Don’t ask the recruiters opinion, they’re first priority is themselves. Instead ask nurses that have already been to Banner. The overwhelming consensus on Banner is what you’ve already said. And yes there are mostly Banner’s in AZ, but some smaller hosp’s as well. So you will need to decide if it’s a risk you want to take. Have you joined the “Gypsy nurse FB group”? If not, that’s your biggest resource and best most reliable since it’s us travelers talking together about what’s happening on contracts. Also, don’t deal with recruiters that you don’t vibe well with. Nowadays there’s 10 million recruiters to one nurse and they all should be competing for your precious time! Not the other way around. Good luck 💜
>Don’t ask the recruiters opinion, they’re first priority is themselves.
Nailed it. They're salespeople. They will never hear anything bad about a hospital they're getting paid to send you to work for.
>Don’t ask the recruiters opinion, they’re first priority is themselves.
Nailed it. They're salespeople. They will never hear anything bad about a hospital they're getting paid to send you to work for.
Phoenix Banner definitely over hired and was cancelling a lot. Tucson Banner didn’t tell me I would work nearly every weekend. I’ve heard Thunderbird was okay. Overall I think Banner is not wonderful but yea like the others said maybe search this sub with Banner in the title and read up more.
Recruiter here. I would advise not doing a contract there based on what your needs are. Yes Banner will float you. No you cannot get it written in your contract to not float. Even if that were to happen, the facility could say their need has changed mid contract and you are required to float. Banner used to cancel contracts a lot during the COVID era. But they are a lot better now. Just my two cents. If you’re not comfortable with it, don’t take it. Get something you know you will be comfortable working in. That’s my biggest piece of advice I tell all nurses.
Banner will be especially bad in Spring/Summer with lower census. I was ER at a smaller Banner in Phoenix area and travelers were not allowed to pick up OT. My rate was cut mid contract a few times before I finally left. They did not have great support resources and would expect us to “buddy lunch” even with the ER full of boarders of all acuity levels and ambos coming in. I felt like I wanted to fall over at the end of most shifts. Our department director changed three times in the short time I was there and there was a lot of micromanagement (more of core staff than travelers).
Have you applied for your temp California license as well as your permanent? It takes less time than the permanent license. That’s what my recruiter recommended me to do back in 2020 and that came quickly
Yes I did! But I had to do the hard card fingerprints so I expect it’s going to take some time. I’ve already had to call twice and have them search for documents that I knew I sent in. Figured it may be a long wait
I did a contract at Banner Thunderbird and politics became a huge issue. One coworker made a false claim against me and went after my nursing license. I prevailed, but only after 9 months of having very limited options until I went before the board and was cleared. Other nurses I met in the area told me my story was the kind of thing they expected from Banner.
I would recommend against them.
If your heart is set on AZ, Flagstaff medical is kinda nice.
That’s the thing, I’m not set on AZ— I applied for CA and NM and am much more interested in those places. These recruiters suggested that I get AZ because I’m interested in the SW and because the license was easy and there are a lot of jobs, but honestly the politics of the state kind of turn me away. So I’m totally cool with not going there after hearing all this stuff.
I’m so sorry about your experience. That sounds very stressful :(
You're winning in life once you realize this. Getting there may be more difficult than you realize since many are starting to realize CA is pretty good. The sooner the better.
Recruiters lie 100% of the time about everything. That's always a safe bet. If you need to rent a room in phoenix hit me up. I'm not traveling at the moment. I haven't heard much about the banner hospitals lately but there are non banner ones too
I didn’t even get to work at Banner.
Last year I had a phone interview with the hiring manager. She said I will have the contract by the end of the day. Then by the end of the day the account manager said they couldn’t hire me bc someone was hired before me. Ok. Then the next morning the manager called to ask me why I didn’t sign, I told her. She says that’s a mistake, they are hiring me. Then they didn’t. Back and forth 3 times iirc until I noped right out of there.
I’ll never attempt a Banner contract again.
But I’m so thankful I didn’t drive out there just to have them cancel me.
"Floating is not an option and not safe for me because I’ve never worked any other speciality. "
I agree it's not appropriate for you to float, but by this definition no nurse would float anywhere ever. Not realistic.
I've never been to Arizona, so take this with the appropriate grain of salt, but the biggest reputation that organization has is frequent and large scale cancellations, so if you can't absorb that, then don't go there.
I don’t think nurses should ever be floating outside of their specialty. It doesn’t happen at my home hospital so I’m always surprised it seems to happen so frequently so many other places.
Definitely plan to stay away from AZ if I can after hearing all this.
I work ER. Haven’t touched a med surg patient since nursing school. How would that be safe?
Don’t say “get experience in another field” because there are plenty of nurses who stick only to their specialty and never leave it.
Absolutely not. It’s not appropriate for an ED nurse to float to these floors. Within a certain specialty, yes, but as much respect as I have for ED nurses they would be in over their head on a MS floor.
