Hall of Shame: Aureus NursingIt is with great reluctance that we write this editorial. Our mission has never been to create lists of good and bad agencies, nor do we wish to start. However, the recent action of Aureus Nursing of Omaha Nebraska against one of our members is too egregious to ignore. In short, this story involves a young nurse traveler who is expecting a child soon. She is the sole support of her family. She successfully completed her first ever travel assignment with Aureus early this year and then chose to switch agencies for significantly better pay and health insurance. After of course giving Aureus first chance at a better offer. Instead of sweetening its offer, Aureus declined to negotiate. Aureus filed a lawsuit for unspecified damages and included a motion asking to immediately prevent the traveler from working at the same hospital for another employer. Aureus even told this traveler that they would have the sheriff physically remove her from the hospital. This injunction had the potential for criminal sanctions impacting her license and and her ability to work as a nurse in the future. Serious legal peril like this could change the trajectory of anyone’s life, even without an impending delivery that cannot be rescheduled to accommodate legal skirmishes. Fortunately this traveler was a Full member of the Professional Association of Nurse Travelers.The Association, through its attorney, was able to intervene quickly and negotiate a legal settlement that allowed our member to continue working for the other agency, earning a paycheck, and protected her from incurring any monetary damages. When travelers becomes dissatisfied with an agency’s service they frequently choose to work for another agency. Often the original agency will try to retain their proven traveler by offering incentives such as a raise in pay, nicer housing, or other benefits. Aureus has chosen an alternative model in which they try to force the traveler to accept crappy terms through threats and intimidation. Recently they have escalated these tactics by actually filing lawsuits - a very rare event in the travel industry. Aureus' case was based on a rarely upheld non-compete clause. It is our opinion that the lawsuit was a misuse of the legal system - a bluff designed to force our member into accepting substandard pay and benefits. Aureus' business practices and ethics are, in our opinion, subpar and have been for years. Their business model appears to include call room marketing directed at new travelers, paying them as little as possible, and then discarding them when intimidation fails and starting the cycle again. Aureus is frequently named in traveler forums for inappropriate marketing practices, such as cold calling random clinical areas of hospitals to troll for travelers at all hours of the day and night, interrupting patient care.
The Professional Association of Nurse Travelers is not the agency police and has good reasons not to break neutrality. Generally agency recommendations, good or bad, are best obtained through personal referrals, or by visiting online traveler forums for current information. Agencies rise and fall, recruiters come and go, and the way travelers are treated can fluctuate dramatically in short periods of time. However, filing lawsuits as a business tactic is inexcusable. Attempts to strong-arm this young, pregnant, and vulnerable nurse into indentured servitude with poor health insurance and low pay is simply reprehensible. The Association strongly recommends against using Aureus Nursing or their allied health agencies. You can’t afford it. |
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Membership drive!Welcome to PanTravelers.org, a non-profit Association for the benefit of Healthcare Travelers! We are the leading voice and advocacy group for healthcare travelers. We meet our mission by providing education, tools, services, news, political advocacy, and legal services through our website. Free membership is provided as a basic service to the entire traveler community with enhanced benefits available via annual dues. Those enhanced benefits include access to premium articles, and legal services. Legal services include access to our inhouse legal counsel, a contract employee specialist and expert on resolving contract disputes with agencies. These services act as a type of specialized legal insurance and it is comforting to know there is an advocate on your side. The Association also provides in depth legal articles designed to keep you out of trouble in the first place when negotiating and working on travel contracts. Tools include our very popular Traveler's Calculator and associated guides. This allows any traveler for the first time to really compare two different offers financially. Benefit packages, taxation, and how agencies present the details vary dramatically and the Association provides real help in sorting it all out. Articles include topics such as how to negotiate a travel contract, one of our most popular articles ever. Just one tip that lets you make a buck an hour more is worth $2,000 a year, a great return for dues of just $65. The Association keeps you up to date on the current work environment with articles on how to navigate this recession and stay working. And how travelers are eligible for enhanced COBRA and unemployment benefits under the stimulus law. Becoming a member also supports all travelers and our mission to improve industry conditions. The Association has big plans for the future and needs your support now. We are still all volunteer, but our 4,000 active members have outgrown this website and we are half way through building a new one that can support our members and new services. That is costly and we do need to have the support of more members. The Association has expended a lot recently on important legal cases defending our members and that war chest can use rebuilding. Anyone is eligible for membership. Annual membership dues are just $65 a year and are tax deductible. Lifetime memberships are a real value at $265 once for access to all current and future services and content. A free registration will gain you Basic membership if you cannot afford financial support. Upgrade at any time. Click here or on the Register/login link above to register or upgrade. The Association is also grateful for donations. Please let us know if you want to be recognized on our support page for your donation. The easiest way to contribute support is through PayPal. Log into PayPal and then send funds to paypal@pantravelers.org. Thanks to all of our existing members for your continued support. We have been deliberately low key about promoting new memberships on our front page so please bear with us. The Association needs to grow! |
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2009 Travelers ConventionThe Association has partnered with TMPC (Travel Medical Professionals Conference) for this year's event. We unofficially supported the very successful and fun 2008 Convention, even to giving a short talk about contracts and legal issues. It will be in Las Vegas again this year in September on the Las Vegas Strip at the Flamingo and should be even more fun at the better location and facilities. As a neutral event for travelers and agencies to network, and with many education activities and lectures, this is a natural fit for the Association's mission to inform and educate travelers. Should be lots of fun besides! See you there! Link to site. State nursing board list up!Association volunteers have gathered information from all state board sites and called every single one of them. This resource will give the travel nurse a quick reference to make plans as to assignment choices and states. Information includes walk though details, compact status, time and cost required to obtain a temp or permanent license or renew/reactivate, and requirements such as transcripts, verifications, notary, background checks, and photos that impact the time/cost/hassle of being able to work in a given state. The nursing board list is available to all registered members (free level available) and may be found here under Resources. Travelers eligible for COBRA subsidy The final stimulus bill includes a 65% subsidy of your COBRA bill for up to 9 months. The subsidy starts effective February 17, 2009. To be eligible, you would have had to have ended your contract with health insurance and not currently be eligible for group health through a new employer. In addition, if you ended a contract with group health insurance and declined COBRA coverage, the bill gives you a second chance retroactive to Sept 1, 2008 to activate COBRA. Read more
Unemployment benefits
In these hard times, travelers are experiencing longer downtime periods between contracts. It comes as a surprise to many travelers that you are automatically eligible to receive unemployment benefits at the end of a contract where no renewal is offered. Benefits can range over $600 per week but are more typically in the $300 to $400 range for most travelers and most states. This is enough to help keep you eating should your job search take unexpectedly long. You have paid unemployment insurance your entire career, and there is no shame in collecting: it is your money! Read more
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