Call scheduling

Specialties Ob/Gyn

Published

Okay, I know this has been covered before, but we need solutions. The callschedule has been causing much discord between the shifts, and morale is pretty low at this point.

I work nights, 12 hour shifts, so this is from that perspective.

1. We staff for 4 nurses in L&D, either 4 on, or 3 with one on call. There has to be 4.

2. This month, due to short staffing, night shift is taking 28-32 hours of mandatory call.

3. If a call out occurs for dayshift and coverage is not found by the beginning of the shift, the ongoing night shift team has to cover it.

4. Our facility has done away with premium pay. We used to get double time when called in. Now, it is $5/ hour for call, then reg. pay plus $5/hr if called in at the beginning of the shift and working a min. of 4 hours. This has pissed off a lot of nurses.

So my questions are:

1. How much mandatory call are you required to take?

2. How do you cover call offs on opposite shifts if coverage isn't found?

3. What kind of incentive pay is offered?

4. What suggestions do you have for reducing the amount of call required?

Apparently, 2 nurses have been hired for nights and will be starting orientation (on days) in Feb. We will also be getting a travel nurse soon, I think. Not soon enough. :o

Thanks. :)

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Specializes in Behavioral Health.

We are required to take 16 hrs. of call per month (full & part-time people)...@ $3.00...if we are called in it's an extra $10/hr....

I work 3-11...so I signed up for 4 hrs. of call once a week...to be tacked onto my regular shift....11p-3a.

We can also sign up for "Bonus" shifts when the schedule gaps are posted...also an extra $10/hr....with a 4 hr. minimum.

Honestly our gaps aren't too bad because we have a nice combination of 8 and 12 hr. staff...

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Specializes in L & D; Postpartum.

No mandatory call where I work. When you get called in, it's time and half, plus your call pay, plus your shift diff and weekend diff, where applicable.

Most of the time, there'll be someone who will volunteer to work over, but when that person has already done 12 hours, how safe is that for anybody?

Agency fills gaps other than that, but we like to keep that as a last resort.

I'm just guessing, but is this a non-union faciliity? If so, that's why you no longer get premium pay.

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

Lord where you work sucks.

We have to sign up for ONE call shift per schedule.......(12 hours).

we get paid time and half for first 4 hours and double time for remaining 8 if called in.

I am glad I don't work where you do. Thank goodness for my union; the dues are worth it!

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We only cover staffing holes with call. We staff 8/8/7 and if scheduled staff is less than that we have call. If we are 2 under we have 2 calls. If there are sick calls we just try to call staff to come in. We take 1-2 call slots ( 4 hours each) per month. We hand in our preferences to our scheduling team and they assign the slots making sure all staff equal weekends. All staff have to give some night call availability. Since we went to this method of call (we used to have one on call slot every day every 4 hours, and staff took 4-5 slots per month) our turnover has dropped significantly. Some staff like to take more call and volunteer to do that. We have found that if your staffing numbers are adequate the staff scheduled is adequate most of the time. Because we don't take much call, staff is more willing to come in extra when busy. We get time and a half when called in plus $40 call in bonus if you come in from home, plus $2 per hour call pay.

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Originally posted by tntrn

No mandatory call where I work. When you get called in, it's time and half, plus your call pay, plus your shift diff and weekend diff, where applicable.

Most of the time, there'll be someone who will volunteer to work over, but when that person has already done 12 hours, how safe is that for anybody?

Agency fills gaps other than that, but we like to keep that as a last resort.

I'm just guessing, but is this a non-union faciliity? If so, that's why you no longer get premium pay.

Same here, no call and any extra shifts we pick up out of the goodness of our hearts is for time and a half cause it is OT. I think requiring nurses to be on call over and above the full time they already work is always going to be a morale problem. I know I would be annoyed that anyone thinks they can make me come in on my days off. If I agree to work full time, that's all that I feel should be required of me. That said, I do pick up quite a few OT shifts.

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Specializes in Maternal - Child Health.