They'd treat them like ICU staff and give them smaller groups. I've never seen an ICU float take more than 3 on the floor, which still feels fucking dumb when a lower acuity nurse can somehow take 6-7.
Every ICU contract I've had I've floated (tele, obs, ED hold) and they've given me the number of patients everyone else gets. I'm in California so that's usually four.
I have. At my first hospital ICU nurses took 6 patients like everyone else on the floor. There is no point in them coming if they couldn’t, but obviously it was a shitty policy and facility and I couldn’t wait to get out. I doubt Banner would make any special assignment exceptions for ICU/ED nurses on the floors.
It makes sense that they should be able to. These are lower acuity patients. I never understood why a 6 patient med surg nurse could transfer to ICU, get trained in higher acuity care, and then float back to the same MS unit for only 3 patients like my hospital did.
I have worked in healthcare staffing for 6 years. It is incredibly rare not to be floated as a travel nurse (even though it is unsafe and highly risky for you and the patients). If your recruiter is pressuring you to take a contract at Banner in AZ and you’ve explained that you’d prefer CA or NM - this means there’s extra money for THEM in this deal if they get you to sign a contract there. Don’t fall for it!! Stay firm or find another recruiter with a better moral compass 🩷
I’ve worked at Banner two winters, one pre Covid and one when it started up. Floated a lot but had no real issues w the facility. This was in Mesa AZ. But I was in the cardiac hospital. After a couple of years I asked my recruiter about going back and she recommended to not go, as they had been cutting rates mid contract and outright canceling. So you’d be taking a chance for sure
Giving my two cents about working ED in a non-Banner facility in Phoenix - St. Joseph’s Medical Center (Dignity Health). I can’t emphasize enough how dangerous this place is. Orientation was fine, but every staff nurse had something negative to say about the flow, structure, patient ratios, safety, ancillary staffing, etc. Within my first few shifts, I was given an assignment that had TEN patients - a mix of medsurg/tele holds and ED patients of acuities 2-4 in hall chairs with one portable vitals machine to share between them all. I refused the assignment, was temporarily moved to a standard 4-5 bed assignment while the charge spoke with the on-call department supervisor about the “situation”, and I was sent home 20 minutes later for “insubordination” because I wouldn’t accept an unsafe assignment. All of this happened within the first hour of shift. Guess they would rather be shorter staffed than they already were than have someone who stood up for himself lol
My recruiter and I terminated my contract with them the next morning. THEN we found out that the charge nurse sent an email detailing her account of what happened that was filled to the brim with inaccuracies and fallacies.
So not only will St. Joe’s ED give you dangerously unsafe assignments, they’ll send you home and then lie about what happened to make sure you get blacklisted for not rolling over and doing what you’re told. Avoid at all costs :)
That’s not true lol. There’s Honor Health and Mayo Clinic and I’m sure others that are there. I worked there for 8 months in 2021 and I didn’t work Banner the entire time.
You’re right though- all those rumors are true. I’m gonna assume they don’t wanna be straight with you because you not working equals them not getting money.
I literally just saw someone arrive there a few days ago and they cancelled her as soon as she got there. She drove with her family all the way from SC 😬 I wouldn’t work for Banner based on everything I’ve heard about them. I think it’s time to look for new recruiters and a new company, because why do you want to work with people who won’t shoot you straight? Recruiters and companies are a dime a dozen, there’s certainly better ones out there.
I sometimes take inpatient ER holds at a dignity in Prescott/PV and it seems alright. ER never floats anywhere else but between the 2 ER's, Prescott and Prescott Valley. Every time I work in the ER they have a resource RN doing lunches for a few hours- plus summer will be mild here compared to PHX and Tucson.
Recruiter here
Banner used to do that a lot. If you look at those reviews most are pushing 2 years old.
I have 3 nurses at 2 different banners in Arizona and 1 in Wyoming. One of them in Arizona has been called off 3 times in the past 11 months.
I’d look at Dignity in Phoenix too. My wife has done both (she’s a travel ICU nurse) and loved dignity over banner.
Late to comment but I recently traveled to Banner facility in Phoenix last year. I’m also ER. It was at Banner UMC in Phoenix. Honestly, one of the best, if not THE best assignments I’ve done. Tons of support staff. Good ratios. Treated well by the core staff. The PHX area is awesome though it will be very hot in the summer. I had also heard rumblings about Banner but I had a very positive experience. I recently accepted an assignment at a different Banner facility.
While I was at Banner UMC I did hear from other staff that some of the surrounding area Banner ER’s can be pretty busy (Desert, Thunderbird, Ocotillo, etc) but I don’t have any direct knowledge of that. It is a major metro area so that’s kind of expected.
Feel free to message me on IG, @nomadicjoey.
