[Caffeinated]

Hi. I'm just wondering how often other nurses are required to take call and how long a period of being on-call lasts. Also, I am curious how it is determined who will do scheduled weekend visits if they are planned.

I am first call roughly 50% of the time. Our on-call periods are from 5p-8a Mon-Fri. Weekend on-call is 8am-8am. For the most part if I am not first call then I will be secondary. In response to complaints about on-call structure, the company reports that it a triage team is being considered to decrease the number of calls. If the team was ever actually formed the only calls the on-call would receive would require a visit for a specific reason.

I haven't quite figured out the "rule" for determining who is responsible for weekend visits if they get scheduled. I have done weekend visits when I was on-call, not on-call, when the patient is one of my primary patients and when the patient is not a person I generally visit.

[AtlantaRN]

I think we work for the same company... We now have 4 nurses, I'm the only full time other than the administrator who doesn't take call.

We split the call up between the 4 of us. In the past, I would sign up for sunday through thursday, so then if i was in overtime, by thursday, i'd take friday off...but the other nurses are perdiem at hospitals, and our census is low, so they will take call 1/4 of the time...as of NOW, I have 52 hours for the week, so I wrote me boss a note letting her know i'll be "OFF on wednesday..."

I've been on call 5/11-5/14, then 18th-20th. This month is better than last month though...I'm on call 11 days, and that 4th nurse starts monday and she WANTS to take call every weekend because her husband will be home with her children on the weekends, so I hugged her neck when I met her (because working weekends can really be rough).

As for responsibility for weekend visits, I ONLY go out if it's a crisis, I NEVER schedule visits for the weekends...However, today I admitted a patient, so tomorrow I have to do the follow up visit. BUT, the daughter wants nursing visits on M,Tues & Thursday...BUT since I was out today, and Sunday (mothers day), I'm NOT going to go out again until Tuesday (because 3 visits a week will be sunday, tuesday and thursday this week).

When in doubt, go to the policy and procedures manual. If you don't understand it, have your manager sit down and explain it to you. Sometimes it just requires a second set of eyes to figureout "corporate speak".

[Hospice Nurse LPN]

Where I work, it is me and the DON. I take call 3 weeks (and weekends) and she does one. ANY call outs are made by the nurse on call. We don't schedule weekend visits. If an admit is done on Friday, the pt is called on Saturday. We RARELY have any calls, so it's not bad.

[aimeee]

Our census is 150 and we have a dedicated oncall team.

[chris_at_lucas_RN]

We had a census of anywhere from 15 to 22 when I was PCC (DON).

I had two full time RN's. Neither wanted to take call, and the condition of one's hiring was that she would not take call. The other one just never would.

So it was me.

On call was from 5 p.m. til the following 8 a.m. for Monday evening to Friday morning. Then again from 5 p.m. Friday through Monday 8 a.m.

We were (OK, I was) paid $1.50 for being on call, $45 for a visit under 90 minutes, $55 for a visit over 90 minutes, and mileage from and back to my home.

[andre]

We have a dedicated on-call team. I am currently obligated for one weekend of scheduled visits (8-430) per month, but our manager is in process of hiring weekend only nurses...which means my weekend obligation will be even less

[debblynn13]

We have a approx 20 pts. Right now we have 2 full time nurses, one parttime nurse and a referral nurse. We all take call. So we have call one night a week and one weekend every 4. Call starts at 4:30 pm to 8 am. Weekend call is 4:30 pm friday until 8 am monday. We also have one hospice house nurse who is helping us during the week for night call.

The biggest help at this time is that all calls go into our hospice house. The nurse in the house screens the call, tries to solve the problem and then calls us out if nothing else works or there is a death. So they say on call isn't that big of a deal. Ask me memorial weekend. That is my first on call.

Debblynn

[RNKittyKat]

Census of 130-140. We have a dedicated on call staff AND we all take call one weekend a month and two week nights, usually as back up.

[Buckyxj]

We have a census of 160-180 and have a dedicated oncall/urgent care team which I am a part of I work midnight to 8am Thurs thru Mon. two of the days I am primary oncall. There are usually three of us oncall around the clock. I get paid hourly if I make a visit or not. Some days Im busy and others I just hang out waiting on a call.

[betteeboop]

Are you paid hourly or per visit when you make visits during the weekend?

Right now, we're paid $35 per visit, $70 if it's 2 hrs or more. $50 if it's an admission or death. And mileage at .40 per mile. It's the strangest call plan I've ever worked with. Luckily we're not on call that much.