Highway Hypodermics

Mark Zabludovsky

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 would remind her that I have her back and let her know that we'll be reaching out to the vendor/facility to voice our concerns. I would hope this was just an oversight by the facility, but if not I would remind the vendor of the terms in our contract with them and the nurse.

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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:

I would let the staffing team on the other line know that she is not qualified nor contracted to work at the NICU level, and I would remind them that placing her on that unit could put the most delicate of patients in danger.

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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 agree with her that these conditions are crappy. I discuss with her the terms of her lease and also suggest that she see if there are any other units in the area. After that I do discuss with her this idea of hiring a cleaning company in the area to come out and do a deep clean on the property. See if the owner is willing to pay for it

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:

In this situation I feel that the nurse is at risk if she continues to stay in the area. I would suggest to the nurse that we begin immediately submitting her out to other opportunities, and once we have something in place (or not), we can give the client two weeks notice due to health related reasons.

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:

I would wonder why the nurse felt it was time to head to the assignment when we hadn't even started the credentialing process yet. It seems as though there was zero communication between the recruiter and the nurse on how these things work. That is not how we work here at ARMS, so this is just a weird question overall.

Question 6:

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

Answer 6:

It's ok to work with multiple agencies, but just be up front about that from the start. A confident recruiter won't take any issue with it. From the nurses perspective (because I am one), just go to each assignment remembering you're there to do a job and help the manager and unit out. You won't always have the best assignment, but you're being compensated to suck it up and get through the shift. They're not there to do you any favors; rather the opposite.

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