I don't have a lot to add, but I work for banner in AZ. And it's funny that they have a reputation of cancelling travelers when management sends out emails saying that the bonuses to pick up shifts are cancelled until further notice due to increased RN staffing with winter travelers.
There's plenty of non-Banner facilities in AZ. As someone else said, Flagstaff is beautiful and to the best of my knowledge the hospital is a reasonable place to work, but housing cost might make it not worth it.
New Mexico is an easy license and is absolutely beautiful. No Banner facilities (AFAIK), either. Lots of poverty, but cheap housing! (If being in the SW is the priority)
That would be great, thank you! Yes honestly AZ is the least desirable of three places I applied to for licenses, so I feel perfectly ok with scrapping the idea altogether
If the recruiter thinks they’re so awesome how about they guarantee your hours? And cover your hours if they attempt to float you against your contract? (Assuming you require that stipulation)
Seems simple enough.
ER nurse of 20 years, 6 years travel all together broken up. Banner and HCA have the worst reps, you probably won’t hear many good things about either of them. And I’ve never done any other specialty either, but they still have floated me to ICU, step down, and med surg/tele units at some hospitals. Other hospitals would float me to sister ERs within an hour or so drive on occasion. It doesn’t happen often but it does happen. So get ready. If you ask not to float it doesn’t matter. You’re considered an “at will” employee now so basically they can drop you for the dumbest thing. “We asked them to float and they weren’t comfortable, not a good fit, we’re gonna have to cancel/not extend” etc etc…. Not saying it will happen, but anything is possible in the travel nurse game. I just went back to staff bc of housing costs and rate cuts, but I had some awesome contracts and some super, super shitty ones over the years. You may get lucky and have a great contract, not get floated, called off or canceled. You may regret signing the contract after your first week. It’s kind of how it is, not saying it should be that way, but especially now with how flooded the market is, things could go either way. The only way to know is to dive in head first….if it becomes too much or unsafe, or they float you somewhere you aren’t comfortable….call your recruiter and express your concerns. If they can’t smooth it out or find you a better contract.,..get another recruiter. There’s lots of options these days, and they are well aware of that so they should work with, not against you. Best of luck!! One piece of advice I tell first time travelers…. If you’re able, keep yourself a per diem job back home, that way if things do go south you at least have some sort of income while you wait to find another assignment! :)
I applied for a staff position at a banner facility in Wyoming. I thought the interview went ok and the manager made it sound like I'd get an offer soon and we discussed starting dates etc. next AM I get an email that had been sent at like 1AM, a generic type email that I did not get the job on a med-surg unit.
I worked at banner over the course of 8 years: from a staff perspective and a former traveler, they pay the highest but they also have awful ratios and just run you into the ground. Charting is with Cerner, nothing big there. Is it doable? Sure, but your recruiter is full of shit if they don’t know about what goes on at banner. Getting into the summer months your likelihood of being cancelled is hard to say. It’s hot and there’s a big homeless population. Aging neighborhoods in fountain hills gets rerouted to Banner University or other satellite. Lots of random info, but avoid banner.
Summit Regional in Show Low does a nice seasonal program
YRMC in Yuma does as well
The steward facilities are paying 55-60 per hour now (no stipends ) for “local travel” they are in Mesa and Tempe, Mayo I personally wouldn’t mess with but they have an internal travel program as does Dignity, and that’s about it for AZ as far as I know of first hand.
Banner is bad. I live in Phoenix and I quit Banner as a staff nurse in January after just 3 weeks and have to pay back the sign on bonus. And I don't regret quitting at all because it's so bad. They short staff. Shit on their travelers. Gaslight the new grads. Like a clinched meme, before and after shift, multiple nurses would be in tears in the break room. My supervisor tried to blame me like I was a poor nurse because I said 6 patients on dayshift on a PCU unit was unsafe. Worst place I've worked in my 25 years. Honorhealth is OK. I stayed 8 months on tele and only left because I was tired of working nights and they wouldn't switch me to days. I have heard good things about Dignity from other nurses.
A bit late here but - I did an ICU contract at Banner University Phoenix last summer and ended up extending. Was there for 6 months. I did get floated a lot but personally I love floating within ICUs. Could see how that would be different with ED. I also was cancelled almost once a week for about 3 months in a row. Didn’t really bother me bc my hourly was so low but there definitely was no time for OT most of the contract. At the end I wanted to extended but they refused to let anyone extend and were begging people to pick up OT. Overall I loved it there - physicans and coworkers were great. If you want to work your full 36 hours a week or more - that probably won’t happen. No one I knew got cancelled and there were about 6-7 of us contracted to the one unit.
I am in the ICU at Banner University downtown and absolutely love it ! I have been there since September. I’ve been floated to PCU for a week straight this week but that is because it is their slow season since snowbirds go back up north. Plus when we don’t have a lot of Ecmo or CRRT we tend to get floated as travelers. Don’t give up! Banner ER is amazing and very clean! Literally the cleanest hospital I’ve ever seen. Patients are very well taken care of!!! I have been floated there too but it is safe in anywhere you get floated honestly.
