AHS Critical Care

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · May 1, 2014

Schedule optimisation is a big thing looming for most units in the province. AHS has decided that scheduling is a problem so they're retooling the whole province's scheduling provisions - to provide better continuity of care is the rationale they're putting forward. If the rotation rolled out on our unit in Edmonton is any indication of how they plan to do it, there will be a lot of unhappy people. We have a 24 week rotation (try to memorize that!) that for full timers means they never have more than 3 days off in a row. For part timers it's feast or famine: they're either working full time hours for a stretch or they're only working 2 shifts in a pay period. Some people might think that having 12 days off in your rotation is a good thing, but when you're trying to pay your bills it's pretty hard.

Junior RNs may get vacation in off-peak times, if the managers are willing to work out the vacation planner to make it work. Last year on my unit only the top third of the staff got any vacation approved on the planner. This year it's better.

JanesWalk · May 1, 2014

Thanks for your reply! Retooling scheduling doesn't sound good nor does 3 days off only. But I guess similar issues exist everywhere including Ontario. I'm lucky to have a schedule that works for me, and to have enough seniority to get vacation time. Which makes me wonder if I want to give that all up. Not that landing an ICU job in Calgary would be a guaranteed thing anyways. I really like my job, schedule etc but not so much the city I live in. Looking for a place with closer access to nature and outdoors, better quality of life outside work.

JanesWalk · May 1, 2014

Also, I don't understand this not getting vacation approved-business. It happens in my unit as well that junior nurses do not get any summer vacation or time off when they request it. The vacation might be granted last minute (yea, try to make any vacation plans a few days before) or during time when one does not want it or need it. If RN is entitled to 3 or 4 weeks of vacation, then that should be guaranteed every year, not as a vacation day here and there. How does that improve staff morale and sick time...anyways, that's a whole new topic.

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · May 1, 2014

You're right about the morale part. Not having any of the vacation you request approved is like a kick in the teeth.

The managers use a formula to determine how many (or few, depending on your perspective) people can be off in one 24 hour period. The formula is based on the vacation entitlement of the entire staff in hours divided by the number of staff, divided by hours in a shift divided by 365. On our unit, where after 11 1/2 years I'm now #27 on the seniority list of 118 people, we can have 4 people on vacation per day; vacation must be requested in blocks with no fewer than 2 shifts in a block. The block therefore includes any days off that precede or follow the "vacation" days. Last year our relatively inexperienced managers only looked at the number of "x"s on the planner, rather than who would actually be scheduled to work and only granted the first four "x"s. So there could be 4 people "off on vacation" but not actually scheduled to work, when 4 more people could have also been granted off that day. Admittedly, looking at the schedule AND the planner together is more labour intensive, but it's what should be done. And this year it was.

Now let me show you what happens when you have the vacation planner done by the first method coupled with the new part time schedule. In Alberta vacation planner requests have to be in by March 15th. The planner is posted no later than May 1, which is the day the vacation year begins. I dropped my FTE temporarily from 0.7 to 0.5 in July and our new rotation went into effect in November. When I booked my vacation last year I asked for 2 off peak blocks, one at the end of January and the other in March. With my old rotation I would have been off for 2 weeks with each block and have 4 shifts in each 2 week block. Instead I ended up being off 3 1/2 weeks for the first one with 2 shifts in there, and 3 weeks the second block, also with 2 shifts. This year's vacation plans resulted in my taking off two weeks in May to go on a dream vacation and having to use 7 shifts for it. It's crazy.

JanesWalk · May 3, 2014

Question about the 24 week rotation. Does each RN have their own chosen line that repeats itself every 24 weeks or is the schedule done by manager or is it self scheduling?We have different schdedules for full-timers eg. DDNN with anywhere from 3-5 off in between. This is a 6 week rotation that repeats itself, so I will always know my schedule ahead of time...since it doesn't change at all. I was wondering how the 24 week rotation works and why full-timers only have no more than 3 days off. Also, how many days and nights one has to work. Mine is always half days, half nights.

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · May 5, 2014

Each of us has our own line on the schedule. We were told before it was posted for line selection that it was a 12 week repeating rotation, which it is for most of the full-time people. Anybody who is less than full time discovered when they really looked at it that the second half isn't an exact repeat of the first half. As you might suspect, it's impossible to memorize a 24 week schedule. The rotation was created by a computer, since all it really is is a spreadsheet. The algorithms for contract compliance were fed into the software and it spit out this thing that neither solved the staffing problems we were having, but increased our sick time and left a lot of unhappy people. The majority of the full time lines are 2s and 3s... meaning work 3, 2 off, work 3, have 2 off, work 2, have 3 off. There's a short turnaround from nights back to days every 4th week - off Monday morning, back on days Wednesday in virtually all the lines, regardless of FTE. (Computers don't know that only having one full day off between nights and days is really bad for a human's health.) Most of the rotations, regardless of FTE, are 50:50 days and nights. There are 9 permanent night lines and 6 permanent day lines. The other 103 are day-night. I for one really HATE my line but I had no choice really. All the lines for my FTE were the same, only started on a different spot in the rotation. The permanent day line went to someone with 30+ years of seniority. I work more than full time for 4 weeks, then I hardly work at all for 4 weeks. Vacation planning is a nightmare. With all the complaints they've had about the rotation they're talking about changing it, but I don't see much action.

itsmejuli · May 5, 2014

Sounds horrible. Jeez

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · May 6, 2014

Horrible??? That it is. I'll have 6 shifts on my next pay cheque, after having only 2 on each of the last two and 3 on the one before that. Before last payday I had 17¢in my chequing account.