Lets Fight Back.

[hjacks8]

We need to set up a travel nurse resource or union. With attorneys to fight these crooked bast****. I love the money but I hate dealing with these corperate freaks.

Jen, I'd hire an attorney and sue for the remaining portion of the contract plus damages!!!!

[txtraveler]

i agree that there needs to be some regulation with the travel nurse industry. i have traveled on and off for over 10 years now so I DO KNOW OF WHAT I SPEAK. it seems there has been quite a shift in recent years within the industry and i am hearing of more and more problems and complaints from nurses - and have experienced a few problems in the last two years in my own travel career that i never experienced in the 8 years previous - so it is becoming painfully clear something needs to be done to offer more protection to the travelers. if I can find myself in a few difficult situations after so many years and so much experience within the industry - i can not imagine the stress a new nurse must go through with trying to navigate the travel industry today. in fact, that is a project i am currently starting work on - getting better protection for travelers. agencies all too often do not follow through on what they say they will do - even though they say they have or will - or they will not back up a nurse if they find themselves in some small remote hospital with problems flying all around them. they want to keep the hospital happy and the nurse can often end up paying a huge price for that. i would welcome any stories, advice and ideas as i start trying to improve travel nurse conditions for ALL of us - trust me - i'm not a popular character right now - but after devoting a decade of my life to travel - i feel it is time to start trying to make the road for the people behind me and others a little easier to navigate. i am thinking there needs to be some sort of governing agency - where mediation can take place, an agency can be fined for not supporting their nurses or sending pay on time, etc. again, as previously with attorneys on staff. please feel free to email me. thanks!!!

[maggiedanurse]

i had a problem with intelistaff hold ing my last paycheck and travel reim. i contacted an attorney in my hometown and was told to contact a labor and wage attorney in the city in which the company is out of. i really haven't pursued the matter anymore. and as far as travel companies go, they do not do anything to support us. i had a doctor refer to me as a dumbass and asked me where the hell did i get my medical degree, meanwhile his patient ended up int he unit that night and his stay was over one week. i told my company about this abuse and they did nothing to the hospital to back me up. there was nothing said to the hospital about we will not tolerate this kind of treatment to the nurses we place there... nothing about a hostile work envirnonment or anything. anywhere else that kind of abuse would not be tolerated. my contract was cancelled and i have moved on to another company... i am in demand and no one will or allow anyone to talk to me like that! i worked hard to get RN after my name and i will not be dissed by anyone.

[cougarnurse]

Hopefully, not all Agencies are total jerks. There MUST be some good ones out there. I am sure it also depends on what particular office you go out of, also.

[txtraveler]

cougar,
there ARE some VERY good agencies available to travel through. my main message and concern right now is that there is not enough protection for the travelers. if an issue like with a last paycheck not being given pops up - the nurse has to often times spend more money in lost wages and in legal fees to resolve the situation that what time/money restraints allow. i am in favor of a governing agency - can stay on top of agencies milking money off the top, step in if a check is late and make sure the nurse gets paid (by the governing agency), then the governing agency can turn to the individual staffing agency for reimbursement and perhaps a fine of some sort. there just needs to be some regulation. there needs to also be some sort of support system - i mean a REAL support system for when a nurse lands in a problematic or dangerous hospital and an agency is pushing for the nurse "to finish the contract or we will hold you repsonsible" type of a scenario. good luck and please keep sending me your stories. i emailed a governor today.

[txtraveler]

maggie,
i had an instance of physician abuse by a group of surgeons this past year and nothing has been done about it - in fact, this group of surgeons has continued to cause me problems at other facilities through under the table word of mouth - based on nothing more than anger and "bruised egos" over my outspoken statements regarding what i saw as unsafe patient staffing issues...not to mention their abusive, arrogant behavior to the nursing staff. traveler or not, we simply do NOT have to allow this kind of behavior around us - and for a nurses career to be negatively impacted by choosing to stand up to this sort of behavior in order to make things better for all nurses and then to not have some kind of support from administration or agency - well that is simply vulgar.