I have never understood the moronic mentality of requiring excessive work hours of a unit's regular staff. Talk about a recipe for poor morale, burn-out and medical errors!

This isn't a "quick fix", but I would suggest developing an extensive list of per diem staff to cover help cover weekends, holidays, sick calls and holes in the schedule.

I did this after my first baby was born, and loved it. I made about 50% more per hour than regular FT and PT staff, with no benefits. I had a minimal commitment of 1 weekend per month and 2 holidays per year, but could realistically work as much as I wanted. The manager would post the "holes" as soon as the schedule was written, and we per diem staffers were free to take whatever we wanted. I was also happy to take "last minute" shifts as long as my hubby was home to babysit.

This was a far less expensive option than unwanted OT or paying agency rates, and maade for a happy staff. In our small unit of about 16 FT RNs, we had a per diem list of about 20 nurses.

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

Yep we per diem nurses are the answer!!!! We are cheaper than agency nurses and YOU KNOW US!!!!

why don't more nurses do perdiem some places? I know one reason:

Way too many places want to place unreasonable mandates on perdiem staff so it's not attractive everywhere. Like mandating they work weekends or so many days a month. Most just want to work when they want to work.

the way to attract perdiem staff is to LET THEM PLUG HOLES where they want to and ask nothing further. You do this, they will come. I know that for a fact. and your regular staff will get the respite they so deserve and need. It's win-win all the way around.

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Originally posted by tntrn

I'm just guessing, but is this a non-union faciliity? If so, that's why you no longer get premium pay.

Yes. Supposedly, there were only two hosp in this area that were paying premium pay and since we are in the same network, we have both done away with it. Of course, the other hosp in this area don't even take call.

We do have a meeting scheduled to discuss incentive pay, coming up.

No agency nurses here. And we only have 4-5 pool nurses. One is off with broken ankles. Another of our night nurses, has had to cut her hours due to PTL. This is why our call is so horrible. Not to mention, that we were down by 2 nurses anyway.

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I am on-call right now! Your situation does sound pretty sucky. We also utilize PRN nurses to fill gaps in the schedule so the chances of being called in are low. We are required to do 16 hrs of call time a month. We get $1 an hour to be on call (wow... big bucks!) and time and a half if we get called in (no matter how long we are there :o ). I usually take call at night (since I work nights) and the last time I was called in was in september (knock on wood... I still got 3 more hours tonight:) ). The people who take call on day shift get called in all the time though. There are more people who call-in sick on day shift and they will call people in for inductions. In my opinion it is wrong to call someone in on call just so we can do one more induction(8's not enough?)... but whatever. That is wrong to make night shift stay becuase days has a call-in. The only time we stay is if we really want too and that is never me. Good luck with finding a solution!

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Here's our call system. No mandatory on call for regular shifts (sick calls or vacations, etc.). All voluntary paid at time and one half if called in w/ at least 2 hours pay guaranteed if called in. You can sign up for 4 or 8 hour increments. We MUST take PACU call for c.sections and that is 28 hours per 8 weeks on the weekend or weeknights/evenings from the hours of 1500-0700. Days covers PACU w/ staffing or the administrative folks who are also there during those hours. It can also be signed up for in 4,8, or 12 hour or more at one time and is paid time and one half w/ 2 hour min. pay. We getting a whopping $2.00/hr for being on call. I hate the PACU. You do sometimes get called in, but usually it is just sit and wait. This weekend a co-worker was on call for 28 hours straight for PACU and she did get called in for 2 of those hours. We do not scrub or circulate for c. sections. We just do baby care. If we did we have to be on call for that too! We only do 60 deliveries per month. We had a premium pay option for weekends if staffing was short but it cost the hospital too much $ and now they boo-hoo on the weekend and pull to med-surg because those nurses don't want to work extra. Wow I wonder why not when their job is horrific anyway and our hospital doesn't give a weekend diff? Go figure why someone wouldn't want want to work instead of having fun, rest, or spend time w/ their family /friends on their time off! Just tink if they are part-time they can do all of this for straight-time! Our administrators are surely direct descendants of Albert Einstein.

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