6 replies to this topic

[PerfectPair]

My wife and I have been traveling nurses now for 6 years. We have worked at 14 different facilities. Each one has it's ups and downs, but this one takes the cake. Beware of Washoe Medical Center in Reno Nevada. Granted, our experience is only in the Trauma/General Intensive Care Units.

The pay was good but the 6 months of mental terror will cost much more in therapy. Never have we felt so unappreciated by the Middle management, employees, doctor's or patients. Not only do the indigent and paying patients physically abuse you but then you must deal with the verbally abusive doctors. When you inform the middle management of the verbal abuse of the doctor's they just say, "oh, that is Dr. (*&(^&, he is bipolar, just don't let it bother you." Then when the doctor proceeds to come to the unit and continue to curse at you for calling him about a lab value, he specifically left orders to be notified of the supervisor just ignores your plea for assistance in the matter.

Not to mention how, for any reason (true or not) the supervisor will call you in the office and begin to ream you a new orifice. I guess they just don't care what the truth is there.

Please take this from two travelers who have never hated a place so much.

[aussie-margaret]

Gee - I have only ever worked in Australia - and we gripe about nursing here - but we don't seem to get anything like the grief you guys get from management and medical staff.

The medical staff are generally very polite at the place I recently started to work at and certainly no rudeness.

The night ADON steps in when asked, helps in busy areas, and is expected to do so ( and is paid to do so).

[NawlinsGirl]

Hi Perfectpair,

Thanks for the tip on the hospital in Reno. Im a traveler as well, but my travel experiences have been mostly in California. My experiences have been overall ok so far but my biggest pet peeve is the floating policies. When i took my first contract I was not told that I would be floating to any other unit besides the ICU. Little did I know when I got there , I was told of the floating policy. It was overwhelming for me since i have always been a Trauma ICU nurse through out my career. Since then i have become accustom to floating but I dont like it.

Again, thanks for the tip because travelers really need to stick together.

Nawlinsgirl

[aussie-margaret]

what is a floating policy ??

[NawlinsGirl]

Hi Margaret,

Im a travel nurse who contracts to different hospitals. Their policy is , if a nurse is needed in a different area of the hospital the traveler floats to that area before their regular staff. For example, if you are hired for the ICU and the med surg floor is short that shift, the traveler would have to fill that need on the med surg floor before a staff member would have to float to that area. Some hospitals will rotate the floats between staff and travelers but the ones i've been to mainly float the travelers first.

[sallyf219]

I'm thinking about taking a travel assignment in Dayton OH through advantage rn has anyone heard of them any good or bad news. I like their tax advantage program. More than half of my hourly rate will be tax free..
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Also when should over time start if you sign for 48hrs does it start after that or after 40.

[mattsmom]

The Delphi TNT forum warns about Washoe too...thanks for the heads up!