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 am sorry that happened to you. Things do happen for a reason and I bet something better is going to come of this.

Thank. I appreciate it.

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Happy BIrthday anyway..maybe this is your gift. I had a similar experiece with a local per diem hopsital where I had worked on off for 29 years; met a charge nurse on a unit I didn't usually work, and she made it clear she thought of outside support as scum. I remained pleasant, let her constant snide remarks slide off...was made a DNU by the the end of the shift (1800), but allowed to finish my shift (2015). Have had calls from 2 of the Nursing Supervisors asking where the heck am I? Had many staff people on the unit the night I was canned offer depositions and support.

It affected me. It affected my income and my local earning power...(corporate; one do not use covers 6 hospitals in a 60 mile radius). I did nothing wrong, but was not allowed the respect granted a staff nurse; not allowed to defend myself.

I was just offered a highly desieable staff position by that same hospital group. I delined with no regrets, and have struggled through Aug and Sept...but am leaving for what seems to be an awesome travel assignment that starts Oct 2 in my favorite area of nursng, days shift. My husband is stationed there (YAY)!

:chair::madface: :o

At first I was angry hurt humiliated...

I prayed for strength to endure until an answer was shown to me.

I wish you that peace and strength. Being a scapegoat or a target for others' issues is not a pleasant place to be.

I KNOW you'll find a better place for yourself.

best of luck!

What do you mean by DNU?

My first travel job, I had to float out my first day on my own. I floated at least once a week, sometimes twice. I might work 4 hours this unit and 4 hours that one. I might start with 9 patients. The ONLY one to start with that many. The nurse techs did not do blood pressures. They were supposed to. I never found out until 3 hours into the shift. I asked the charge nurse about it, and she said yes, they are to take blood pressures. She talked to the nurse tech. Said nurse tech never spoke to me for the rest of my contract. Something like 6 weeks.

My second travel job, I floated only when it was my turn. Average patient load was 6 patients. Same with the tech...her load was 6 patients.

My first two weeks there: I struggled to learn the computer system. And the 'routine' that floor used. It was all I could do to keep up.

I was chewed out, in a patinet room no less, for "not helping" the tech. Well, seeing as she din't ask for help...how would I know she needed it?

I was lectured on keeping the staff bathroom clean.

I was quizzed, constantly, by a staff nurse, on what I was doing, and how I was doing it. "Who are you bathing?" "Don't you want to use_____?" "Why are you using that?" "That stethascope is not any good, why are you not using this brand?"

I did get a Charge nurse who wanted to give me 7 patients to everyone else's 4. Were it not for the unit clerk who came and told me what was going on, I would have just taken the patient.

On that whole floor, there were maybe three nice people to work with.

My current assignment is on a different floor, at the same hospital. These people have been very nice. I have been incuded in the weekly breakfast out. I have been included in a couple of parties, and I am greeted with hugs by several of the staff when they have been gone.

As far as how I am treated, I do think that it just depends on the people that I work with. I told the girls on this floor how much nicer they are to me. They told me a little history about travel nurses they have known:

One nurse sat on her butt and sent text messages all night.

One nurse deliberately smeared the bathroom with, well, name it.

One nurse sat on her butt all night, never did a patient assessment all night, but charted one.

One nurse never came in on time, her whole contract.

One nurse called in sick twice a month, and let early at least once a week.

Explains why they treated me this way, to an extent anyway.

Still.

:nurse: As a 23 year agency nurse I have heard and seen it all. Some of the regular staff are gracious and some of them are just nerds.

Over the years you aquire the sixth sense of knowing if the regular staff is being rude to you because you are an agency nurse or is this just their character?

I have found that just a kind word, or sometimes just being quiet and doing the job you were hired to do does the trick.

Most of the time we walk into situations where these people have been working understaffed for a long time and they are grateful to have a helping hand, especially one that doesn't gripe continously, respects their break time and pitch in and do your part.

There are good nurses and there are bad nurses. Agency or not, and most of the time if you really have a problem with a staff member, it's because your work is so good that you are showing their peers that they aren't such a good nurse after all.

But all in all, it all goes with the territory. Like I tell some of them that gripe about the salary that we make, "This is a decision that I made and you made yours. You have the same opportunity as I have to make the same money that I do. It's all about choices!"

Agency nursing has been good to me and I'm a good NURSE!

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.

I have enjoyed working with the agency nurses I have encountered. I think it is a good rule never to ask someones salary and never discuss yours.

I guess I never think about them being agency nurses,,,I just consider them nurses.

Thank you so much for that comment! It's great to know that there are nurses out there who respect agency nurses and treat them like co-workers! Again, THANK YOU for defending your colleagues....agency nurses or not!

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

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