Weekend call

Specialties Operating Room

Published

Hi there!

Just wondering how weekend call is handled at your facility? Nurses on each shift, attendants, shift hours?

On the weekends we do two 24 hour call shifts, Saturday and Sunday. That consists of one nurse and one tech for the main OR. Some specialties have teams, in which they also take their own 24 hour call. On night shift and weekends our OR is only staffed with one nurse, one tech.

We go on call at 7:00 am Sat and are on until 5:30 am Monday. We have one nurse, 2 scrubs, and a nursing assistant. Weeknight call starts whenever evening shift leaves until 5:30 the next morning.

Our call crew is a circulator, an FA, and a tech. We do 24hrs on weekends (7a-7a), except the FA's do both days (48hrs). Our call schedule is on a set # of day rotation (every 8th or 9th day depending on role), so you know your call days for the whole year in December! We have a set of rules for picking up extra call due to vacancies, vacations, etc.

Our weekend call is as follows. Since we only have first shift we are on call 1500 Friday till 0700 Monday morning. The call team consists of an RN, Scrub, and Nursing Assistant. We only have one call team as well, so on the rare occasion, cases can really stack up on us!

Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

Depends on the specialty and RN or ST. RNs in the main OR take eight hour blocks of call (1st, 2nd, and 3rd shift). Generally, every third weekend requires a combination of 3 shifts of call or work. Could be 1 work and 2 call, 2 work and 1 call, etc. STs are either 8 hour (1st, 2nd, and 3rd shift) or 12 hour blocks (7am-7pm, 7pm-7am). Still a combination of three shifts every third weekend.

For the cardiac team, it's call from 3pm Friday until 7am Monday, usually one weekend a month, sometimes 2 depending on vacations- no set rotation.

Specializes in APRN, ACNP-BC, CNOR, RNFA.

We're staffed with 2 teams "in house" call on nights and weekends, but there is one "out house" call team, as well. "Out house" call teams get called in maybe once or twice a year, so it's easy money to just take it, and wait to hear from us. I work on the night/weekend team, and I get paid really well, so that everyone can enjoy their nights/weekends at home. It keeps those Mon-Fri people happy, :-).

Thanks everybody for the responses!! We are loosing nurses left and right because we have heavy call and late days. It's interesting to see how others call is. We have two teams who alternate 1st and 2nd shift in 8 hour increments starting Friday at 11p and ending Sunday 11p. The kicker is, if you are first shift on Friday, you are on second shift call all week before hand and have probably had late days that week and will the next week too. Essentially you work 12 days straight. Docs know we are available and the weekend has really just become another time to schedule cases. I am looking for other ideas of staffing our 14 room OR on the weekend. Do any of you have a regularly staffed OR on the weekend?

Specializes in APRN, ACNP-BC, CNOR, RNFA.
Thanks everybody for the responses!! We are loosing nurses left and right because we have heavy call and late days. It's interesting to see how others call is. We have two teams who alternate 1st and 2nd shift in 8 hour increments starting Friday at 11p and ending Sunday 11p. The kicker is if you are first shift on Friday, you are on second shift call all week before hand and have probably had late days that week and will the next week too. Essentially you work 12 days straight. Docs know we are available and the weekend has really just become another time to schedule cases. I am looking for other ideas of staffing our 14 room OR on the weekend. Do any of you have a regularly staffed OR on the weekend?[/quote']

I'm a regular staffer for weekends. Our Saturday 7-3 shift consists of scheduled cases, so there are 3 teams, and we run 2 rooms for scheduled cases, and 1 room for urgent/emergent cases. All other weekend shifts are for urgent/emergent cases and we staff 2 full teams around the clock. It works out well, if you have people that will show up EVERY weekend, which is not an easy position to fill. My pay differential is roughly $13 more, so I'm in there every weekend!

Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

We staff two rooms plus an RN and ST to cover traumas/emergencies on first shift during the weekend, one team on second and third. We aren't really supposed to be doing scheduled cases per se, but we see a lot of fracture management and lap choles/appys on weekends. Occasionally a "scheduled" heart that came in through the ER then into the cath lab on Friday, can't wait until Monday for surgery, but does need a little time for anticoagulants to be reversed.

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