My feelings on the subject are somewhere past that 11 mark. I was told by the nursing recruiter that this assignment was a transitional ICU from ER. That means we take patients that are too sick to sit in the emergency room, stabilize them, and then dispurse them among the various ICUs as appropriate. It sounded like my dream. Stabilize and ship em out. When I phone interviewed with the nurse manager, she told me it was fast paced and interesting. Psh.
What I have walked into is a mish mash of inappropriately labeled "ICU" patients and chronically ill ventilator patients with tracheostomies. It's miserable, long term care patients with no hope of ever getting better, with a quality of life that is similar to a field of cabbages. It's damn depressing.
Let's get this straight right now. I am not knocking the nurses that do that type of work... God bless them. However, I would rather pluck each one of my eyelashes off with a dull spoon than do it. I have a serious ethical problem with keeping these people artificially alive. Many times, it's against their will. In my humble opinion, the families have created a cruel cage for their loved ones soul. Put that in your pipe and smoke it the next time you see someone on life support.
I digress, however. As a new travel nurse, I have learned so much this assignment. The first and largest thing is that your co-workers can make or break your assignment. I have met some of the most caring, knowledgable nurses and ancillary staff this go around. They have treated me with respect, kindness, and made me feel a part of their team. I am sad to move on from such a great group of people. They sick and twisted sense of humor has made working all of the time hilarious and easy.
If any of you are reading this, I expect a party:
Another doozy I have figured this time is money, money, money.
My current agency ain't payin' me shit. When I accepted this new assignment, I was not aware of this obviously. Other than the fact that I don't pay rent, I make no more money than I did at my full-time job in Florida. Florida is one of the lowest paying states in the nation. Does anyone see the problem here? The wonderful thing about travelers is that they stick together. A very nice woman at this assignment gave me some education about traveling, including how to squeeze money out of these agencies like a sponge. She's been doing it for five years and has cleared $100,000 a year for the past two. Say wha?!?
This nurse laid it down for me. These recruiters are not your friends. They are nice to you, ask how your assignment is going, show concern for your quality of life, etc. They ultimately do not care. What they do care about is keeping you happy enough to take a second and third assignment with them. It turns out that recruiters work on a system that is similar to commission-based pay. They need you to make money. I have discovered that you, however, do not need them. After you muscle through your first couple of assignments, finding a new one is a piece of cake. You will have recruiters calling you so often near the end of assignments that you have to put your phone on silent. Literally. Several months ago I had put my resume in with different companies and at one point last week, I was receiving five calls a day about my contract ending soon. These people are literally tripping over themselves to hire you!
The trick to making money with travel nursing is shopping around. All recruiters will tell you not to do it: "It's a bad idea" "You won't get interviews if you're submitted twice." "It's poor manners"
Screw. Manners.
I want my money. It's mine. I earn it. I sacrifice a life with family and friends for it. I disrupt my dog's routine for it. I sacrificed my 40 pair shoe collection to move. Give. Me. My. Money. You as the travel nurse, the one that has to crawl out of bed, show up to work, stay up all night, get bled on, puked on, and yelled at, are the one in control. It requires you to be assertive and organized. Two things that a lot of people aren't good at. For my upcoming contract next month that I will discuss later, I negotiated a much better deal for myself with a different agency then I am using now. However, before I accepted and interviewed with this one, I was working with six agencies. Six! I was being submitted left and right to places. I had 3 phone interviews in one day. You know how I made that happen? I was bluntly honest with each recruiter. The people that know me in real life know that that isn't an issue with me, but for some it is. The recruiters try to upsell their companies various programs, free this, free that, "advantage program #367," etc.
There are only a few things you need to know about your contract in the long run:
1. How much am I taking home after taxes every Friday? (And yes, you can insist they pay you every week.) We will label this "The Bottom Line"
2. When does my insurance start and how much is it costing me every month? We will label this "Benefits" (duh)
3. Can and will you give me a sign-on bonus and/or a completion bonus and/or travel reimbursement? We will label this "Free Money"
- This one is complicated. "Bonuses" are taxable, "Travel reimbursment" is not. Depending on what it is labeled, you will have to factor in -40% for taxes of whatever number they give you. You learn all sorts of things about tax laws as a travel nurse that you wish you never knew.
4. This last one is for people who don't care about how much money they make and have no sense of adventure and who are scared of life in general. Housing. Ugh. Look, I took housing this assignment because of the situation created by my last one (see previous posts), but I will NEVER, EVER do that again. It's not worth it. All I have ended up with is a too large apartment with rent-a-furniture and a tiny paycheck. If it's your first assignment, or if you're going to the middle plains of Montana with no Craigslist, then you need this list item. Ask how much the housing is taking from your pay, and EXACTLY what accommodations you are going to be given. Down to whether or not you are going to have sheets provided or not. We will label this "Housing" (2nd Duh)
So. This is how the quality of a nursing contract is formulated, not necessarily in any order, everyone has different priorities:
Currently, mine are location and money, therefore:
Location+Money(Bottom Line+Free Money)+Benefits+Housing(Sissy!!) =
Magical Nursing Contract of WOW!
If after plugging in all of those items you aren't left with the above feeling, NEXT!!!! I have the perfect example. I was first offered a contract in a hospital in LA. First of all, I think I would hate LA. Second of all, it's more expensive than NYC, and not half as worth it. Too much silicone. The money was pathetic...even for the location I am at now and there are Amish people with buggies here. The insurance was free and Day 1, but as a healthy 20-something I could give two shits. Then comes the housing. Even if I didn't take the housing, the pay was abysmal, and then they told me that the company wanted to place me in Long Beach. EW. When I plug that into the equation, this is what happens:
Now, I contacted the agency the above referenced seasoned traveler uses, and got a great recruiter. I told him I wanted to go one of three places, in a specific order: Washington state, Colorado, or Southern Florida, not North. I then explained that if he couldn't find me anything there, I would work with someone else. I also told him I wouldn't work for less than a certain amount each week. I'm mildly uncomfortable flat out telling my readers that number, because people in my personal life read this. Furthermore, I told him I would no longer work in Medical ICUs because the only type of medicine I really liked was Surgical and Neuro Trauma. You know who I interviewed with two days later? A hospital in Washington, for a combination Neuro and Surgical Trauma ICU, with more money than I asked for, with Free Money and an advance for travel, and cheap benefits. They are also paying my deposit on the place I found to live while I work. So, there.
You know what my current agency said to me the DAY before that? "I'm sorry, I'm just not seeing anything with the requirements you gave me." BOOM!!!!!!
Most of the time in life, you can't always get what you want. Bad things happen (See previous post, sometimes it's for a reason), situations go awry, and things out of your personal control get in the way. Then...sometimes...you work your ass off and your dreams come true.
Now I need a nap. I have a 3,000 mile drive to complete.
LOL!!! Loving your blog! Yea, you definitely have stick up for yourself and demand what you know is fair pay.
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