Travel Nursing

Moved to the Travel nurse forum

I am sure this topic has been burned into the ground, but here it goes....I need help. I am slightly overwhelmed by the number of travel agencies and finding a good one. I have a few in mind: Travel nurse across America, RNnetwork, MAS medical staffing, and Independent Healthcare Staffing. Please, any insight into these agencies would greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I am in the middle of working with the travel company _Nurses Rx_ which is under the umbrella of companies of AMNHealthcare. I am glad you posted this because I want to let everyone know that Nurses Rx neglected to inform me that my start date was pushed back by 2 weeks. I moved to Washington DC in preparation for my job that was to start 11/27 and I was called less than a day before. My recruiter told me less than 24 hours from my scheduled start time that I wouldn't be starting when I thought I was.

My recruiter said that he called me twice the week before but I never got a message. He didn't send an email and admitted that he should have. I want to let everyone know that this is pretty tough -- to have moved, and then to be told I won't be working. So I would recommend to you to have your ducks in a row and hold your recruiter to his/her word. If s/he says you're starting on a certain day, then make sure s/he emails you with updates that you're still supposed start. Hold him/her to what s/he said to you because in the end, it doesn't seem to matter to my recruiter that I am staying in my relatives' basement not working. Actually, I've been told my recruiter makes money if I get placed so who knows what happened with that!

I just hope that what happened to me doesn't happen to anyone else. Please message me with questions, I'd be glad to help.

I'm no litigator but, I would think that if you signed a contract to start on said date and then it fell through and they failed to notify you that you would be entitled to some monies some how or another.

I've been with TNAA for the last 5 1/2 years, and I love them! When my 1st recruiter left to have a baby and I didn't mesh well with the new one, I called and told Ida, the receptionist what was happening. She put me through to the CEO who took care of everything. Derek, my recruiter, is amazing. I've accepted assignments with 2 other agencies that totally fell through, but I've never had a issue with TNAA. Ashley from housing has returned midnight calls, and taken care of me on weekends and days off. (I have horrible luck with housing, it's not the company).

I've been with RN Network for 2 years now, and they use to be great, but things seem to have changed last spring and I don't enjoy working for them any more. The only good thing now about RN Network is that they pay for up to 4 weeks of your health insurance in between assignements.

However, it seems that last spring somethng major changed with the company. Here are the things I noticed:

There is a major lack of communication between departments.

I have to go over every pay stub with a fine tooth comb looking for errors because I seem to find them on a regular basis. I was billed multiple times in one week for my weekly health insurance payment and nobody could tell me why and I still haven't been reimbursed for it. I showed up to work at my assignment and they canceled me, but told me per their policy and per my contract that since I wasn't canceled with a certain amount of notice I had to be pad for 4 hours. The charge nurse, unit manager, and nursing supervisor approved those 4 hours. Nine months later, RN Network docked 4 hours of pay from my paycheck at another assignment because I wasn't working those 4 hours. However, they billed the hospital for me being there for 4 hours.

I've had issues with housing and also issues with contracts being canceled within a day or a few days of the start date and the recruiter didn't tell the other departments, so I ended up having issues with my health insurance and documentation. Then I got a call form the training person form the hospital asking why I wasn't in class and she didn't know the contract was canceled.

I use to be asked about my housing preferences if I was taking the housing. Now I just get an email or phone call saying, "here is your housing. Not what you need? Too bad."

I've accepted contracts with a certain hourly pay rate, then when I get my confirmation documentation/contract, the pay rate is much, much lower, so I tell them I don't want the assignment and they try to get me to take the assignment for 2 weeks before looking for a new assignment.

Something has changed with RN Network and I don't like it.

Thank you:) I know it is a person question, but how is their pay?

I have been with HRN for one contract. I too had to go over every detail of my pay stubs. But the lady who was in charge of my stub was wonderful and very understanding. She would call me each week to let me know my hours worked, ect. In my case, it was not HRN that was messing up my hours but the hospital i was working at. The hospital would put in the hours i worked and if i missed any meals or breaks...so whoever was putting them in (different managers) would sometimes fudge on them.

HRN was not too helpful in offering to find me housing (I was contracted for 8 weeks at a time) and they said there is NO apartment complex in the area of the hosptial that would allow 8 week tenant. Come to find out, there was, they just either did not have "connections" or did not want to mess with it.

I have met MANY travelers and what I have seemed to conclude is that every company has its faults. When i first started, one recruiter lied to me about benefits, pay and housing. It was a MESS and i almost gave up the hope of traveling until i found HRN. Talk to a couple different companies and recruiters, feel them out, and go with what feels right inside. You can always change companies after an assignment is over if you are not satisfied.

another thing to make sure you go over EVERY detail of your contract before signing it. The hourly pay was incorrect for one of my assignments, I emailed my recruiter and she fixed it immediately. In everything you do, be very diligent and write everything down! the details about pay, housing, utilities...everything. because they could change it on you and you want to be able to catch it.