An answer to them calling everyday!

Published

Hello fellow nurses,

I love the people I work with and my floor that I work on now. I work three 12's a week. Lately I have been scheduling them three in a row. A handful of us do the same thing on this floor. I have been off for 6 days due to my schedule. THey have called me at least 3 if not 4 days to come into work. It's not just this week. If I'm off 3 they will call 2. I work what is considered full time as well as most of the nurses. I'm looking for an answer for this, because I'm not the only one getting aggervated by this. I mean, my days off is my days off. I have things planned and I also work night shift. 7p-7a. Would you think that working 4 hours on top of the three 12's or every other week work an 8 help with this? Some floors do this. Or my solution, just hire some more people! Anything will help. so I can put it in the "suggestion box". Any suggestions are better than nothing. Alittle vent here, but what do they expect us to do on our days off sit and wait by the phone to not be doing anything. I have told them I'm making soup and getting ready to go to the store. Cooking relaxes me, and stocking up my freezer for meals during my work days are alot more important that making more money that I don't have time to spend anyways! I feel better! Send me the suggestions! :banghead:

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Caller ID on your phone . . . if it is work, don't answer. Unless you want to work. :D

Or . . turn off the ringer . . . and let it go to your answering machine. You can always think about it and call them back if you want to work.

If your unit is short staffed - the answer is hire more people.

steph

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Specializes in ER, ICU cath lab, remote med.

Sometimes when staffing is bad, we are asked to volunteer for a 4th day every other week. Right now, we have an "available" day on the schedule that is that 4th day every other week. The charge has until 5:30 (am/pm) to call the "available" nurse to work that shift. No call means you don't work. In the past 6 months, I have been called once on a day off to see if I would work. I think it's natural for those calls to stress us out because we all want to help (otherwise we wouldn't be in this career field) but if you don't want to work, you just have to learn to tell them no.

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Oh, I tell them no all the time. I have not gone in once in several months. I like the solution about the available days and calling 5am or 5pm. Something has got to give.

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Specializes in Almost everywhere.

Do we work on the same floor?? We are again in the process of hiring more help, which means in about a month, there will be about 5-8 new grads hired. Until they all get through orientation and if any stay (there's the clincher), maybe we will have almost full staff. In the meantime, we have contract shifts. From what I understand, a person contracts to pick up 2 extra shifts per month, paid at a higher rate. Many have signed up. I don't know what the answer is other than if you want your day off, then by all means take it off....are you allowed to not answer the phone? Just say no, but then be okay with that.

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Specializes in PICU.

There are sometimes when there might have been call ins and the charge nurse or whomever is in charge is trying to make that shift safe staffing. On the nights (days that you work you would want a safe staffing night (day), and they might have called others to come in. I have done overtime but of course if I have something going on, I won't go in for the extra shift. Sometimes on units the patient acuity gets higher and you might need more staff to safely take care of patients. Of course on your days off you are entitled to be off, but if you want the extra money and have the time and energy, go in

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Do they call all the time because of sick calls or call all the time because there wasn't enough scheduled in the first place? Or because census is higher?

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.

I agree, get Caller ID, a cell phone, voice messaging, something!! I refuse to be bothered when I am off. We are entitled to have a personal life-we work to live, not live to work (at least most of us aren't).

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Do they call all the time because of sick calls or call all the time because there wasn't enough scheduled in the first place? Or because census is higher?

Not enough people scheduled! Sometimes people are sick, but usually that is covered by the house r/t short time period. Sometimes they are good about calling in the morning for night shift, but the other day it was two hours. Most of the time us night shift have been up all day! Thank you for the suggestions.

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Sometimes census is higher than the target they staff for, so if that's the case they need to call to see if others can fill in the gap, especially if the rest of the house is in the same position.

If census is right around target and they're blatently scheduling too low, more people need to be hired, which isn't as easy as it sounds.

I work the same shift you do and usually when they call (our unit tries to call as early as they know they'll need someone), I always let it go to voicemail. They call my cell phone first (which is fine with me, caller ID there!) I listen to the voicemail, think about it, call my husband to see if there's anything going on I don't know about, think about it some more, take a nap, and if I decide I can go in I call back to see if they found anyone else.

If I don't want to go, I either just say no (and really, they don't need a reason), or don't answer.

My unit had so many sick calls for a couple weeks because we were all passing around the nasty respiratory virus going around. People would work OT to cover people sick, then the OTers would get sick from taxing their bodies.

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Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.

At my last job, they called me alllllllllllllllllllll the time. I just let my cellphone ring and go to voicemail. I couldn't turn it off because that's my only phone. Now at my new job, I've only been called once but I didn't call them back. I pick up overtime when I need it not when they need me to.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

I have the hospital's number saved on my cellphone under the name "do not answer". If they leave a message, I listen to it and see what they want and then I might call them back. I rarely agree to work extra. I will sometimes go in to work if they offer a deal such as coming in extra during the week in exchange for a weekend day off. I try not to let their phone calls ruin my day off. We are all entitled to enjoy our days off. So don't let them make you feel guilty.

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