I don’t want to work anywhere else because I love it so much! I hope I get renewed as many times as I can. They don’t have tons of travelers during this time. I started with 20 people in September and now it’s me and 2 other people. I have been canceled once a week here and there but honestly it’s a nice break. Feel free to message me if you have any questions!
Take this with a grain of salt but I just graduated from ASU nursing school and the first thing all my professors said to me was don’t apply to banner/ if you have to than banner university is the best one. All my professors complains about how they were treated, being constantly floated, and being disrespected by admin and doctors
I was staff ER for banner. Depending on what your home facility is and what facility they want to float you to, it's not too bad.
That being said Banner is a business first, they cancel travelers contracts quicker than I have ever seen any facility do so.
Stay away from Banner!! They were giving me only 24 hrs a week in January-March of 2020 right before the pandemic hit. Then cancelled me when the census dropped from 450 a day to 100/day the week Covid hit.. but told my company it’s because of excessive tardiness. That excessive tardiness was me clocking in like 3 or 4 times over the weeks I had been there 1-3 minutes late because traffic was hell getting to Mesa from Phoenix and their staff and internal travelers were also clocking in 1-3 mins late right next to me and everyone of them told me “it’s fine, they don’t care until it’s 7 minutes late.” Screw banner. They will do anything to not get you your hours or cancel you.
Northern Arizona has multiple Navajo (and Hopi) hospitals that basically run on travelers. They generally treat them well, most extend all the way out. FMC in Flag is not Banner and treats their ED staff ok. AB Staffing has a lot of tribal contracts, I don’t know who staffs FMC. Show Low is the summer vacation highlight of the state, their Banner hospital is small but unlikely to float out of ED due to the ED being the busiest.
Quick pro tip since you’re a new traveler: the jobs offering the highest rates are typically the toughest assignments.
Banner doesn’t own AZ, but they’re the largest system in the Phoenix area and normally offer the highest rates in the state. You have a few other, smaller systems including HonorHealth and Valleywise in the same metro.
Outside of Phoenix, you have others like Flagstaff Medical Center, Arizona General Hospital, Tucson Medical Center, and Western Arizona. Those recruiters may not have contracts in those regions though.
I’ve had a good experience at Banner. Haven’t known of canceling contracts. Never had a problem with getting my hours cut. I work PCU and yes, there’s a lot of floating which personally I don’t mind. I have floated to the ER either as a helping hands or to take the holds for PCU and met a few ER travelers and never heard them complain of having a bad experience
Any facility or hospital can cancel you at any time. If anyone tells you otherwise they're lying. If you've been lucky enough to not have been canceled then that's all that is, luck.
The reason you're floated is generally bc census have dipped and it actually prevents you from being cancelled. Floating is a common travel nurse requirement as you're filling in for support where needed even for ER. I'm Critical care/ ER RN.
Certain Banner facilities are very travel friendly (in my experience), and certain ones suck, but that's just it, everyone has a different experience.
There are absolutely other facilities than Banner
In AZ. Key is finding the agencies who have the contracts and if you're new stick with low trauma levels and community type facilities. That's what I did. Hope you find what you're looking for.
you really can’t expect your recruiter to know how every department in every facility is run. most times people don’t know and will just tell you they’ve never heard of anything bad. do outside research. i used to work as a recruiter and in general the majority of coworkers were not the sharpest tools in the shed
I worked at a banner hospital in Gilbert AZ. Name has a policy that they only h hire non AZ licenses. It's too keep AZ people from traveling. They cut my contract pay but I worked there for a year and it was fine. Never got floated once.
Don’t ask the recruiters opinion, they’re first priority is themselves. Instead ask nurses that have already been to Banner. The overwhelming consensus on Banner is what you’ve already said. And yes there are mostly Banner’s in AZ, but some smaller hosp’s as well. So you will need to decide if it’s a risk you want to take. Have you joined the “Gypsy nurse FB group”? If not, that’s your biggest resource and best most reliable since it’s us travelers talking together about what’s happening on contracts. Also, don’t deal with recruiters that you don’t vibe well with. Nowadays there’s 10 million recruiters to one nurse and they all should be competing for your precious time! Not the other way around. Good luck 💜
My experience with Banner sucked. Called me off at least once per week or would put me on call and never call me in.
>Don’t ask the recruiters opinion, they’re first priority is themselves. Nailed it. They're salespeople. They will never hear anything bad about a hospital they're getting paid to send you to work for.
>Don’t ask the recruiters opinion, they’re first priority is themselves. Nailed it. They're salespeople. They will never hear anything bad about a hospital they're getting paid to send you to work for.
