Over the past decade, hospitals across the country have used training repayment agreements (TRAPs), forcing newly hired nurses to sign “New Grad” contracts or “RN Residency” contracts as a condition of employment.
While hospitals tout the extra training and benefits these programs have, nurses report the instruction is minimal. Becky Klatt, an ER nurse at HCA’s Mission Health in Asheville, NC, found the program, “is not designed for patient safety, but instead for dumping nurses on the floor as quickly as possible and as often as possible without any regard for the repercussions,” she said to MarketWatch.
Hospitals use these contracts to pass the costs of training to nurses, while locking nurses in agreements that financially penalize them if they leave the contract early. In particular, large hospital systems, like HCA, that have control of large portions of health care markets use TRAPs. This makes it difficult for new grad nurses to find work without a training repayment agreement.