Being pressured to work more hours

[ThePrincessBride, MSN, RN, NP]

Let me start by saying that I am not a nurse, just an aide, and I work at two different hospitals. At both hospitals, I get called numerous times a day, 3 or more times a week. Sometimes, when I am working an eight hour shift, some of the staff will try to pressure me to stay over (like four or more hours).

At one of the hospitals, however, I find staffing to be awful and the push for me to stay over to be a little excessive. At this hospital, I am a casual worker, therefore I am not obligated to work certain shifts / number of hours to week (very much like my other job, but I'm hired on as a student). I was originally working nights, and it was awful (physically and health-wise, I suffered). I informed them that I could no longer work nights, so now I've just been working four-hour shifts in the evenings.

Well lately, staffing at this hospital has just been awful. On numerous occasions, there will only be one PCA on a floor of 25 patients (max load for a PCA is supposed to be 15). Full-time workers have been scheduled only 24 hours (36 is full time), some people have been scheduled, people have been scheduled 16's when they've only requested twelves, and others have been schedule 5 12's in a row.

I have been pressured many times to stay over an extra 8 hours due to short staffing. The other day, I get a call. I'm already scheduled to work four hours, but I also have my second job to go to the following the day. The charge nurse asks if I would be willing to stay over an extra eight hours (keep in mind, she called me at around 1pm or so). I said NO, I couldn't. She continued to push, asking me if I could stay a bit longer, and I finally got irritated and told her I have a second job I have to go the next day. This charge nurse has gotten an attitude about me not being able to pick up extra shifts. 1) I'm in school, 2) I have a second job and 3) the pay at this hospital sucks in comparison to my the pay at my other job.

At this point, I'm getting tired of the constant pressuring. I wish I could ignore the calls, but I fear that if I don't pick up extra hours or continue to say "no" all the time that eventually management will retaliate against me.

What do you do when staffing has terrible schedulers and they keep pressuring for you to work more hours?

[AnonRNC]

This is a nice opportunity to practice your firm, assertive voice. "No, I'm sorry. I cannot. I have another commitment at that time." Hopefully, you won't need to stay on at that facility for long - it sounds like a mess!

[monkeybug]

Invest in a caller ID, and don't answer when they call. When you are there and have to interact, just say "No, I'm sorry, I can't." They don't have to have an explanation. I always feel that if you start to explain why you can't, it looks weak and they are on it like a lion on a limping antelope.

I would tell my old manager that I would work extras when the hospital paid incentive pay. That wasn't going to happen, so my working extra wasn't going to happen, either.