Does this happen in other OR's? We are a small town OR (4 general surgeons, 3 orthopods, 5 gyn...get the picture?) Anyway....our hrs are 645-315 m-f. They surgeries are constantly scheduled to run over the 315 time and the call team stays...well lately its been 2 or 3 rooms running over and people are expected to stay.....at regular pay..working side by side with the 3 members of call making call team pay (time and half..shift diff..etc). The other day we had 3 rooms running over and noone said they could stay. They had signed the "cant stay" sheet on monday saying they couldnt stay certain days (something left over from previous directors). Well the new director (2 yrs into job) took the sheet away and now demands we stay certain days that are up to us...2 rn's and 1 lpn must stay every day m-f...at regular pay, and if we dont 'play nice' then she will develop a 'back up' team that will work until 5 pm each day and THEN the call team will pick up call after 5. The OR is livid....because its all about the money...they said they will schedule surgeries ANYTIME the doctor wants...
The closest to me is about 40 min...they are owned by the same company are from what I hear...worse than this. Then there is another about the same distance in NC. I know 3 people in OR there....currently no openings in OR. Other than that...we are looking at 1 hr or more commute (which I left to come here).
The small hospital I left six months ago was asking people to stay late...I said I would for call pay only. There was only one time when they said "no" and I caved in and stayed. But I never did again after that. I left because for more than six months I didn't get 80hrs a pay period either.
Anyway, they took call pay away from the OR...it is now after 40hrs, time and a half! I couldn't believe it! So after an eight hour day, a call in the middle of the night, it's regular pay unless they've done their 40. I left...my commute is double, but call pay is fair, their are other shifts, and even the option of no call if 50% of a shift is not the day shift.
I just see a complete lack of respect for nurses in general anymore...and overall patient safety. Overworked, underpaid staff is a bad mix, add in anger and low morale...ugh!
AND I think a major reason there's a nursing shortage in the OR is because it is not promoted in nursing school. Every nursing program wants new nurses to put a year of floor nursing under their belts before going elsewhere. So EVERY SINGLE nursing student I have spoken with states that is his/her plan. Rarely does a new nurse go into the OR and some ORs won't even consider it...but some do with great outcomes. I think we lose a lot of new nurses because they are not happy with floor nursing and leave the profession.
We to are a small OR, our surgical supervisor/surgery coordinator is very agressive about getting down to one room by 1530, the end of our "day".
We try to head 'em off at the pass by keeping a lid on the OR schedule. We know who can and can't work within the alotted time.
I'm a bit shocked that anesthesia goes along with your situation. We have full backing of ours, and they are very good at working with us, to get us all out.
Of course, things happen (often of Friday's) and if we have to, we can usually find another crew to stay over. Once over 40 hours, they're on OT, however no call time.
We typically just rotate as this doesn't happen too often.
Sounds like a multi jurisdictional type problem. The docs, anes., nursing and the hospital need to be all on the same page!
Its seems to happen mostly in small ORs that do not run an evening shift. If the numbers show trhat an evening shift would be effective then maybe another shift would be a good idea. I know this is an added cost, but if surgeons know there is a later shift then the extra cases might offset the added employee cost. Also the time given to a surgeon for a particular case never seems to be enough, so running another shift even 12-8 might be considered just to allow them to finish up so no one is hovering over them to "hurry up and finish".Just a thought.
mooneyes65
21 Posts
The closest to me is about 40 min...they are owned by the same company are from what I hear...worse than this. Then there is another about the same distance in NC. I know 3 people in OR there....currently no openings in OR. Other than that...we are looking at 1 hr or more commute (which I left to come here).