Situations like this is what makes me love working for my company, where we live by our motto "We Put You First". As soon as I heard of the first instance of the hospital breaking the terms of the contract, that would immediately cause for concern, even if the nurse was ok with the first few times. Even though travel nurses are expected to be a bit more flexible than staff, contracts are built to protect them from being taken advantage of, and the rate negotiated is based on the expectations set in the original contract. I would call my account manager, explain the situation, and get in touch with the hospital so we can get our nurse back in the original radius determined in the contract.
I would simply not allow for the nurse to float to the NICU. At the end of the day, this industry is about patient care, floating to an unfamiliar unit would risk both the nurse's licensure and the baby's well-being. I would get our on-staff clinician, Nicole, involved as well, who works here in the office to assist with clinical issues, as well as working PRN at a children's hospital during the week. Using her as a resource, alongside my account manager, allows us to discuss the issue in more clinical detail than myself and the account manager alone since she is a registered nurse.
If the nurse was in our company housing, we would immediately let the complex management know the unit was unfit, and put her up in a hotel for a few days while we find a new unit for her and furnish it. Luckily, PPR housing is very selective of who we use so we can avoid shoddy rentals like this one. On the flip side, if this was a rental the nurse found independently and was using her housing stipend for, this is one of my favorite parts of the job! After watching one too many episodes of House Hunters on HGTV, I absolutely love helping my nurses find housing in creative ways they may not have thought of before. We also make a habit of saving housing options our PPR nurses have used during past assignments on our share drive that is great to use as an additional resource, beyond what is currently listed on airbnb, VRBO, etc. :)
First and foremost, I would make sure my nurse is okay! Next, I would get my account manager involved to see how we can work this out with the hospital so she has time to recover fully, and finish out her contract. If the nurse was up to it, I would suggest asking the hospital to add on another two weeks so she could make up for that lost time - I'd also speak with my manager to see if there's anything we can do to help beyond the free sick day we give each contract, as this would clearly be an extenuating circumstance. The beauty of working with PPR is we don't believe in black and white - we understand life can be in the grey area and we want to be flexible to handle bumps in the road when they come up!
In the odd case that a nurse's assignment does get cancelled, we can't control what the hospital does, but what we can do is control how we react to it. I would immediately get all hands on deck to ensure that we can get the nurse into a contract ASAP so she isn't out of a paycheck she's expecting, putting her in a bad spot financially.
I think the key to being successful as a travel nurse is building TRUST with your recruiter. I know there's lots of of us calling you all the time, but I wouldn't be able to work for a company that I feel doesn't truly align with my values and have our nurses best interest at heart. Be transparent about your expectations, and I will be transparent about industry factors that I see every day as a recruiter that need to be taken into consideration when you're making your decision :)