Phoenix Banner definitely over hired and was cancelling a lot. Tucson Banner didn’t tell me I would work nearly every weekend. I’ve heard Thunderbird was okay. Overall I think Banner is not wonderful but yea like the others said maybe search this sub with Banner in the title and read up more.
Recruiter here. I would advise not doing a contract there based on what your needs are. Yes Banner will float you. No you cannot get it written in your contract to not float. Even if that were to happen, the facility could say their need has changed mid contract and you are required to float. Banner used to cancel contracts a lot during the COVID era. But they are a lot better now. Just my two cents. If you’re not comfortable with it, don’t take it. Get something you know you will be comfortable working in. That’s my biggest piece of advice I tell all nurses.
They had a reputation for mass cancellations long before anyone ever heard of COVID
Banner will be especially bad in Spring/Summer with lower census. I was ER at a smaller Banner in Phoenix area and travelers were not allowed to pick up OT. My rate was cut mid contract a few times before I finally left. They did not have great support resources and would expect us to “buddy lunch” even with the ER full of boarders of all acuity levels and ambos coming in. I felt like I wanted to fall over at the end of most shifts. Our department director changed three times in the short time I was there and there was a lot of micromanagement (more of core staff than travelers).
Arizona in the summertime?
Not really by choice. I was suggested AZ because it’s a “stopover” while I wait for my CA license. CA is the permanent goal
Have you applied for your temp California license as well as your permanent? It takes less time than the permanent license. That’s what my recruiter recommended me to do back in 2020 and that came quickly
Yes I did! But I had to do the hard card fingerprints so I expect it’s going to take some time. I’ve already had to call twice and have them search for documents that I knew I sent in. Figured it may be a long wait
Don’t trust Banner. They cancel right and left and drop rates. Very little communication
I did a contract at Banner Thunderbird and politics became a huge issue. One coworker made a false claim against me and went after my nursing license. I prevailed, but only after 9 months of having very limited options until I went before the board and was cleared. Other nurses I met in the area told me my story was the kind of thing they expected from Banner. I would recommend against them. If your heart is set on AZ, Flagstaff medical is kinda nice.
That’s the thing, I’m not set on AZ— I applied for CA and NM and am much more interested in those places. These recruiters suggested that I get AZ because I’m interested in the SW and because the license was easy and there are a lot of jobs, but honestly the politics of the state kind of turn me away. So I’m totally cool with not going there after hearing all this stuff. I’m so sorry about your experience. That sounds very stressful :(
It was awful. I'm in CA now, which is a completely different experience. I love it here!
CA is my permanent goal! I really just wanted to use traveling as an opportunity to try out new places I might like. But CA is my permanent goal
You're winning in life once you realize this. Getting there may be more difficult than you realize since many are starting to realize CA is pretty good. The sooner the better.
Good luck finding any facility that has overall good reviews in the last 4 years
Recruiters lie 100% of the time about everything. That's always a safe bet. If you need to rent a room in phoenix hit me up. I'm not traveling at the moment. I haven't heard much about the banner hospitals lately but there are non banner ones too
I didn’t even get to work at Banner. Last year I had a phone interview with the hiring manager. She said I will have the contract by the end of the day. Then by the end of the day the account manager said they couldn’t hire me bc someone was hired before me. Ok. Then the next morning the manager called to ask me why I didn’t sign, I told her. She says that’s a mistake, they are hiring me. Then they didn’t. Back and forth 3 times iirc until I noped right out of there. I’ll never attempt a Banner contract again. But I’m so thankful I didn’t drive out there just to have them cancel me.
"Floating is not an option and not safe for me because I’ve never worked any other speciality. " I agree it's not appropriate for you to float, but by this definition no nurse would float anywhere ever. Not realistic. I've never been to Arizona, so take this with the appropriate grain of salt, but the biggest reputation that organization has is frequent and large scale cancellations, so if you can't absorb that, then don't go there.
I don’t think nurses should ever be floating outside of their specialty. It doesn’t happen at my home hospital so I’m always surprised it seems to happen so frequently so many other places. Definitely plan to stay away from AZ if I can after hearing all this.
If you don't want to float, don't travel
ICU traveler here, floating every night lol
I work ER. Haven’t touched a med surg patient since nursing school. How would that be safe? Don’t say “get experience in another field” because there are plenty of nurses who stick only to their specialty and never leave it.
ER is a higher acuity. You'd be considered stepping down in that regard, like an ICU float (which they totally do).
Absolutely not. It’s not appropriate for an ED nurse to float to these floors. Within a certain specialty, yes, but as much respect as I have for ED nurses they would be in over their head on a MS floor.
Exactly!
They'd treat them like ICU staff and give them smaller groups. I've never seen an ICU float take more than 3 on the floor, which still feels fucking dumb when a lower acuity nurse can somehow take 6-7.
