Highway Hypodermics

Richard Heller

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 personally do not think this would happen to me. Before accepting the contract I would let the nurse know all the floating requirements the facility has instructed us on. If for some reason they are arranging things outside of the realm of her contract I would reach out to them regarding this to see why it is happening.

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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 have had this situation happen before. The first thing I would do is respond to the nurse right away to tell their manager that it is not within their comfort zone to be in the NICU and that they think it would put their license on the line. I would tell the nurse to ask the manager if they are willing to train them and have someone with them, if that would be more comfortable. If the manager says no, I would call the facility and say that my nurse is not confident in this field and that they will not be going there. This is not what the nurse signed up for, it wasnâ€™t on their resume, and it is not within their specialty so they should not have to float there.

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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:

First, I'd step in and try to help the nurse as best I can. I would go to the manager of the building myself and tell them their place is infested, ask if they have another apartment for our nurse to stay in and if we put them up in a hotel for the night if the landlord would reimburse for their stay. I would step in and help the nurse the best I can with getting a place for that night and if the apartment could be fumigated, cleaned or replaced.

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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:

First I would call the nurse and make sure she is ok, then I would contact the facility and have them extend the contract for the two weeks missed. If the nurse feels this will keep happening I would then ask the nurse if she would like to put her two weeks in and we will find a location that she can handle.

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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 can not see a situation where this would happen. In the above example the nurse would need to go through at least 2 weeks of credentialing and the facility and vendor would have to be the ones that inform us the necessary requirements they need. We would have also sent out a client confirmation weeks prior to the nurse starting and if there were any issues with that then we would have known long before the nurse shows up for her assignment.

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Question 6:

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

Answer 6:

For me as a recruiter I like to be as honest and transparent as possible with everything I do. One thing that always makes that easier is having that reciprocated. When everyone can operate on the same page it makes the job for both recruiter and nurse much quicker and easier. I believe something to know about being a great travel nurse is just having the ability to adapt whether its something that happens suddenly or with notice. The whole business itself is about adapting to rates, to ratios, to facilities and the market.

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