I just didn't fall off the turnip truck yesterday....

Nurses General Nursing

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I think I have heard it all now. We have several night baylor people, so our regular night shift doesn't not have to work weekends. We have no baylor days, and the nurses on days who are still required to work weekends think this is unfair. Well, this week my boss comes to me and says: "hey, we have a couple of the regular day nurses who want to go to baylor days. Would you like to see what you can work out so the rest of the nurses could go to every 4th weekend." So I ask for the names of the nurses who want to work the baylor days, and find out there is one more little catch to this story. If the rest of us nurses go to every 4th weekend, we would be required to take call one other weekend a month AND not receive on call pay. :eek: My response was BS, I am not taking call and not getting paid. I would rather just keep my every 3rd weekend. I told my boss that I could see the scenario now, one of the other departments would call in sick and the call person would be expected to come in and fill in the department that called in. :( Of course her reply was, "no that won't happen, you would be on call for our department only." :rolleyes: Yeah, right. I like to sell you some oceanfront property in Arizona too, and there is a bridge in Brooklyn I would like to sell you, too. :nono: I just looked at my boss and stated "how dumb do you think we are?"

Needless to say, I probably won't be asked to work on this again. ;)

I dont remember there being a law that says you have to be paid to be "on call". But you have to be paid if you are actually called in & if its overtime, you have to be paid overtime.

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Sure beats hiring enough staff & having to keep them on the payroll even during "down time", huh?

Why would anybody even take a job with those conditions?

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dees, I have been in the same situation. Our NM wanted us to take call without pay. After we stopped laughing,we said no.:rolleyes:

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Originally posted by zudy

Our NM wanted us to take call without pay. After we stopped laughing,we said no.:rolleyes:

I hear that!!!

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

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At my hospital we're paid $3.50 an hour to be on call. Then, if called in we get paid time and a half PLUS the $3.50 an hour. We do unit specific call, they do not call us in to work a unit other than the one we're on call for. We're loosely responsible to cover the holes in the schedule but it works out well, no one is ever assigned to do so. There is always someone willing to pick up an extra day on call here or there. We work eight hour shifts, lots of times someone will just pick up 4 hours on call either before or after their shift. It works well for us. And, if the holes on the schedule occasionally don't get filled, it's no big deal. If it gets crazy on those shifts, they just start trying to call people in.

Anita

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We dont have an on-call system at my hospital because our Rns didnt want to do it, but at the other hospitals where the RNs are also unionized with our state nurses assoc in my city, on-call stipend varies. I know one facility that only has an on-call system for the HD unit. They voluntarily sign up for the times when they are willing to be on call & are paid $100 to carry the beeper for the shift. Thats probably the lowest rate we have. If they get called in, they receive time and a half from the time they get the call, till the time they finish the shift, plus transportation expenses.

At another of our facilities, the RNs agreed to be on-call for $350 to carry the beeper. They too sign up voluntarily for their shifts if they want to do it. If they dont get called, they still get the $350 for just being available. Once they receive the phone call to come in, they are paid time and a half & reimbursed transportation expenses. Once they actually get to the hospital & start working, the pay is double time for the whole time they are there.

They deliberately negotiated that & presented it to the hospital as an incentive for the RN to get there quicker.

The hospital liked that idea.

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Specializes in ICU, nutrition.

We have two kinds of "on-call."

The "on-call" we use most of the time is that you are on call for so-and-so shift (say, 3p-7p). The charge nurse calls you no less than two hours before the start of the shift if you are needed. If you're not needed, you're off the hook. You don't have to sit at home (or god forbid, give them your cell phone number so you can leave!) to wait for them to call if they need you. If you're on call for a 12 it's split in two (7a-3p and 3p-7p; 7p-11p and 11p-7a) so you get called at 5am if you're needed for 7-3 and 1pm if you're needed from 3-7. So if they don't call you at 5am to tell you to come to work, you're off the hook till 1pm, when they'll call if they need you. Does this make sense?

The other kind of "on-call" is if we are really close to census and we have enough nurses now, but not if we were to get more patients. We get paid $2.00/hr to sit at home and wait for the phone to ring and have to be there in 30 minutes if it does. This is obviously not an option for people who don't live relatively close to the hospital, and you always have the option of just coming in and being an extra nurse rather than sitting waiting for the phone to ring. I've done it a couple of times (I work nights) and I barely got any sleep because I was afraid I wouldn't hear the phone ring. So I don't do it anymore.

Today, I'm on call (the first kind) from 3-7 and I just got the call, so I'm going to get ready for work.:)

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Specializes in ICU, nutrition.

Oh, we have a lot of people who do "on-call" for the weekend shifts and don't really mind it. If they do have to come in, they are the first cancelled if they aren't needed anymore.

All our "Baylor" people are on day shift, but she rotates scheduling them nights as they are needed. They don't like it, but they signed a contract that they'd do it.

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Last job I was at a nursing station we had 16 hour on call week days and 24 hour calls on weekends. We were expected to be on call once every week or two. Our on call pay was around $2 an hour. If we got called in we got a minimum of 4 hours OT. Sometimes we got called in to help with a something really quick like a catheterization (only one nurse working nights and weekends) and then we got to go home again. We carried radios with us and could leave the house.

We call Baylor workers weekend warriors

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Specializes in Corrections, Psych, Med-Surg.

The title of this thread would make a good BB signature.

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Our unit a Med-surg Ortho Neuro you get $1.50 an hour to be on call. Expected to get to the hospital in the amount of time it would normally take you to drive from home. You get the choice of having your on call above or within your authorized hours. You are on call for your entire floor - which is three different units. If you are not called in on your 8 hour call shift you get paid just the $1.50 an hour but you do accure benefits on on-call (i.e. vacation time). If you get called in prior to the shift starting you do not get the $1.50 - i.e I call you at 6 am for a 6:30 am starting shift you don't get the extra - but if I call you at 6:35 for a 6:30 start shift you get your regular pay and the $1.50 more an hour. Not much in the grand scheme of things is it. We do not schedule the on-call for weekends or holidays. I think that nurses should be paid a better on-call pay or bonus in order to get more willing to take call.

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