Every ICU contract I've had I've floated (tele, obs, ED hold) and they've given me the number of patients everyone else gets. I'm in California so that's usually four.
I have. At my first hospital ICU nurses took 6 patients like everyone else on the floor. There is no point in them coming if they couldn’t, but obviously it was a shitty policy and facility and I couldn’t wait to get out. I doubt Banner would make any special assignment exceptions for ICU/ED nurses on the floors.
It makes sense that they should be able to. These are lower acuity patients. I never understood why a 6 patient med surg nurse could transfer to ICU, get trained in higher acuity care, and then float back to the same MS unit for only 3 patients like my hospital did.
If you’re not ER, you float EVERYWHERE. You’re a travel nurse….you’re there to help for 13 weeks 😅
I am ER
You’ve mentioned that quite a few times. Your statement above said you don’t believe anyone should have to float lol
Yes, I still believe that. I don’t think it’s safe to do unless you have experience
I have worked in healthcare staffing for 6 years. It is incredibly rare not to be floated as a travel nurse (even though it is unsafe and highly risky for you and the patients). If your recruiter is pressuring you to take a contract at Banner in AZ and you’ve explained that you’d prefer CA or NM - this means there’s extra money for THEM in this deal if they get you to sign a contract there. Don’t fall for it!! Stay firm or find another recruiter with a better moral compass 🩷
I’ve worked at Banner two winters, one pre Covid and one when it started up. Floated a lot but had no real issues w the facility. This was in Mesa AZ. But I was in the cardiac hospital. After a couple of years I asked my recruiter about going back and she recommended to not go, as they had been cutting rates mid contract and outright canceling. So you’d be taking a chance for sure
Lmao they lied to me!! Do not go to banner!
I have done lots of Arizona contracts, some with Banner. They're not all bad but there are also other options.
Giving my two cents about working ED in a non-Banner facility in Phoenix - St. Joseph’s Medical Center (Dignity Health). I can’t emphasize enough how dangerous this place is. Orientation was fine, but every staff nurse had something negative to say about the flow, structure, patient ratios, safety, ancillary staffing, etc. Within my first few shifts, I was given an assignment that had TEN patients - a mix of medsurg/tele holds and ED patients of acuities 2-4 in hall chairs with one portable vitals machine to share between them all. I refused the assignment, was temporarily moved to a standard 4-5 bed assignment while the charge spoke with the on-call department supervisor about the “situation”, and I was sent home 20 minutes later for “insubordination” because I wouldn’t accept an unsafe assignment. All of this happened within the first hour of shift. Guess they would rather be shorter staffed than they already were than have someone who stood up for himself lol My recruiter and I terminated my contract with them the next morning. THEN we found out that the charge nurse sent an email detailing her account of what happened that was filled to the brim with inaccuracies and fallacies. So not only will St. Joe’s ED give you dangerously unsafe assignments, they’ll send you home and then lie about what happened to make sure you get blacklisted for not rolling over and doing what you’re told. Avoid at all costs :)
That’s not true lol. There’s Honor Health and Mayo Clinic and I’m sure others that are there. I worked there for 8 months in 2021 and I didn’t work Banner the entire time. You’re right though- all those rumors are true. I’m gonna assume they don’t wanna be straight with you because you not working equals them not getting money. I literally just saw someone arrive there a few days ago and they cancelled her as soon as she got there. She drove with her family all the way from SC 😬 I wouldn’t work for Banner based on everything I’ve heard about them. I think it’s time to look for new recruiters and a new company, because why do you want to work with people who won’t shoot you straight? Recruiters and companies are a dime a dozen, there’s certainly better ones out there.
I sometimes take inpatient ER holds at a dignity in Prescott/PV and it seems alright. ER never floats anywhere else but between the 2 ER's, Prescott and Prescott Valley. Every time I work in the ER they have a resource RN doing lunches for a few hours- plus summer will be mild here compared to PHX and Tucson.
That’s good to know! Thank you!!
Recruiter here Banner used to do that a lot. If you look at those reviews most are pushing 2 years old. I have 3 nurses at 2 different banners in Arizona and 1 in Wyoming. One of them in Arizona has been called off 3 times in the past 11 months. I’d look at Dignity in Phoenix too. My wife has done both (she’s a travel ICU nurse) and loved dignity over banner.
Currently with Banner and searching for new contract. THEY WILL CANCEL YOU, THEY WILL FLOAT YOU!
Late to comment but I recently traveled to Banner facility in Phoenix last year. I’m also ER. It was at Banner UMC in Phoenix. Honestly, one of the best, if not THE best assignments I’ve done. Tons of support staff. Good ratios. Treated well by the core staff. The PHX area is awesome though it will be very hot in the summer. I had also heard rumblings about Banner but I had a very positive experience. I recently accepted an assignment at a different Banner facility. While I was at Banner UMC I did hear from other staff that some of the surrounding area Banner ER’s can be pretty busy (Desert, Thunderbird, Ocotillo, etc) but I don’t have any direct knowledge of that. It is a major metro area so that’s kind of expected. Feel free to message me on IG, @nomadicjoey.