[tatnurse]

This is not just a travel nurse problem. I have had this problem in 2 hospitals where I was a regular employee. In one instance I was still in orientation when I had a pt go bad at shift change. He had been fine all night, and I had just given him a pill at 0600. At around 0715 an RT came out of his room and said he was unresponsive. The day shift charge nurse and I went in and checked on him. She told me to go call the Dr immediately, while she got his vitals and everything. I called the doc and he verbally attacked me. He wanted his vitals and I told him they were getting them as we spoke. He said "What kind of an idiot are you? If I were a nurse and I had a patient who was unresponsive, I think I would want to know what his vitals were!" I explained, again, that they were in the process of getting his vitals, and that I was a new hire, following the directions of the charge nurse. He continued to abuse me, calling me incompetent and stupid. He wanted to know how the patient had been all night. I told him that the shift was uneventful, and that the patient had been fine, with no complaints. Thank God that each time I had been in the man's room the CNA was there with me. She had been with me at 0600 when I gave him his meds. We sat him up on the side of the bed so he could drink his water. He did choke a little on the water, but when I asked if he was okay he was able to answer without difficulty. The doctor then came in, yelled at me again, and went on to dictate his notes. Imagine my surprise when he stated This patient has apparently been unresponsive since 0100, although the nurse did not contact me regarding his condition." I was blown away by his lie. Thank God that I had been keeping up with my computer charting all night, and everything had been well documented. When all of the labs came back and testing was complete it showed that the man had stroked out. The doctor never apologized for his behavior, and in fact, still insisted that I must have done something wrong and that I should have called him when the patient became unresponsive in the middle of the night! I tried, once again, to patiently explain to him that the patient was responsive all night long and that the CNA could back me up. He didn't want to hear it. I didn't get out of there until almost 1000, 3 hours past the end of my twelve hour shift. I was crying uncontrollably, angry, scared, worried about my patient, and humiliated after being called an idiot, incompetent, and a moron. My supervisor commiserated with me, and told me to write a report on what happened. She promised that the hospital would investigate the incident and he would be issued a reprimand. That was the last I heard about it. No apology, no addendum to the chart stating that the patient HAD NOT been unresponsive all night, as a matter of fact, two weeks later I got balled out by the same doctor for not giving a patient an IM injection of Haldol that was ordered q3h, because he had been awake and combative for over 24 hours and had finally fallen asleep. His family was exhausted and insisted that I let him sleep and refused the shot. I tried to tell him this, but once again I was subjected to a tirade about my incompetence, and how he couldn't believe what a complete and total moron I was.

As a brand new nurse I got balled out for over ten minutes, in front of everyone at the nurses station, for giving a pt Tylenol for a temp of 101. The doctor was condescending and rude, lecturing me on the body's immune system and how fever was the body's way of fighting infection. When he was finished he asked if I was stupid, and wanted to know if I planned on spending my career throwing Tylenol at every patient with a slight fever. I looked him in the eye, and in a loud, clear voice I said "Actually, no. I have another patient with a temp of 101.2 who hasn't gotten any Tylenol." He asked why and I said "Because hospital policy states that we don't automatically give Tylenol unless the patient has a temp of 101.5. Or, of course, like your patient THEY ASK FOR IT!" He shut his mouth and walked away, and the other nurses applauded. This same doctor has called the floor and screamed at the charge nurse "Do I have to come up their and show you dumb *****es how to find your own asses?"

This type of abuse is not that uncommon, unfortunately. I think it is worse in some of the smaller hospitals because they rely heavily on certain physicians to bring in their business. They can always replace a nurse, but if they lose a doc it will affect their bank accounts. This is why I carry my own malpractice insurance. I figure that the hospital is more likely to back the doctor than the nurse. I have learned to watch my ass around certain docs, to keep my charting current and accurate, and to not cry in front of them. Some of them are like emotional vampires, they seem to feed on the pain and misery of nurses, and I refuse to feed them anymore.

[desertangelrn]

Check out www.travelingnurses.com a blog starting due to bad agencies. Stand up and unite. 1 site many reports = better services. I found reporting on agencies in one area give ammo for travelers to use. Having problems with one of AMN companinies (O'Grady Peyton, American Mobile, NursesRx, Nurse Choice, Prefered Healthcare Staffing.)