[Kansas_RN]

I hope I am posting this right.
My question is do any of you out there have to take call. Basically if we are overstaffed (yes I said overstaffed) and/or don't have enough patients on the floor to support the staff do you get called off. I'm obviously working in a smaller hospital. (we may hold 80 pts. full).
If we do get put on call we don't have the day off. Oh no... We get to sit by the phone just in case they need us. But of course the GREAT management we have pays us a whole dollar an hour. We can't pick up a part-time call-in job, because we MIGHT get a call to come in and work 30min later or 6hours later. So far this year I have had to take 94 hours of call time. This means since I support my family I have had to use 94 hours of vaction time (we can sell it back) to cover the decrease in my paycheck. Guess how much vacation time I have left now!!!!! Who can afford a vaction anyway.
No we don't have a nursing shortage. We are full staffed. What ticks me off is when someone is home on call and we are running our butts off. Keeping the budget where they want it to be. If you point out the short staff just have to stay after 2 hrs apiece getting paid overtime that just starts the lecture about getting out on time. Oh yeah and the house supervisor will check to see if you are going to be late so they can get you out on time. Yeah mostly they check 15min before shift is over. Call them and you get the run down of how busy everyone is.
Of course tomorrow will might dismiss half our patients and be put on call. I do love the people I work with and my patients. And the next closest hospital I'ld work at is an hour away.
Just wondering if "on call" happens to anyone else.

VENTING, VENTING, VENTING...

[sbic56]

What you describe is just how the hospital I work in manages over staffing. If the census is unusually low, then they may RIFF someone...which means they basically get the day off without pay. We can use vacation time to recoup the day's pay. Cool deals abound all over!

[NurseBoricua]

The big kicker is when people routinely call in because they know there are two nurses on call that day

[Agnus]

When this happens we are on call for 4 hours only. Then we have the rest of the day off. (12 hrs shifts)

[renerian]

I have done home health on call as a manager and did not get paid for call 24/7. The nurse on call sometimes gets paid. Goes out alot after hours and nights. My new job I do not have to do call and it is the first time in 16 years without a pager.

I hate call, LOL,

renerian

[labornurse]

Works exactly the same way at my hospital Kansan_RN. I loose a lot of pay because in my unit it is either feast or famine. I am either running my butt of or sitting at home being paid $1.00 an hour. I don't have any vacation time either.

[RNJames]

If we are ever over staffed ( I prefer to say under patiented!) we can choose to have a stand down day, and we get paid the full hourly wage, without penalties tho'

[cdrn1]

We do use on-call and low census at our hospital to deal with census fluctuations. If on call, staff is paid $3 per hour; if on low census they are simply off. Managers ask for a volunteer; usually someone wants to be off. If no one does, we take turns (including the managers). How else can hospitals deal with census drops?

[cokie]

probably the best way to handle this is to become active in your union. i work in CA, and here we belong to CNA. CA is california, not cancer. anyway, i also get put on call occasionally and we get paid 2 hours. don't hate me. but CNA is a strong union. just a thought. good luck...... when i am on call i make sure that they have my cell phone number, throw my uniform in the trunk, turn on my cell phone, and still go do what i want. hope that all turns out well for you and yours.

[mattcastens]

At our hospital there is no mandatory on call for us (unless a nurse works in OR, the cath lab, or other possible emergent areas). If the census drops we are asked if we would like to take call -- if everyone says no, then so be it. If we are on call we get paid minimum wage.

Our hospital also gives pagers to all of the critical care nurses if they want one (cost to nurse is something like $2 per pay period). That way, not only can you be contacted if you're on call, but staffing also pages out all available shifts for the taking. If you want to pick up, you know what's available and can call in.