Private Duty Schedulers: Why are they so deceptive?

Specialties Private Duty

Published

Unfortunately, I have worked for several private duty companies and the schedulers lie, bait and switch, and play such nasty games.

Are they actually trained to do this?

Some of them lie to the families as well as to the nurses.

My favorite is when the nurse doesn't come in and the on-call scheduler doesn't answer her phone even though they claimed 24/7 support.

I guess it's worse to lie to the families (and/or the nurses) than to fail to communicate at all. How many times families have discussed with me the lack of communication and how it interrupts their routine. I have had families literally beg me to give my phone number and for me to call them with any schedule changes or important information. And the staffing coordinators will chastise nurses for going around the agency to keep the families informed and vice versa. Too bad exchanging personal phone numbers can be a double-edged sword.

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Specializes in Private Duty Pediatrics.
I guess it's worse to lie to the families (and/or the nurses) than to fail to communicate at all. How many times families have discussed with me the lack of communication and how it interrupts their routine. I have had families literally beg me to give my phone number and for me to call them with any schedule changes or important information. And the staffing coordinators will chastise nurses for going around the agency to keep the families informed and vice versa. Too bad exchanging personal phone numbers can be a double-edged sword.

I've gotten to where I'll call the family to give them the heads up. They need to plan ahead. It's just mean for a scheduler to tell a family at 10:30p that their 11-7 nurse won't be coming in, when I had called in at 10a. This is especially true when there was an opportunity earlier for one of the parents to get in a nap!

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I've gotten to where I'll call the family to give them the heads up. They need to plan ahead. It's just mean for a scheduler to tell a family at 10:30p that their 11-7 nurse won't be coming in, when I had called in at 10a. This is especially true when there was an opportunity earlier for one of the parents to get in a nap!

It happens the other way around also - drives me crazy when the family has notified the agency of a hospitalization, a planned or last minute weekend trip etc and the agency waits until the night before to tell me I am not needed the next day. Thankfully the family I work with will text me as soon as they realize I am not needed - I usually end up letting the agency know before they call me.

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