Why are others nurses rude to agency nurses?

I have just started agency nursing and I'm just wondering why the staff is so mean to a agency nurse. If we were not available to help they would be short? I have encountered rude people and just wondering what is up with that?

I have never worked in a hospital that uses agency nurses. My mgr's goal is to "keep the agency out." I did clinicals in a hospital that used several agency nurses. It was the agency nurses vs. the staff. The staff was very rude to the agency nurses and gave them the CRAP assignments and way too many pts. BUT, I think the reason they were so awful to the agency nurses is that the hospital was awful to work for. There were a lot of internal mgmt problems and the hospital nearly went under. None of the nurses were happy. They received insulting pay and had terrible benefits. I think they took out a lot of their frustrations on the agency. I guess a lot of it depends on the climate of the particular hospital you go to work for. At our hospital we have asked for agency nurses because we need the help so bad, so I don't think we would be mean. Our particular floor is like family and very accepting to new employees. Hope this helps.

Ive seen this ALOT probably too much. I guess it's the old your an 'outsider' as in outside of the click. Unfortunate.

Specializes in CVICU,PACU.

I do occasional agency work for a local hospital and have found that most nurses I work with are really friendly when you are really friendly. I really go out of my way to say hello and start up a conversation with my coworkers. When most people see you are kind and a hardworker they warm up quickly. Although, I have worked with nurses and CNA's who could care less about agency nurses and ignore you. I just always try to stay positive.

Specializes in OR, OB, EM, Flight, ICU, PACU.......
Every travel contract I have signed states that I am not to divulge my salary to anyone at the contracting facility, even the facility mgr, and I never have. I've never known of any travel nurses doing this, but I have seen travel techs walk around showing regular staff their pay stubs!:uhoh3:

As a traveler, I rarely get any kind of orientation to a facility. So, I do things my own way at first, then after I have enough time on the unit to become familiar w/ how the facility does things, I pretty much do things their way. "When in Rome..."

I also find that many travelers are frequently much harder working than some regular staff.

Travelers have to make an impression, lest they get DNR'ed, or not have their contracts extended. If I make a bad impression at one facility, I may not be allowed back to any of their facilities. A traveler could lose out on hundreds of opportunities this way.

I have had 3 contracts with the same health care company in the last 14 mos and have worked at 4 of their facilities.

Travelers are usually quick to make friends with reg staff and other travelers alike, as they don't have much time to get to know staff or pts.

Of course we know that there are good and bad nurses of every ilk.

:twocents: I was a travel nurse in a small town in N.W. Neb. my first time out. If you know small towns, then you will know that Everyone knows Everyone's business! After a few weeks of gratuitous insults about how much I was "costing the hospital", I finally cornered the biggest mouth in the place, and told her she too could make the kind of salary I was (it wasn't much more than the staff nurses) ; all she had to do was go out and get 20+ years of OR experience, and leave her family for extended periods of time! Shut her right up. To another a few years later, who must have thought we make mega-bucks, I told her the reason I was (then) driving that late '90s Ford wasn't because my Ferrari was in the shop all the time! Shut her up too!

I too have seen too many agency/travellers get the worst patients/shifts/surgeons, the worst call shifts etc. I have also seen too many (me included) become the scapegoat for the regular staff's gaffs and mistakes. I have also seen Travellers who had some pretty weird ideas about just what their jobs were, including the ususal " we don't do that in .........(wherever U.S.A.).

Personally, I don't divulge my salary or contract info to anyone , unless they turn out to be a pretty good friend, it's no one's business other than mine. Besides, in a lot of hospitals, Traveller's salaries come out of the Hospital, Not the OR's budget, and get written off at the end of the year! Basically, I don't listen to the whiners, and know that no matter how good you are, there are many reasons not to be asked to extend/ return/ sign on. Just don't take it personally, and ALWAYS do your job and CYA!

Have fun!

"And now, for something completely different!"

Specializes in Surgical Nursing, Agency Nursing, LTC.

As an lpn in agency.. I have had RN's make little remarks or speculations about my pay such as.. "You probably get paid more than I do and I'm staff". No the remark translated is... Why r u an lpn getting paid more $$ than me an RN?

