My first travel recruiter with my first travel position was actually with a wonderful guy who was honest, respectful and easy to work with. As an odd trend I've found that larger travel nurse companies seem to pull excellent recruiters for actually providing travel nurses with the highest bill rates, even when we have the experience and credentials that deserve it (11 yrs experience and 6 certs). My positive experience turned horrible right after I moved to the new area and they assigned me a 'Senior Recruiter' Kari Heydt. The Nurse Manager at the facility was wonderful and helpful and I received a positive reference from her. However, when she was gone and unavailable I had Charge Nurses trying to assign me patients that were out of my skill level which I was clear about with my Skills Checklists and in my interview. The Charge Nurses were assigning me PCU level patients such as with diltiazem drips and Mother Baby patients when I had no formal training with Mother and Baby assessments (does not matter to me if someone claims they are stable, I do not have the assessment training). I had to call Kari Heydt due to not having the Nurse Manager available to talk to about Charge Nurses trying to assign me out of my skill level. Kari Heydt treated me as if there was a problem with me. I was not accepting the assignments out of my experience and training but Kari Heydt refused to call the facility to speak with the Charge Nurses or have a Clinical Supervisor or Account Manager call to speak to them. This type of conversation is actually pretty common as some departments and Charges just do not care to put travelers into a position outside of their skill level, despite patient safety, and they will keep doing it or complain about the traveler if a quality and supportive Clinical Supervisor or Account Manager is not available. Luckily I got plenty of support from the Nurse Manager once she came back but it really was a horrible and uncomfortable environment for almost a month constantly having to have Charge Nurses try to push higher acuity patients on to me when it wasn't necessary instead of taking the high acuity patient there self and not be lazy or working to get that patient shipped to a non critical access hospital. I had to remind Kari Heydt over and over that I never lied about having PCU experience and therefore it was never my fault to say that a PCU skill level patient would have to be assigned to someone with that experience. Then when Kari Heydt proposed a new job for me in the future, she completely refused to answer any question I had. I had basic questions that had to be answered before I would 'accept' a job she said she 'wanted' to submit me to. It turns out she had already submitted me. Instead of just answering my two questions (one was what charting system do they use), she just started threatening me. She said that the nurse manager said unless I accepted, without my questions answered, that the 'entire hospital system's would likely list me as intelligible for rehire' and I'd never be employable by that entire hospital system again. I said I would take an interview, I had a wonderful interview and I asked the Nurse Manager if I hadn't accepted if they would list me as intelligible for rehire and she said not at all and that she had never said that and she was appalled my recruiter would ever say that to me. So I said I was not going to work with the recruiter anymore and she offered me a staff position instead. I worked there for 6 months before moving and received 3 positive references.