Cancelled repeatedly - is this normal?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Specializes in Critical Care, Patient Safety.

I keep getting cancelled at work. I work 12 hour shifts, and I've been cancelled on average about 1 12-hour shift per week for the past 5 weeks. People keep telling me that cold and flu season is going to kick in and it won't be an issue. But it's getting to the point of where I can't afford to pay my bills.

Has this been a consistent problem for other people? Has anyone had to change jobs because of this? Some of the people I work with have second jobs, which definitely helps. I wouldn't mind getting a second job, I just hate the idea of being scheduled to work 6 nights a week in the hopes of actually working 3-4 of them. What kind of life is that?

Has anyone seen this become a trend where you work? How do you cope?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Pediatric/Adolescent, Med-Surg.

I think that at least in my part of the country the winter flu/pna season hasn't really kicked in yet. I work PRN and was canceled for 2 weeks straight at my one job earlier this month. It sucks, but I'm working this week. I try to schedule myself 4 12's a week that way if I do get canceled 1 shift I'll still have 3 12's.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in M/S; LTAC.

What kind of unit do you work on? I work on an LTAC, and when census drops we get cancelled. How they go about fairly determining who is cancelled might be the issue you should consider. Those with call-ins get cancelled first. If the census continues to be low, then they rotate through the rest of us. Most use PTO to cover it or go without pay. :crying2:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

I work at a freestanding rehab hospital. Census was low during the late summer, so people were getting canceled on a daily basis. Census has been on the high side for the past couple of months, so we've had virtually nobody get canceled recently.

Here's how it goes at my workplace. PRN staff members are supposed to be canceled first due to the greater labor costs associated with a higher hourly pay rate. If no one on the floor is PRN, they look to cancel a part-time employee. If no one on the floor is a part-timer, they cancel a full-time person.

Management attempts to cancel full-time people in an orderly fashion, meaning that you shouldn't get canceled two weeks in a row. People are supposed to take turns getting canceled, unless you have one of those nurses on the unit who actually wants to be canceled and always volunteers to be sent home.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ER, ICU.

Yup, it is. That is one of my biggest pet peeves. But, it seems to go in waves so hopefully things will pick up. Flu season does seem to be late this year. If this really chaps you, move to an area like the ER where they never cancel or put you on call. Good luck.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ED, CTSurg, IVTeam, Oncology.

@ The Commuter,

Personally, I don't know how "full time" staff can ever be canceled. We're unionized (New York), and that means guaranteed a full weeks work for full timers, regardless whether the hospital is busting at the seams or everyone is sitting around swatting flies. While our employer encourages as many staff as possible to use up a vacation day or holiday time, it is actually illegal for them to prevent you from coming to work simply because their volume is low; that would constitute as a "lock out" and would call all sorts fo labor law statutes into question. For less than busy hands, they either float internally or find something for people to do.

Frankly, I never knew that hospitals could do this to people and find it rather shocking; what state or region are you folks in? Are you folks union or not?

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I have found that low census rarely lasts more than a few weeks.

Then the phone rings and the emails go out looking for people to work extra.

Once a week sounds like a lot.

Are you full time or per diem? Are the other nurses getting canceled that often too?

Where I work, overtime staff and per diem staff are called off first, and nobody gets called off until staffing is sure for the other ICUs in case a nurse is willing to float to another unit.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Critical Care, Patient Safety.

I work in critical care and I should also clarify that I'm relatively new - I have less than a year of experience as a new nurse. I was hired in to work full time. really like where I work and I don't want to leave - I also want to give them at least a year or two of my time since they have spent so much time and money training me with orientation and ACLS, etc.

I thought it was cyclical as well, but this has been going on throughout the summer and into the fall, and forget about the holidays. I know they hired a lot of people this year because they are trying to get away from using agency nurses, but I really think that they probably hired too many people.

As far as I know, it works like this: they cancel the people first who are coming in for OT. Next they go down the list and cancel the person who's turn it is to be cancelled. They also ask people if they want to volunteer to be cancelled. It's also not just me that is having this issue - a lot of my coworkers are struggling with this, but for some reason (I think it's the luck of the draw) I seem to get cancelled a little bit more than others - I'm probably scheduled to work on days when we are *really* overstaffed. I also don't think they are looking at the total number of hours that people are cancelled - they are looking at the last time someone was cancelled - so someone could get cancelled for 4 hours and it's still considered a "cancellation" whereas I could get cancelled for 12 and it's supposed to be equivalent.

It's frustrating because I am starting to feel like a part-timer instead of a full-timer - I am working about 24 hours a week instead of 36. I'm not sure what to do with that - I feel stuck because I do want to continue to work there but if I do get a second job it's going to feel like I'm always working. I'm so tired of struggling just to get by - I feel like I'm back to living the student lifestyle.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
@ The Commuter,

Personally, I don't know how "full time" staff can ever be canceled. We're unionized (New York), and that means guaranteed a full weeks work for full timers, regardless whether the hospital is busting at the seams or everyone is sitting around swatting flies. While our employer encourages as many staff as possible to use up a vacation day or holiday time, it is actually illegal for them to prevent you from coming to work simply because their volume is low; that would constitute as a "lock out" and would call all sorts fo labor law statutes into question. For less than busy hands, they either float internally or find something for people to do.

Frankly, I never knew that hospitals could do this to people and find it rather shocking; what state or region are you folks in? Are you folks union or not?

We also are unionized and we can be "cancelled" we call it HC or hospital convience time. Our contract spells out what order you start with - volunteers first, contingent, temporary, probationary then the least senior fulltime person. The employee does'nt have to cover the hours with benefit time unless they want to. I have never heard of it being "illegal for them to prevent you from coming to work simply because their volume is low; that would constitute as a "lock out" Nor any labor laws that prevent them from doing so.

I don't think hospitals in my Northeastern state can afford to just find something for people to do so they don't have to go home esp in this economy.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in neurology, cardiology, ED.

We're unionized, and we never get cancelled. If we are overstaffed, it goes like this:

Step 1: Does anyone want to float to another floor that is understaffed (Rarely does this one get any takers)

Step 2: Is anyone overtime?

Step 3: Is anyone per diem? (per diems go home first, because they don't take benefit time)

Step 4: Does anyone else want to go home, and take PTO? If you have no PTO available, you can't go home, because you can't not get paid, per our union contract. If more than one person wants to go, it goes by seniority.

Step 5: If none of the other steps apply, everyone stays. We work on stroke hours, other mandatory education, or take the time to precept someone on something they've never had the chance to do.

Moral of the story: UNIONIZE!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Yup, it is. That is one of my biggest pet peeves. But, it seems to go in waves so hopefully things will pick up. Flu season does seem to be late this year. If this really chaps you, move to an area like the ER where they never cancel or put you on call. Good luck.

Absolutely correct! I transferred from med/surg to the ED about 6 months ago and haven't been on-call or cancelled for a shift since. My PTO balance never looked so good, plus I :redbeathe my new job very much and wouldn't want to stay home anyhow.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I work at a non-unionized hospital and we never get cancelled unless it's overtime or per diem. We also never float. We keep a log of dates of when people last got time off for low census. If we are overstaffed, we go down the list and offer the day off based on the dates. If no one wants to stay home or go home, they don't force someone to. It's very rare that no one jumps on the offer though.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment