National Nurses United

In addition, NNU has urged at the national level the Federal Trade Commision and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to investigate these exploitative contracts. "TRAPs are just one way employers impose debt on nurses, but nurses can also incur employer-driven debt when hospital adminis- trators demand that nurses repay sign-on bonuses if they do not remain at a hospital for the life of their contract," said Comsti. "It is clear that employers are playing a whack-a-mole game as they create new ways to hide what is essentially indentured servitude. That is why we need government agencies to investigate and work with us to explicitly prohibit these schemes." At the urging of NNU and other union and consumer protection groups, the CFPB launched a workers' initiative with particular interest in training repayment contracts. In an effort to bring hard evidence of the harmful effects of TRAPs to the CFPB, NNU surveyed more than 1,100 union and non- union nurses about their experiences with employer-driven debt. "The results of this survey show in stark and disturbing relief how these contracts negatively affect patient care by chilling a nurse's ability to speak out about patient safety concerns or exploit- ative working conditions, and threatening retaliation for union activity," said Comsti. The survey showed that about a third of hospital RNs said they were in a TRAP at some point in their careers, usually in the begin- ning of their professional careers. Jessica Ruth Day found her first job at a union hospital in Los Angeles County, but after she started working, she discovered she was not part of the bargaining unit because she was classified as an agency nurse. Concerned about patient safety, she wanted to speak to her union representative at the hospital, but was warned against it by her manager. "I was told I would be in trouble if I talked to the union," said Day. "I felt helpless. I felt like I just have to follow everything they say and I can't have a voice." Day said her hospital was severely understaffed. New nurses were precepting even newer nurses. The turnover rate was extremely high and morale was very low. She could rarely take a break because the relief nurse would be caring for so many patients at once, she felt it wasn't safe. One day when Day did take lunch, she came back to find one of her patients was taking her last breath. "It broke my heart," said Day. She felt terrible that her patient's family was not called or by her side. The experience was so trau- matic that Day never took lunch at that hospital again. "I would take a bite and then go watch my patients and then take a bite again. I found out that a lot of nurses were doing the same thing because it didn't feel safe." This was a far cry from what Day had expected life as a nurse would be like. She'd decided to become a nurse at age 11 after she had to undergo surgery. "I was really scared," said Day. But once hos- pitalized, she was awed by the nurses who reassured and cared for her. "I had the most amazing nurses who were so thoughtful. Ever since then, I wanted to be a nurse." Determined not to saddle herself with school loans or debt, Day had worked five years to save up enough money to attend nursing school. When she graduated in 2018, her goal was to find a position in a hospital that offered a new graduate program. Like Gaffney, she found that with an associate's degree, her opportunities were lim- ited. So after she interviewed at an Inglewood hospital, she was ecstatic to get a text letting her know she'd gotten the job. She was told to go to an office in a nearby city to sign a contract. "I was thrilled," said Day. When she got to the office, she met a man who explained that Day would not be working for the hospital, rather for a staffing agency. He explained she would have to pay 18 N A T I O N A L N U R S E W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G O C T O B E R | N O V E M B E R | D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 2 Michelle Gaffney, RN with her father Frank in 2002

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