'Undoubtedly to trap you': Hospitals hit nurses with thousands in 'training costs' to prevent quitting

Hospitals are preventing nurses from quitting by forcing them to repay training fees upon their departure, NBC reports.

Per NBC, when Jacqui Rum, a Thousand Oaks, California medical center nurse, tried to quit, she was hit with a $2,000 bill hospital for "training costs."

The contract Los Robles Regional Medical Center — which is owned by HCA Healthcare — had 38-year-old Rum sign upon the start of her position required her to "pay back the hospital for training if she quit or was fired before her two-year contract expired," according to NBC.

READ MORE: The social changes we need and the class obstacle we face

NBC reports:

Despite the agreement, Rum said she quit after 13 months because of the physical and mental strain, citing staffing that was so thin she was often unable to take even a 30-minute break during her 12-hour shifts. As a result of leaving, she has received seven letters since October from a collection agency working for HCA demanding payment for the remaining $2,000 in training costs the hospital says she owes, and threatening to charge her interest and legal fees.

"These training programs do not provide nurses with any sort of new qualification," Brynne O'Neal, a regulatory policy specialist with large labor group National Nurses United. "Rather, employers are passing on to nurses the cost of basic on the job training that's required for any RN position at any hospital, and then they're using these contracts to lock nurses into their jobs or risk this devastating financial penalty."

O'Neal continued, "Having that debt hanging over them means that nurses have a harder time advocating for safe conditions for themselves and their patients."

HCA Healthcare contended the training is helpful to nurses, professionally.

READ MORE: Inside UnitedHealthcare’s effort to deny coverage to chronically ill patient: 'We’re still gonna say no'

The statement said training is "an important investment in our colleagues and demonstrate our commitment to advancing the nursing profession."

According to NBC, the statement also said, "Given our substantial investment in this professional development program, we ask participants to commit to stay with us for a certain period of time after completing the training. During the course of their commitment, nurses are eligible for promotion and have the flexibility to pursue opportunities at any of our more than 2,300 sites of care across the country."

"We're being preyed on by someone in power," Rum said. "We're desperate for a job, we just got out of school, we don’t know any better. I didn't even have time to take a lunch break, my hair was falling out, the level of stress just wasn’t sustainable."

NBC reports:

The practice of requiring repayment for training programs aimed at recent nursing school graduates has become increasingly common in recent years, with some hospitals requiring nurses to pay back as much as $15,000 if they quit or are fired before their contract is up, according to more than a dozen nursing contracts reviewed by NBC News and interviews with nurses, educators, hospital administrators and labor organizers.

READ MORE: New York Times op-ed highlights US physician's criticism of the 'lucrative system of for-profit medicine

NBC's full report is available at this link.