses in my area and I probably could have gotten all of this & more if I had known to ask. But now? Forget about it!

Best wishes :)

[llg, PhD, RN]

If I were considering signing 2 full years of my life away, I would want my lawyer to review the contract. I would also want to 100% sure I understood what would happen if I wanted to leave before completing the 2-year committment. I would also want to be very sure that I would be happy with the people I would be working with -- and have written schedule guidelines and all other job requirements spelled out. I would also want to know if the hospital was free to assign you anywhere in the hospital or whether they had to use you on the unit of your choice.

Frankly, I probably wouldn't sign a contract unless I was happy with the penalty if I chose to resign early. There are simply too many things that can go wrong. I would always want to know that I could leave if things got too bad. I would be willling to pay them back for my training, assuming that the arrangements to pay them back in cash would be reasonable.