Call: how often?

[bjlesm]

I am really interested in OR nursing, but with a 5 day per week schedule are people able to do overtime or per diem or does taking call fill in for that? I am also wondering how often are people taking call and of those days, how often are you actually called in? Thanks in advance.

[mcmike55]

Hey,

In my rural Ohio hospital (Level III Trauma), all Surgery RN's take call.

At one time there were 7 of us!

That translates out to 1 in 7 weekend, and a rotation during the week.

Right now, due to vacations, illness, vacancies, etc, there is about 3 of us taking call.

So you can do the math.

The thing that I've found about call, and at least our surgical "world", that all things tend to even out. One night or weekend, you'll get pounded, another, you keep checking the phone/beeper to see if they work!!!

Sorry, can't tell you what others do. I know many have additional shifts, etc.

Ours is basicly 7-3:30 Monday thru Friday.

Call starts at 3:30 pm til 7 am weekdays, 0700 Saturday, thru 0700 Monday for the weekends. That's where I'm at right now, fearing the phone!! :chuckle

Hope that helps

Mike

[openheartmary]

Five day work weeks are not the only option. Some of our staff work 4 10's, 3 12's, 5 8's. We have three call teams: general/vascular, ortho/neuro, open heart. It depends on which team you are assigned as to the frequency of call assignment. We typically cover 2-3 nights a week, and every 2nd or 3rd weekend. At our facility g/v and o/n work more on callback, open heart generally works longer hours when called back and must also cover the other specialties.

[MamaCheese]

We're staffed on weeknights at our facility so call for us is only from Fri night through Sun night. We also have a lot of RNs so I take call once about every 6 weeks. I have to sign up for one call per schedule which is either Fri night from 11p-7a or a Sat/Sun shift from 7a-7p or 7p-7a. Because we're so well staffed there's almost never any opportunity for overtime.

[AmyLiz]

The hospital where I work has the OR staffed 24/7, but even so, everyone (except the "outpatient/ambulatory" staff take call (the hospital has a Level I Trauma Center). We're assigned call, but most people who want extra can get it from the people who try to give it away. It works out pretty well for the most part. People who don't want call will post it on one of our staff bulletin boards & if you want it, you can pick it up.

[surgigaltheatre]

Hi to you all!! I am a Scrub RN at a private hospital, and we also do calls, as we do not have night shift, somebody has to be on call every night. Our shifts work like this: We have to work 42 hours per week, worked in flexi hours, but we have two days that we work 12 hour shifts, on those shifts you are also on call during the night. We also do call over the weekends from Friday night until Monday morning. As we only have one team on call, it can become quite hectic! My problem is this: We have a surgeon who books cold cases, say for 16:00, and then only rocks up at 23:00 to do the cases, this means that the call team have to sit at work waiting for him to come, not knowing what time it will be!! Is this not unfair? I have now decided to refuse to go back to work for cold cases!! I believe that if a patient has been in the ward the whole day, being treated conservatively, he might as well wait until morning to be operated on!! By the way, we are not paid to sit and wait, we have to sighn out, and sighn in whenever the cases are started. Yes we can go home, but it is so dangerous on the roads at night, that nobody wants to be on the road more that is neccassary!! Do you guys think that I am wrong refusing to go out for cold cases?? How does it work elsewhere!! Warm love from South Africa!!