Is the Baylor program the best program for quality patient care?

3651bht · May 31, 2000

Hi,

I worked Baylor in the late 80's. Loved it weekend (sat 7p-7a and Sun 7p-7a) was very lucrative because I worked another place Wednesday and Thursday 12 Midnite-8A. Check and a half/pay period. Went out on Friday nite. Slept in on Sat morn,slept all day Sun, till noon on Monday. More time with my son. Slept Thursday & Friday till he got home. Time to go to his afternoon functions i.e. baseball games, soccer, evening plays.

I'd go back in a minute..... Also another schedule I liked 7 on 7 off. 11-7. Start on Tuesday night till the next Monday nite. QO weekend long weekend. No time off requests granted. All your vacation, holiday, and sick time pro-rated into pay. When I first started work 56/two weeks got paid for 69 hours; not much different from 6 12's for 72.

Eventually get to 72 hours. Able to sleep days when you are "on" and nites when you are "off". Draw-back if you call out lose 8 hours plus pro-rated time. "Short check" because you have no "time" to use. Baylor weekend accrue time as 24 hour worker but must use 18 hours per nite. Also work all Sunday holidays and Monday too. Also week day/nite people don't like working Q Turkey day and Christmas for 6 years in a row. They never offered to work our weekend when Christmas was on Sunday so we worked Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we never c/o but the first year Christmas fell on Monday we had to "switch". Get all the rules down before you implement.... Keep me posted...

3651bht · May 31, 2000

Sorry never really replied to patient care issue. Yes and no. Patients stayed awhile longer then. The nurse for five days in a row was probably good unless the patient comes in on Friday. e work 12's now and I think having only two nurses a day is nice, We don't have too many part-timers so the patient has a better chance of seeing the same nurse. But even on a three day stay he/she could see three nurses. I don't think there is one absolute schedule unless you want to start working on Tuesday's (Ha Ha that's our big ortho day And keep on working until the patient goes home) Not a great schedule especially if you can't stand each other.

MED/SURG NURSE · Jul 14, 2000

We are looking into the Baylor program again after seeing much turnover, nursing shortages, low morale, etc. We did have the program in place several yrs ago when the same issues were present, but it was taken away because the problems resolved. However, we are back in the same position. How can we get Administration to keep those things that work, instead of instituting solutions temporarily only to take them away later? Another topic for low morale-and then they wonder why.

Originally posted by Mijourney:
Hi,
I would like to see your views on whether you feel the Baylor system contributes positively to quality patient care, employee morale, and decreased employee turnover. I have worked different forms of Baylor in the past and found it to be, particularly the weekend Baylor, advantageous for providing good quality care and enhancing my personal quality of life. The local hospitals in my area no longer have Baylor, but many nurses would like to see a return to this system and are hoping the impending nursing shortage would be the fuel that brings it back.

jama · Jul 25, 2000

HI! I have worked (weekend) baylor for 11.5 years. The hospital where I work is the only one in the area that has baylor anymore. We also have what is called modified baylor which is 3 12hr during the week. I think baylor is a great shift for nurses and patients. The nurses are more of a team and help and support each other because it is always the same nurses every weekend. The patients are better cared for because there is staff from the dept and not just whoever they could get from any dept. However in the past few years as baylor nurses have left the shift they have not been replaced. At first they had lpns rotate weekends then as they hired more rn through the years who are not modified (therefore do not work weekends) they have started rotating weekends. This has not been popular with the weekday staff because some have to work weekend others don't so there less unity among staff. For the baylor rns there is less unity feeling because instead of our tightknit group of 7 or so we are down to 4. I think they need to hire more baylors for the same reasons of short staffing, call ins etc. For example baylors rarely call in b/c we are only allowed 4-5 call ins a year. All of the baylors on both day and night shift I work with have done this at least 6 years most have for 10+ years. The nurses that have left have either retired, moved to mgt. changed depts or hospitals. The hospital did hire more baylors last year in icu.(i work

ob) By the way baylor is considered full time get 40 hrs pay and nights get night differential. We do work all weekend holidays. After 5 years we get 3 weekends off a year. we get about 4.5 sick hours a month all full time benefits like insurance, fmla leave, tuition etc. So I say hire Baylors!!