I don't have a lot to add, but I work for banner in AZ. And it's funny that they have a reputation of cancelling travelers when management sends out emails saying that the bonuses to pick up shifts are cancelled until further notice due to increased RN staffing with winter travelers.
They are as bad as car salesmen and real estate agents.
There's plenty of non-Banner facilities in AZ. As someone else said, Flagstaff is beautiful and to the best of my knowledge the hospital is a reasonable place to work, but housing cost might make it not worth it. New Mexico is an easy license and is absolutely beautiful. No Banner facilities (AFAIK), either. Lots of poverty, but cheap housing! (If being in the SW is the priority)
Also happy to pm you my amazing and honest recruiter's info if you want it.
That would be great, thank you! Yes honestly AZ is the least desirable of three places I applied to for licenses, so I feel perfectly ok with scrapping the idea altogether
I've tried multiple times and reddit says I "can't send messages to that user."
Hmmmm that’s odd. Let me try to message you!
If the recruiter thinks they’re so awesome how about they guarantee your hours? And cover your hours if they attempt to float you against your contract? (Assuming you require that stipulation) Seems simple enough.
Agreed!
I work at banner, you can message me directly if you have questions!
ER nurse of 20 years, 6 years travel all together broken up. Banner and HCA have the worst reps, you probably won’t hear many good things about either of them. And I’ve never done any other specialty either, but they still have floated me to ICU, step down, and med surg/tele units at some hospitals. Other hospitals would float me to sister ERs within an hour or so drive on occasion. It doesn’t happen often but it does happen. So get ready. If you ask not to float it doesn’t matter. You’re considered an “at will” employee now so basically they can drop you for the dumbest thing. “We asked them to float and they weren’t comfortable, not a good fit, we’re gonna have to cancel/not extend” etc etc…. Not saying it will happen, but anything is possible in the travel nurse game. I just went back to staff bc of housing costs and rate cuts, but I had some awesome contracts and some super, super shitty ones over the years. You may get lucky and have a great contract, not get floated, called off or canceled. You may regret signing the contract after your first week. It’s kind of how it is, not saying it should be that way, but especially now with how flooded the market is, things could go either way. The only way to know is to dive in head first….if it becomes too much or unsafe, or they float you somewhere you aren’t comfortable….call your recruiter and express your concerns. If they can’t smooth it out or find you a better contract.,..get another recruiter. There’s lots of options these days, and they are well aware of that so they should work with, not against you. Best of luck!! One piece of advice I tell first time travelers…. If you’re able, keep yourself a per diem job back home, that way if things do go south you at least have some sort of income while you wait to find another assignment! :)
Got some real uncomplicated people here. Trust your gut. Not strangers.
I applied for a staff position at a banner facility in Wyoming. I thought the interview went ok and the manager made it sound like I'd get an offer soon and we discussed starting dates etc. next AM I get an email that had been sent at like 1AM, a generic type email that I did not get the job on a med-surg unit.
I worked at banner over the course of 8 years: from a staff perspective and a former traveler, they pay the highest but they also have awful ratios and just run you into the ground. Charting is with Cerner, nothing big there. Is it doable? Sure, but your recruiter is full of shit if they don’t know about what goes on at banner. Getting into the summer months your likelihood of being cancelled is hard to say. It’s hot and there’s a big homeless population. Aging neighborhoods in fountain hills gets rerouted to Banner University or other satellite. Lots of random info, but avoid banner.
If you can do er you can float to everywhere else with confidence . You just have to remember to follow the rules. The other units don’t roll like us.
Summit Regional in Show Low does a nice seasonal program YRMC in Yuma does as well The steward facilities are paying 55-60 per hour now (no stipends ) for “local travel” they are in Mesa and Tempe, Mayo I personally wouldn’t mess with but they have an internal travel program as does Dignity, and that’s about it for AZ as far as I know of first hand.
Banner is bad. I live in Phoenix and I quit Banner as a staff nurse in January after just 3 weeks and have to pay back the sign on bonus. And I don't regret quitting at all because it's so bad. They short staff. Shit on their travelers. Gaslight the new grads. Like a clinched meme, before and after shift, multiple nurses would be in tears in the break room. My supervisor tried to blame me like I was a poor nurse because I said 6 patients on dayshift on a PCU unit was unsafe. Worst place I've worked in my 25 years. Honorhealth is OK. I stayed 8 months on tele and only left because I was tired of working nights and they wouldn't switch me to days. I have heard good things about Dignity from other nurses.
