{"id":4101,"date":"2021-06-29T17:43:20","date_gmt":"2021-06-29T17:43:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wanderly.us\/blog\/?p=4101"},"modified":"2026-03-04T18:32:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T18:32:23","slug":"integrity-in-travel-healthcare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wanderly.us\/blog\/integrity-in-travel-healthcare\/","title":{"rendered":"Upholding Integrity in Travel Healthcare"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou can\u2019t build a reputation on what you are going to do.\u201d ~Henry Ford<\/strong><\/p>\n

Integrity is most commonly known in the travel healthcare<\/a> field as \u201cdoing what you said that you would do.\u201d Relatively simple, right?<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, I have started to see a shift in this paradigm in the last few years. Our basic assumptions, ways of thinking, and methodology have drastically changed. Some of the comments that I hear now include:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hospitals cancel us all the time without notice, so why are we expected to act with integrity when they don\u2019t?\u201d<\/p>\n

Simply, \u201cDo what\u2019s best for you. They would drop you in a second if they didn\u2019t need you anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a profession where we are undervalued & underpaid, I will do what I want.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHospitals would easily cut your pay without wondering how you would feel about it. Do what is financially and mentally better for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese companies do not care about their nurses, much less a travel nurse, so why not go someplace where they\u2019re offering me more money that\u2019s closer to home? Sign me up!\u201d<\/p>\n

In my 18 years of travel healthcare, I have watched agencies go from \u201ctaking the hit\u201d of a canceled contract to, \u201cThe nurse will pay us a fee.\u201d Why? Because there was a high rate of increase in canceled contracts for petty reasons, agencies were losing big bucks from hospital fines and orientation costs to have the nurse leave the first week. So, now we find clauses in our contracts that states that we, the travelers, are responsible for all costs if the contract is canceled.<\/p>\n

One of the biggest questions that I see nowadays is, \u201cWhy should I act with integrity when no one else does? Hospitals cancel us all the time without notice; why can\u2019t we cancel without notice?\u201d They look at all the hospital\u2019s cancellations and think that if it doesn\u2019t act with integrity, why should I? The simple truth is that travel healthcare providers don\u2019t have control over what hospitals or agencies do, but we do control what we do.<\/p>\n

How did travel healthcare become such a \u201cme, me, me\u201d enterprise? Everyone seems concerned about themselves instead of working with others. What happened to hospitals, agencies, and healthcare providers working together? Yes, agencies do make money off of us, and no, we don\u2019t have to go through an agency, but it is so much nicer when we all work together. In my personal opinion, Wanderly<\/a> does a great job of trying to navigate this cooperation for us, but we have work to do.<\/p>\n

How did COVID-19 affect all of this? It all goes back to supply and demand. The demand for nurses was GREAT in the worst months of the pandemic, and nurses were making up to $10,000 a week through crisis contracts. Now, crisis contracts are few and far between, along with making $5,000 per week. We are back to $1,500 to $2,500 per week, which has prompted the attitude of, \u201cAgencies need to pay us what we are worth.\u201d The truth is, they can\u2019t until hospitals raise their billing rates. And the chances of this happening are slim to none when vendors advertise that hospitals have the right to cancel us for one day every pay period, and the vendor will not charge the hospital for orientation. Vendors also promise a \u201cquality healthcare professional at a reasonable price.\u201d In other words, we will short the nurse and the agency to give hospitals a great rate to use our service.<\/p>\n

One thing is evident from the Travel Nursing Newbies website and Facebook group: The agencies that we are partnered with support their travelers 100%. We only work with the best! And consider this statement: \u201cThese companies do not care about their nurses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Travelers talk about agencies and recruiters that are good or horrible. Recruiters do the same thing. It is amazing how many recruiters band together, whether they work for the same agency or not. Your reputation for doing what you said you would most likely precede you.<\/p>\n

Healthcare professionals must take pride in their professional integrity. Take some time to make your decision; after all, agencies usually give you at least 24 hours to think about it, and Wanderly<\/a> can help you navigate through the different agencies, offers, and contracts.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned for our next article on how work ethics play a part in travel healthcare.<\/p>\n

Author:\u00a0KAY SLANE, RN, BS, CGM, TRAVEL NURSE<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: this post was written by guest author and Travel Nursing Guru, Kay Epi Slane, and are her viewpoints and opinions of the traveling healthcare industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou can\u2019t build a reputation on what you are going to do.\u201d ~Henry Ford Integrity is most commonly known in the travel healthcare field as \u201cdoing what you said that you would do.\u201d Relatively simple, right? Unfortunately, I have started to see a shift in this paradigm in the last few years. Our basic assumptions, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":{"author_name":"adlyd","author_description":"","author_user_level":10,"author_avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/86bf0574a8efbaf50009a8aba5aa3c47?s=96&r=g"},"featured_media":3278,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[469,49,54,17],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.wanderly.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/20190305-EVC-Vocational-Nursing-Lab-ca-343.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Adlyd","author_link":"https:\/\/www.wanderly.us\/blog\/author\/adlyd\/"},"featured_image":{"size_thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.wanderly.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/20190305-EVC-Vocational-Nursing-Lab-ca-343-150x150.jpg","size_medium":"https:\/\/www.wanderly.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/20190305-EVC-Vocational-Nursing-Lab-ca-343-300x200.jpg","size_large":"https:\/\/www.wanderly.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/20190305-EVC-Vocational-Nursing-Lab-ca-343-1024x683.jpg","size_full":"https:\/\/www.wanderly.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/20190305-EVC-Vocational-Nursing-Lab-ca-343.jpg"},"loftocean-view-count":["1733"],"category":[{"id":469,"slug":"travel-allied-healthcare","name":"Allied Healthcare"},{"id":49,"slug":"travel-nurse-career","name":"Career Resources"},{"id":54,"slug":"nurse-life","name":"Nurse Life"},{"id":17,"slug":"travel-nursing","name":"Travel Nursing"}],"post_tag":null,"views":4853,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.wanderly.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/20190305-EVC-Vocational-Nursing-Lab-ca-343.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p92mSz-149","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wanderly.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4101"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wanderly.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wanderly.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wanderly.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wanderly.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4101"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.wanderly.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6029,"href":"https:\/\/www.wanderly.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4101\/revisions\/6029"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wanderly.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wanderly.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wanderly.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wanderly.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}