1st travel assignment help!

Sour Lemon · Jan 5, 2017

So I just signed an 8 week contract with a travel company. This is my first assignment. Well I turned in everything they asked me to about 3 weeks back. I was asked to end my previous employment by January 3rd so I could start this assignment by January 4th. Well on the 3rd I was traveling to my assignment when my recruiter called and notified me my background check was not back yet and I could not start. I was advised to go ahead and get a hotel for the night and possibly it would show up by in the morning and I could just start a few hours late. Well it never came on the 4th. So the travel company paid for another night at the hotel. So here I am stuck in a hotel in which I've already paid for 1 night, groceries, and gas to travel. My question is, say the background check is not complete by the end of the week and I have to go back home (2.5 hrs away). Am I entitled to atleast get my housing and meal reimbursement ($1000)? I find this situation difficult since I was told to quit my job by a certain date which I did and now I'm stuck without a job essentially. I could be back home working this week. I can't simply afford to miss out on the hours, but it's too late. So am I entitled to the reimbursement although I did not work a single hour this week since my recruiter told me to still come to the job area?

What does your contract say about it?

dcmartin25 · Jan 5, 2017

Well in terms of housing it states, they will offer of subsidy of $x.xx per week. In terms of meals it states will offer professional a per diem subsidy of $x.xx per week for all meals and incidental expenses. As for those topics thats it. My start date of contract is 1/4/17.

Delia37, MSN · Jan 5, 2017

Since the delay is on their end, it seems more than fair to assume you will be reimbursed. Discussed the situation with your recruiter....everything is negotiable.

Been there,done that, ASN, RN · Jan 5, 2017

It's in the contract, somewhere. Up to the travel company's interpretation. A reputable company will cover your housing, not meals. ( Ya gotta eat somewhere.)

They should have not sent you without the proper documentation, however a lot of recruiters are not thorough. Call them 3 times a day, make sure they on top of it. They should be scrambling to obtain that background check.

Best of luck with this, let us know how it turns out.

Trauma Columnist · Jan 5, 2017

Moved to Travel nursing forum

NedRN · Jan 5, 2017

Chances are that there is "at-will" language in your contract (or employee handbook, or signed application) that effectively means they don't have to pay you. There could also be required arbitration that would stop you from suing them in a regular court (not that it would be worth it anyway). You may have missed hospital orientation that will cause a one week, two week, or one month delay in starting. Stay professional and hope the agency does the same so you can negotiate something fair later.

Bottom line is you are stuck and you have a tough decision on when to bail. But you need to move forward. You are eligible for unemployment but it won't begin until you file (an online process in most states). File now just in case you are unemployed for a month or more. Start calling other agencies to find recruiters that click, and sign up fully with at least three. That will give you options in the near future, and much faster turnaround should anything like this ever occur.

Your agency really dropped the ball. This is not your fault. It would make me mad enough to sue them (which of course is not practical nor is likely to be successful).

There is a good chance you made an unknowingly bad decision in picking this agency and assignment. This might even be a good thing! 8 week assignments are not good choices for first time travelers generally and could have been really tough to impossible. Short assignments are usually higher paying for good reasons. The facility is often desperate and has really bad working conditions with high patient ratios. Even if not, they expect a nurse who can land on their feet running with minimal orientation (the hospital cannot amortize your orientation over the normal 13 weeks). If you have only ever worked at one hospital, it will be hard for you to picture how difficult it can be to do that at a new hospital with a different culture, no familiar faces and their roles and helpfulness, a different patient population, and completely different charting and computer programs.

preemiepoweredRN · Jan 9, 2017

That's awful.. I've had a company linger to the last minute with some details but not the background check. I would think you should be entitled to at least part if not all the reimbursement seeing that you traveled with the intention to start on time.. Sounds like the compliance dept. dropped the ball and you shouldn't have to pay for that.

dcmartin25 · Jan 10, 2017

UPDATE: They actually received my background the following day and I started Friday. So atleast I got two days in that week which entitled me to my reimbursements which is what I really cared about mostly. Excellent facility, nice staff, and great patients. They did however throw me on the floor with ZERO orientation other than playing around with their computer system for a few minutes. I survived with the help of other staff members and had the hang out everything by the end of the night. Overall it was a great experience. Already have an option to extend another 8 or 13 weeks. BTW they only offered 8 weeks due to them never using travelers and wanting to test the waters first. So... positive end to a not so positive beginning. Recruiter was great throughout as well.

NedRN · Jan 11, 2017

Thanks for the update! Very rare.