I was told today that Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto, California started a new online exam, the 'Stanford Online Dysrhythmia Recognition Assessment'. Twenty travelers just had their contracts cancelled before their start date because they couldn't pass this new online exam. Stanford Hospital had a meeting about the exam and concluded that six of the questions are ambiguous enough to be removed and decided to revise the exam for future travelers. The twenty that failed the exam, even if by just one question, were neither allowed to retake it nor allowed to work their contract, despite the fact that the test was flawed and had many ambiguous questions.

Prior to this report, Stanford Hospital had no cancellation entries in the cancellation database.

Many already know that the govt is canceling all 'non-essential' personnel because of the potential government shut-down and that includes nursing staff, especially travel nurses. I've spoken with many nurses that secured one year leases that they are going to break because of being canceled by the VA and they got nothing for their troubles or their willingness to help our country and it's Veterans.

This is the problem I'm trying to fight, this is the reason I started all of this. Information is power and knowing who is canceling travelers often will help us avoid high risk contracts. Seeing that a government shutdown puts lots of travel nurses out of work and causes them to lose money is unacceptable in my opinion, but it's also educational because now we know one year contracts with the VA are never promised. If we cancel our contracts they want to penalize us, sometimes thousands of dollars, but let the facility do it and ... nothing. Sorry for your loss, good luck and maybe we'll call you later. No thanks.

What does this mean? It will mean different things for each person, but for me it means I will not work for the VA medical center, ever, because it's too risky. Some places require upwards of $2,000 - $3,000 to break a lease, add that to having to get a moving van or enclosed trailer and then having to pay to relocate and secure housing and utilities all over again for another facility is just too much when you thought you had a secure contract for a year.

VA medical centers? Nope, not for me.

Got a report today telling me that this facility will no longer be hiring travelers or extending any contracts. I haven't heard of any cancellations as of yet. I was given permission to share their information so here's what the they said (I've edited out certain parts just in case the facility doesn't like them sharing this info.):

"I'm actually working as a traveler at Benioff Children's in SF currently. My contract goes through [EDITED], [EDITED], I heard a lot of travelers talking about how the hospital is no longer extending anyone or signing new contracts. I was hoping it was just in the [EDITED] (since that was where I heard most of the rumors), however, I spoke with my manager [EDITED] and [EDITED] said the hospital will not be taking any more travelers due to the high cost. The hospital is adding extra core per diem positions to help supplement the units that have been utilizing travelers a lot until they can hire and train full time staff for the floors. [EDITED] did say that the hospital could eventually consider hiring travelers again to cover maternity leaves or LOA like travelers were originally intended for, but essentially UCSF-Benioff felt they were relying too much on travelers to staff the units and are trying to increase their core positions instead. [EDITED] I was pretty nervous hearing about extensions not being offered. When I told my manager my situation, [EDITED] was pretty honest and basically said an extension wouldn't be approved. [EDITED] did however give me information on the per diem position, which is most likely what i'll do [EDITED] I've talked to a couple other travelers who likely would have extended if offered and they are taking per diem positions as well."