[RHRBA3130953]

Southern Illinois. Not good situation. I have a family to support. I signed renewal contract 2/14/07, the last day of my current contract was 2/23/07. ON 2/23/07 at 3PM I was asked to talk with CNO of hosp. I was then informed they would not be renewing my contract. This was a Friday so Monday I did not have a job to return to. :firedup: My company says the hospital has a grace period to sign contract after I have signed mine from agency???? Needless to say I was devastated. How tactful of hosp.(Ha). I was offered a full time position. ( Whatever) Who would work for Corp. who does not even give notice of nonrenewal. I was already on the call schedule for the month of March 07. Life goes on . WE MUST WATCH OUT FOR OURSELVES. EVEN THE AGENCIES WON'T. If anyone has had this happen please reply. Thanks

[TravelerDMRN]

As I have responded before to others, our contracts are dog**** and not likely to get any better any time soon. Unfortunately, it is one of the prices we pay for being able to take part in such a great career.

I have been traveling for over ten years and still run into new situations that make me furious over how little respect we receive as nurses. I can tell you one way to effect change, but to be honest, I have little expectation that most would be willing to go to such length. It's the old adage of fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. If you want change, you have to demand it....we ALL do. If you don't get it, leave your current company. If we, as travel nurses, are being taken advantage of, then we have a duty to ourselves and everyone else in the profession to demand that our company writes a contract that protects the traveler in the event of a hospital cancellation.

In case you are not aware, our contract is with our travel company. They have a separate contract with the hospital. I am aware that most travel companies have a clause within their contracts with the hospital that they will be paid a cancellation fee if the hospital cancels. In other words, they (your travel company) protect their investment, but nothing is protecting yours.

I am not a lawyer, but it seems to me that the travel comanies could protect us, the way they protect themselves, with a simple cancellation fee paid to the traveler in the event the hospital does choose to cancel.

With that said, I do not know the specifics of your situation. You should always stay in contact with your company and know when they have received the contract back from the hospital confirming your assignment. Also, PLEASE post the name of the hospital and specific location. I strongly feel that we need a separate section on this forum to post hospital cancellations. Once these facilities get a bad enough name in the industry, they will either shape up or lose the ability to hire travel nurses.

Over a ten year period, I have had the fortune of only being cancelled by a facility twice. It is far from the norm, but yes, it does happen. I will say that my company (RN Network) has handled both of these situations wonderfully. Of course, that is because they know my track record as a good nurse from all my other assignments and I'm sure the fact that I have made them a lot of money over the years doesn't hurt either. But, if you cannot honestly say that your company goes to bat for you, then please consider leaving them.

We should all draw our lines in the sand. If a travel company will not stand behind you, leave. If they will not write a contract that protects you, leave. If they are not truly happy to have you as their employee, LEAVE.

We have too many agencies now that will do just as good a job, if not, better, than the travel company with which we are ALL currently employed.

I know that I have probably beat this subject to death, but I would like to add one more thing regarding contracts. If you honestly fear that you could lose your license staying where you are, then I would say that you need to break your contract. However, if your job is hell, your co-workers suck, you get all the worst assignments, and you are chewing Tums and Nexium like they are Pez, you can let us all know which hospital it is so we might avoid them, but also please remember, it might not be what you signed up for, but in the end, you did commit to a contract and eventually you will reach the end.

( If you read this and also feel that there should be a section to post hospitals that cancel contracts, please write into the main board moderators and let them know ). Thanks for reading.

[desertangelrn]

Ok. First of all about contracts - most contracts are standard in the industry and verbage almost the same. Bottom line the agency is protected from all angles.

Most of the times agencies send the contracts out to the travelers at the last minute thus travelers end up stuck in a situation with a bad contract as they have realy no other option but to accept the contract and agencies know this. They play use and abuse this situations.

Suggestion before entering into talking with agencies about travel assignments have a number of clauses you want in your contarct that PROTECTS YOUR INTERESTS. Submit these clauses to the Recruiter and request that you have a written committment that these clauses are included in your contract. You will naturaly receive objections, remind recruiters they are there also for you and there are many agencies out there. If they object cut of negotiations.

If there are enough people doing this agencies will get the message and there will be a change. It will take time and a lot of hard work on our part in the end when agencies have difficulty filling assignments because they are not willing to work with travelers they will either wake up or go out of business.

Some examples of clauses you can request are:-

Travelers will have a copy of contract supplied 14 days prior to the start date of any contract. (this gives the traveler time to review accept or decline a contract and a means to back out with enough time to make other plans.)

If the facility cancels the contract prior to completion end date the traveler will receive one weeks pay and 96 hours to vacate the apartment.

Facility cancel of shifts - Traveler is gauranteed the minium hours they are required to work. Any cancelations of shifts the traveler is paid for the shift and not liable for housing.

These are some clauses you can request. Like I said many recruiters will give you the run around Tell you that is not what their contracts have in. When this is done then avoid any further dealing with that agency.

www.travelingnursesrn.com

[desertangelrn]

Originally Posted by TravelerDMRN

( If you read this and also feel that there should be a section to post hospitals that cancel contracts, please write into the main board moderators and let them know ). Thanks for reading.

ALL SITUATIONS SHOULD BE LISTED HOSPITALS THAT CANCEL, AGENCIES EXPERIENCES GOOD OR BAD.