On Call

[NotFlo]

My facility has what I think is an atrocious on call policy. Every nurse save the don, adon and mds nurses are required to be on call twice per month. If you work day shift you are on call either 12 hours on the weekend (7a to 7p) or 16 hours on a weekday (3p to 7a!!!). Night nurses are either 7p to 7a on the weekend or 3p to 7a on a weekday. Call outs on week days are covered by the day shift nurses...one nurse takes more patients and they shuffle everyone around etc. We got no compensation for being on call and nothing extra when we are called in. I honestly am asleep every night by 9pm and up at 5am so having to work random overnights and often doubles when on call then resume day shift just wrecks me for a week. They over rely on the on call and frequently just full scheduling holes with the on call leaving no one actually on call if someone then calls out.

The Don acknowledges that the system sucks but won't entertain complaints about it. She is open to considering discussing it with people who have actual suggestions on how to improve it. I have been at this facility 8 years and being on call the way we are now is the single worst thing about this job. Multiple nurses have resorted to paying other nurses 100 dollars or more to cover their on call... Neither of thr other two facilities I have worked at had any form of on call for the floor nurses. The managers were on call on the weekends. The Don 100 percent will not consider that system.

So...looking for examples of how other facilities do on call and how they cover nurse call outs.

[CrunchRN, ADN, RN]

I would walk and tell them why.

[cayenne06, MSN, CNM]

Wait. Not only are you not paid for call, you arent even paid if you have to come in?!?!

That doesnt sound like a demanding amount of call (coming from a cnm, lol) but it does sound like they are abusing the on-call roll. How can the oncall be expected to cover a shift for a sick call?! Do they then make someone else take call in her place?!

[wanderlustnurse88, RN]

My work does on call from 2300-0700 but only for the emerg department being really busy or if there is a transfer that needs to go out. We get paid something like 20 cents an hour but then if we get called it, it is automatically time and a half. We don't often use the on call nurse, as we are not supposed to use it for sick calls. We are also a small rural hospital so we don't often get into situations where we need the on call nurse. I've been at this job for about a year and I've done maybe 10 on call shifts and I've gotten called in once for a transfer.

[NurseQT]

I have never worked anywhere that required floor nurses to take "on call" shifts... Where I work the DON and ADON rotate "on-call" hours which are basically weekends and after regular business hours. They won't come in and cover a shift if we're short or anything.. They usually just say "Call if you need anything." But then don't help a whole lot.. The DON usually doesn't even call back or answer her phone. If we have a call in it's up to the nurses working to find coverage or stay over.

I would not be real keen on taking an on call shift and not be compensated for it...

[LPNtoRNin2016OH, LPN]

Wow, I have never ever heard of staff nurses being on call in LTC..that's just so strange. I wouldn't do it, especially if I wasn't being compensated and for the fact that I can't have the much child care scheduled on demand like that. I would go somewhere else honestly, with your experience you could even land a charge nurse position or ADON type position if you wanted to go that route. I work in a very small LTC and our DON and ADON rotate on call on the weekends. If someone doesn't show for a shift (which usually doesn't happen, its more like there is a hole that isn't able to be filled) that that previous shifts nurse has to stay.

[CaringGerinurse525]

Our shifts are 3a-3p and 3p-3a. We are required to have four call days in a six week period. One of the call days must be a weekend day. The call days we picked stay our call days and don't change. We are paid $40 for the day if not called in. We don't cover holes in schedule, only call offs. Time and a half if called in to work.

I think our system works because we can schedule our days accordingly to avoid long stretches. Maybe bring it up to management about having set call days so it isn't every week?