Travel Nurse Bait and Switch?

[alaskaman]

I accepted a travel 13 wk assignment for ICU with floating to other units. Since arrival I have worked ICU 2 days and tele/med surg 16 days. That is not an ICU with float. Thats a med surg/tele nurse with ICU float.

Looking for ways to handle this. My travel company is watching closely. They are surprised as well.

Suggestions appreciated.

[mskate]

Welcome to travel nursing.

You will find this to be the rule in most hospitals, and not the exception. Gotta sort out the frequency of floats in your contract before agreeing to it and get it in writing. Some nurses spend their entire "icu contract" assignments on med surg. It sucks, but its reality.

[caroladybelle, BSN, RN]

This is a frequent scam with several variations. The main theory is that the nurse interviews for a higher level unit with favorable ratios and conditions, such as oncology, Bmt, IMU, telemetry. They deliberately overstaff with travelers. Agency is always first float. They then float them all over the place to the floors that no one will take an assignment in, because of poor ratios/conditions.

Back in the days when Canadian nurses could work in some states without passing the NCLEX, a certain for-profit Philadelphia hospital pulled this stunt with their nonUS travelers, knowing that their contracts were longer and that they had less redress if they wished to stay in the US.

[alaskaman]

I talked with the Unit Charge early AM when I arrived and expressed my concerns. she echoed those and said that two staff nurses will be off for 5 weeks. I asked her if she would convey to the Manager my dissatifaction and she said "absolutely will". I also spoke with the ICU CNS and let her know my feelings. They were both receptive understanding and without making promises seemed to be alert to my goals. I soft shoed it e.g. low voice, eye contact....and that seemed to work well. We shall see.....thanks for the support and the education of this issue.