Call Staffing in A Small Hospita;

[BabyRN1991]

Need some ideas. I work at a small community hospital that we opened in Oct. 2008. We are LDRP unit with 4 beds. We have 9 full time employees and 3 pt. We are just starting to have people get sick and so worth and we have not done a call sch. yet.We are a little unsure how to do this with so few staff. We work 12 hrs shifts. Most of us came from very large hospital that this wasn't much of an issue. We took call about 2 (12hr.) shifts every 6 weeks.

I would appreciate any ideas or help you can give us. We expect to deliver about 10 babies a month or 120-130 ayear unitl we grow.

Thanks:nurse:

[RNBelle]

I am work at a small rural hospital. Our schedule runs for 4 wks. Full time staff work 7 shifts in a 2 wk period and we take call twice a month. And even though we all take call twice a month not all our shifts are covered with a call person. So you might just have to put people on call and see how it works out. Sorry I don't have any better suggestions.

[Eyrebear]

We keep a minimum of three RNs in L&D at all times. For any shift that has only three RNs scheduled, we have one person on-call. Call is mandatory for all RNs. On each evening, night and weekend, the assistant nurse manager or nurse manager back up with Departmental Call.