'Indentured servitude'

[Jazzy]

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.

Hospitals say the repayment requirement is necessary to help them recoup the investment they make in training recent nursing school graduates and to incentivize them to stay amid a tight labor market. But some nurses say the system has left them feeling trapped in jobs and afraid to speak out about unsafe working conditions for fear of being fired and having to face thousands of dollars in debt.

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Thoughts requiring repayment for training programs if a nurse quits?

 

[Lamb]

I think it's gracious of the companies to pay for their training in the first place and that too many people feel they are entitled to such things automatically. This is another one of those examples where a contract was signed and then the person regretted having to owe money if it didn't work out for them. This seems to be the trend lately.

 

[tango]

It's not unreasonable for a company to expect to be repaid for expensive training if the receipient decides to leave for a better offer. The alternative is paying for the training yourself.

That said if you take the training and the company then treats you very badly and potentially asks you to do illegal things it's a different proposition. I can't help thinking if the company fires you it's on them and you shouldn't have to repay the money. Chances are in the kind of profession that warrants expensive training you really don't want to be fired - it's enough of a strike against you that you wouldn't just act up until you get fired.

At the end of the day if you don't want the strings don't accept the freebies.

 

[Albion]

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Thoughts requiring repayment for training programs if a nurse quits?

I can't seem to bring up the link, but it looks like the hospitals actually produce nurses. If so, they expect them to work in that hospital for at least some specified length of time. I'd think that this is reasonable on the part of the hospitals so long as the terms are known in advance..

How does that compare with other training programs?

Trade schools and community colleges charge up-front tuition and fees of people enrolling in their courses of study, or else it's the taxpayers, with the students expecting to find jobs as welders or electricians after graduation. But the schools aren't planning to employ them; the graduates are largely on their own to find employment and there's no expectation about where that will be.

And other jobs, like those in the service industries, require new hires to be trained to perform the job, but that training is nothing like what's needed in order to produce a nurse or even a nurse assistant.