Highway Hypodermics

Heather Bors

Question 1:

In a large metropolitan area, Nurse Floating Flo contracts to float between three hospitals within a 10 mile radius of her housing. Starting in the 6th week, the company ask her to float to a hospital 15 miles away, the 7th week she goes to one on the other side of the city, that is 30 miles away, plus one that is 17 miles away. The nurse is willing to take the first few, but after the behavior continues, she has had enough and voices this to her recruiter.

Answer 1:

I am in constant communication with any nurse who is a part of my team. The moment I hear the facility has pushed the nurse outside of their agreed upon radius, I would ask the nurse if they were comfortable with our team (recruiter & account manager) to reach out to the facility to address and work on preventing it from happening again. Hopefully these steps would have been able to prevent the 2 other floating requests that were also outside of the agreed radius. I understand the nurse is being flexible and trying to be helpful, but my job as a recruiter is to protect our nurses. If they are not comfortable with a situation, I want to make sure we are working to fix it right away. Also in regards to the situation mentioned above; depending on how comfortable the nurse is with the facility, I would also brainstorm ideas with the nurse to see if they would like to reiterate the 10 mile radius rule next time they tried to float her, just to put that bug in their ear too. It really is handled on a case-by-case situation, but at the end of the day my job as a recruiter is to be another voice for our nurses!

Question 2:

Baby Nurse Betty is a skilled labor and delivery nurse, who also can float to post-pardum care after the delivery as well as the well-newborn nursery. At 7:30pm, the staffing company hotline gets a call stating that they want her to float to the NICU, which is beyond her competency level. What is your company’s response?

Answer 2:

Thankfully in this type of situation any nurse who works with me will have my direct cell phone number. No need for them to call a hotline after hours. They can always get a hold of me directly and I can help advise or be in contact with our clinical liaison to help with the above concern. With this specific situation it can go two ways. I would first have the nurse inquire exactly what are their expectations of her in the NICU; as this unit is beyond her competency level. The unit may only be needing her to do a task that she would be fully comfortable and knowledgeable of doing. If the nurse finds that is the case then wonderful! However, sometimes this is not the case. If this situation happened then we would have her reiterate to the charge/manager that she is not comfortable floating to the NICU and express her reasons as to why. I would also offer to speak to whomever is trying to float her to the NICU and reiterate how the nurse is not comfortable working outside of her scope. Recruiters should be the advocates for their nurses and need to protect not only the nurse but also their license.

Question 3:

Nurse Roach is all excited about her first travel nursing assignment. She drives 750 miles to her new assignment housing. After getting the keys from management, she opens the door and three cockroaches scurry across the floor. After further investigation, she also finds a ring of mold in the shower. She can’t stand it and immediately texts you with pictures. How do you respond?

Answer 3:

I would call her immediately and together we would come up with a plan-of-action. My ideal plan-of-action would be to reach out to the complex and request an immediate change of unit. We would also request this be done right away and have the nurse be able to do a walk-thru before moving her items into the new unit. If no other available units, I would discuss with the nurse options to correct the situation. That would include, the complex fixing the issues while we find a hotel in the meantime, or getting out of the lease and our housing department finds new, clean, and comfortable options!

Question 4:

You have worked with Nurse Asthmatic for 3 years now and she has done a great job for you, when she takes an assignment in Southeast Colorado. She envisions magic mountains that reach to the sky, only to find that she has landed in wheat country. Not wanting to cause problems she continues to work and everything is fine, until harvest. She has an asthma attack, ends up in the hospital, and is told that she is going to miss at least 2 weeks of work related to asthma induced pneumonia. How do you work things out?

Answer 4:

I would immediately get with the nurse and see what she would ideally prefer to do. Does she want to just take the 2 weeks off to recover or would she prefer to try and find another assignment while she is recovering. I would ask the nurse stay in full communication with the hospital in regards to what is going on. Our account manager for the facility would also be doing this on their end as well. If the nurse feels they would prefer to leave the assignment, we would work with the facility and the nurses doctors notes in getting them to release her from her contract without penalty. As this is out of the nurses control. If the nurse is wanting to try to continue after the 2 weeks off we would make sure we are still communicating with the hospital to make sure they understand the importance of the 2 weeks for recover as well as keeping them updated if this were to happen again. However, in this type of health situation, it really is the nurses decision. We (trustaff) are there to support them and try to figure out the best way to go about the situation.

Question 5:

You have worked hard to find Nurse Roulette a job in Las Vegas. You send the nurse a contract that she readily accepts, signs, and sends back. The next morning the bags are packed and Nurse Roulette is on the way to the assignment of her dreams. At 0800 she is out the door and to the hospital. Checking in with HR, they inform her that there is no contract between the hospital and the company, related to the fact that it has not been approved by HR. About the same time, the recruiting manager comes to you and tells you not to send Nurse Roulette on the assignment. This shouldn’t have happened, but unfortunately it does happen. What do you do?

Answer 5:

Thankfully this type of situation should not happen with trustaff. Once a nurse has accepted a position, we work directly with the hospital and their compliance team to get the drug screen, medical, paperwork, and any needed testing completed. However if there was a possible glitch in the offer and the position no longer exist we would know at the time of compliance, as we cannot start compliance without proper confirmation from the facility. With these procedures in place with the facility it should prevent a nurse from ever leaving their house and driving to an assignment to find they do not have one. However, let’s say this situation from the question did happen. I would get with all of our accounts that we work with in the Las Vegas and surrounding areas and see if there is a job with a fast turnaround that was can get nurse Roulette in with.

Question 6:

What would you like travel nurses to know about being a great traveling nurse and making your job easier?

Answer 6:

The two things I would like travel nurses to know about being a great traveling nurse or what could make our job easier is simply communication and also to try and go into every situation being open minded. Communication is so crucial and important. If there is a concern or an issue I want to know about it right away. I always tell my nurses we are a team, we are a family. So I want them to feel comfortable expressing any need they have. This will allow for a smoother assignment and also helps us grow trust with each other. It is so important to have that recruiter/traveler trust Then secondly about being open-minded. It can all be very stressful relocating, starting at a new hospital, compliance, meeting new people, etc. So going into a situation being open minded without setting specific expectations can allow you to enjoy your entire experience and adapt.

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