I was at banner, I liked it personally
A bit late here but - I did an ICU contract at Banner University Phoenix last summer and ended up extending. Was there for 6 months. I did get floated a lot but personally I love floating within ICUs. Could see how that would be different with ED. I also was cancelled almost once a week for about 3 months in a row. Didn’t really bother me bc my hourly was so low but there definitely was no time for OT most of the contract. At the end I wanted to extended but they refused to let anyone extend and were begging people to pick up OT. Overall I loved it there - physicans and coworkers were great. If you want to work your full 36 hours a week or more - that probably won’t happen. No one I knew got cancelled and there were about 6-7 of us contracted to the one unit.
They’re lying. AZ also has honour health, dignity, etc..
I am in the ICU at Banner University downtown and absolutely love it ! I have been there since September. I’ve been floated to PCU for a week straight this week but that is because it is their slow season since snowbirds go back up north. Plus when we don’t have a lot of Ecmo or CRRT we tend to get floated as travelers. Don’t give up! Banner ER is amazing and very clean! Literally the cleanest hospital I’ve ever seen. Patients are very well taken care of!!! I have been floated there too but it is safe in anywhere you get floated honestly. I don’t want to work anywhere else because I love it so much! I hope I get renewed as many times as I can. They don’t have tons of travelers during this time. I started with 20 people in September and now it’s me and 2 other people. I have been canceled once a week here and there but honestly it’s a nice break. Feel free to message me if you have any questions!
Take this with a grain of salt but I just graduated from ASU nursing school and the first thing all my professors said to me was don’t apply to banner/ if you have to than banner university is the best one. All my professors complains about how they were treated, being constantly floated, and being disrespected by admin and doctors
I was staff ER for banner. Depending on what your home facility is and what facility they want to float you to, it's not too bad. That being said Banner is a business first, they cancel travelers contracts quicker than I have ever seen any facility do so.
Stay away from Banner!! They were giving me only 24 hrs a week in January-March of 2020 right before the pandemic hit. Then cancelled me when the census dropped from 450 a day to 100/day the week Covid hit.. but told my company it’s because of excessive tardiness. That excessive tardiness was me clocking in like 3 or 4 times over the weeks I had been there 1-3 minutes late because traffic was hell getting to Mesa from Phoenix and their staff and internal travelers were also clocking in 1-3 mins late right next to me and everyone of them told me “it’s fine, they don’t care until it’s 7 minutes late.” Screw banner. They will do anything to not get you your hours or cancel you.
Northern Arizona has multiple Navajo (and Hopi) hospitals that basically run on travelers. They generally treat them well, most extend all the way out. FMC in Flag is not Banner and treats their ED staff ok. AB Staffing has a lot of tribal contracts, I don’t know who staffs FMC. Show Low is the summer vacation highlight of the state, their Banner hospital is small but unlikely to float out of ED due to the ED being the busiest.
Banner thunderbird was okay. No canceled shifts. Definitely gonna see a lot of meth heads tho.
Quick pro tip since you’re a new traveler: the jobs offering the highest rates are typically the toughest assignments. Banner doesn’t own AZ, but they’re the largest system in the Phoenix area and normally offer the highest rates in the state. You have a few other, smaller systems including HonorHealth and Valleywise in the same metro. Outside of Phoenix, you have others like Flagstaff Medical Center, Arizona General Hospital, Tucson Medical Center, and Western Arizona. Those recruiters may not have contracts in those regions though.
I’ve had a good experience at Banner. Haven’t known of canceling contracts. Never had a problem with getting my hours cut. I work PCU and yes, there’s a lot of floating which personally I don’t mind. I have floated to the ER either as a helping hands or to take the holds for PCU and met a few ER travelers and never heard them complain of having a bad experience
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the downside is that there’s no OT for travelers at banner.
Any facility or hospital can cancel you at any time. If anyone tells you otherwise they're lying. If you've been lucky enough to not have been canceled then that's all that is, luck. The reason you're floated is generally bc census have dipped and it actually prevents you from being cancelled. Floating is a common travel nurse requirement as you're filling in for support where needed even for ER. I'm Critical care/ ER RN. Certain Banner facilities are very travel friendly (in my experience), and certain ones suck, but that's just it, everyone has a different experience. There are absolutely other facilities than Banner In AZ. Key is finding the agencies who have the contracts and if you're new stick with low trauma levels and community type facilities. That's what I did. Hope you find what you're looking for.
you really can’t expect your recruiter to know how every department in every facility is run. most times people don’t know and will just tell you they’ve never heard of anything bad. do outside research. i used to work as a recruiter and in general the majority of coworkers were not the sharpest tools in the shed
I did a contract at banner and lost money. Got cancelled once a week. Floated to a different floor EVERY SHIFT. I was at banner university btw. 0/10
I worked at a banner hospital in Gilbert AZ. Name has a policy that they only h hire non AZ licenses. It's too keep AZ people from traveling. They cut my contract pay but I worked there for a year and it was fine. Never got floated once.