Traveling Nurse Question

Silverdragon102, BSN · Nov 21, 2019

Moved to the Travel Nursing forum

NedRN · Nov 21, 2019

Non compete clauses for specific assignment facilities. If you are submitted to a particular assignment and work at a hospital for an assignment, you are then prohibited to working directly for the hospital or another agency at that hospital for a certain period of time, usually 6 months these days (used to be one year). After that period ends you are free to return to that hospital for another employer. And that is the best strategy should you not want to use your former agency.

Non compete clauses are difficult to uphold in court for ordinary workers such as nurses, and are specifically illegal in some states such as California for even high value employees. That is just background information and of course you wouldn't want to involve lawyers just to switch agencies or take a permanent staff job at a hospital you just worked for.

You are a contract worker as a traveler and your agency has no other claim on your services once your contract has been completed. So yes, you can sign up for, and work for, as many agencies as you want.

That said, you have to carefully control multiple agencies. Some agencies will submit you to multiple assignments without your consent. The way this industry works is the first agency to submit you "owns you" for that facility for some undefined period of time, but usually just for the assignment under consideration - maybe one month. So if you hear of the assignment from another agency you like better and perhaps pays more, you are stuck. Make it clear to any recruiter you sign up with that they must clear any submission to you first. Also makes you look bad to the hospital if you turn down an assignment you were submitted to, and a recruiter may lay a big guilt trip on you for turning it down.