eJane

Imagine yourself as a full-time RN at a medium-to-large sized hospital in the United States.

Now, imagine and 220 of your fellow RNs standing outside your hospital with you - on strike for 24 hours as a display of unity to get the owners of your hospital back to the table to work out contract negotiations, when all of a sudden, travel nurses start walking by you, and into the hospital.

They’re your replacements.

That’s right - the hospital administration can’t go without you and your fellow RNs for a single day. So what do they do? They give you ten days off - WITHOUT PAY. And then they fill your positions with travelers.

This is exactly what happened in Yuba City, California earlier this year, and it’s a situation that doesn’t shine well in the eyes of full-time RNs. After approving the strike, hospital leaders in Yuba City knew that they had to find temporary nurses (travel nurses) to fill the void for the day. But let’s be real here, how many travel nurses are going to come to Tuba City for the day? It would take that long just to train them.

So the hospital decided to make the assignment ten days, to match the length of strike at 10 Bay Area Sutter hospitals. The hospital recruited travel nurses in areas such as intensive care, cardio care, L&D nurses and others in order to provide patients with consistent, quality care.

The travel nurses who replace the full-time RNs received between $37 and $50 to work in California, which was based on their specialty and experience.

According to Fremont-Rideout CEO Theresa Hamilton, they “…are not going to get the best quality for (only) 24 hours if he same nurses can be guaranteed 10 days somewhere else.” I’m sure most travel nurses see the logic in that. Each travel nurse was trained to operate various medical equipment, shown procedural items and spend the rest of the time learning where everything was in the hospital.

Because we share this profession with nurses who aren’t travel nurses, we may be called upon, from time-to-time the fill a temporary void left in the wake of a strike, a disaster, or some other event. As a travel nurse, you can choose to take these assignments, keeping in mind the problem isn’t yours to correct, your concern is patient care and the terms of your assignment. While you may (or may not) support nurses on strike for various reasons, your job is to DO your job. End of story. It’s why you became a travel nurse, right?

You can learn more about the strikes in California and the reasons behind them here.