I can understand why they would think that but I feel I get looked at funny because I chose a career (agency nursing) that pays a lot more $$$ for my lpn position than being a staff nurse at that particular hospital. I do everything the RN's do and some considered me an RN before they knew I wasn't an RN. I'm pursing my RN degree now but once I do get my RN degree...I plan on still continuing my agency work...making even more $$$$ than I do now.

Why do staff complain about how much an agency makes when they can just as easily make that same amount of money if they join agency/travel themselves? Don't punish me for my job choices.

Sorry for the rant.

Specializes in Critical Care, ER.
In my experience, bad facilities w/ miserable staff treat everyone badly- staff, agency, and pts.

The opposite is true for good facilites w/ content staff.

I completely agree with this. The first hospital I worked as a new grad (staff of course) treated all nurses like crap. Of course when you're in it, you don't think that way. You just think I hate so and so because she stabbed me in the back, and I hate so and so because she gets a lighter load than me and gets paid twice as much. You don't think, well the culture on this unit is very poor due to all-around worker dissatisfaction from poor working conditions and weak and manipulative managers love nothing more than to watch us take it out against each other. Disgusted with that experienced, I became agency.

My overall experience with agency (I did it for 2 1/2 yrs) is that I just found that we were basically completely expendable. Everyplace put you through a testing phase... some will judge you fairly and some won't. I had one really bad experience as agency at a military facility but that's about it.

I decided to switch to ER from ICU and carefully chose a hospital where the nurses were well treated. I am now working staff at this hospital and am super happy! About 1/2 the ER staff are agency nurses. Because we're all decent people, we just treat everyone the same. In fact, some of our agency nurses are some of the most experienced ED nurses and they are well respected and precept. I was very blessed to have 2 fabulous agency nurses as my preceptors here. I don't really care what the agency nurses are making, honestly. Many of them have to take agency jobs because of bad family circumstances which I don't envy.

Hey im an agency nurse over in Scotland and i experience the same things over here. I think a lot of the time the staff dont like it as they have all responsibility (as a lot of the time agency cant do the drugs etc) plus were often getting paid substantially more and they know it. I can see their reasoning to not liking us but at the end of the day were there to help the ward out and make some spare cash. If they had any sense they'd be doing agency shifts too. xx

Specializes in Oncology.

I took a 2-10:30 pm LTC assignement trough an agency yesterday. My concern is, the charge nurse came at 5pm to give me notice of an upcoming admission. I was appalled. She said it is done all the time for agency nurses whether it is first time or not. At the hospital that I work we do not let agency nurses do an admission. So, I did take the admission at 6pm, but left the facility at 3 am because of the paperwork and documentation. I finished my 9pm meds pass at 12am. I would like to know if this is the norm out there for agency nurses to do?

I am so sorry that you were unfairly taken advantaged of that way. At my hospital, as a rule of thumb: no float rns or registry rns are to take admissions period! Just because they do not know the everyday routine of our unit & the same courtesy applies when we float to their units. bottom line: It saves all of our colleagues a lot of grief and possible errors in the long run (legality-wise).

Next time they try and pull a fast one on you like that, 1st: Call your agency & speak to your RN recruiter & explain your situation: 2nd - Call & talk with the unit nursing manager & if it doesn't get resolved that way then notify the chief of nursing.

My experience has been it usually gets resolved when you put your foot down, speak up & defend yourself right away by confronting the RN herself, whether it be the charge RN or regular staff RN. At least this way they'll know their bs won't work with you & then they'll just simply find some other RN who will take their abuse.

From what you say, it seems as if they just want to dump on the registry RN because you're paid more than them (aka: regualr staff RN). To put it in a better term: that's a sure excuse for what we call, "laziness!"

Hope that helps! good luck!

No problem, Tweety.

I was just adding on to your post to show that everyone's experiences w/ travelers/agency are different.

I've gotten so much respect and appreciation as agency. I almost never did as reg staff.

Specializes in Med-Surg.
Hellllllo Nurse said:

I've gotten so much respect and appreciation as agency. I almost never did as reg staff.

As it should be. You're there to help them out. They should roll out the read carpet.

I have just started agency nursing and just wondering why the staff is so mean to a agency nurse when if we werent there to help they would be short?? I have encountered rude people and just wondering what is up with that??

In my experience, bad facilities w/ miserable staff treat everyone badly- staff, agency, and pts.

The opposite is true for good facilites w/ content staff.

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