Compensation,work conditions

[Dudley67]

I was wandering how you are compensated in acutes. I work in a unit where it is overtime after 40hrs.but some days can be very long 14 or 15 hrs. Does anybody get paid overtime or bonus pay for working long days.

Also do you work in the dialysis unit alone when you have 1 patient.

[Rn.bsn.]

In acutes, after 8hours time and a half, then after 12hours its double time, acute dialysis is a very unstable schedule, and there may be days you only have one patient, meaning after one patient you get to go home,meaning not enough hours not enough pay. And days where you have to stay forever 3 patients or more, or 2 patients at one time. Some hospitals have dialysis unit and they can put 6 or more patients at the same time,some has pcts some don't, and we do dialysis 1:1 at patients room.

[CFrancine, BSN, RN]

Don't know where you live or if it makes a difference. In general, unless it's a union position or differences in state law, I don't imagine ever getting paid extra for long shifts. You're already scheduled 12-13 hours to begin with. But I know my main position in acutes for a large hospital. We have enough patients that we don't have to worry about getting our hours. Yes, there are days where we may be short. But there are also other employees begging to go home early so you can always stay if you want. We don't get paid anything extra compared to any other nurse in the hospital. But that's the hospital's policy to pay all RNs the same regardless of position. We get overtime above 40 hours a week. In this facility, if we are on the dialysis unit, there must be at least 3 staff members. That's in case of en emergency there are enough hands to handle the patient and call for help. For ICU treatments, you are the only dialysis nurse but the ICU is packed with staff.

I also have a PRN position for one of the Big Two. I get paid an extra couple dollars an hour for working in acutes. I'm assuming they have the same 40 hour overtime rule. We contract for many small facilities that don't have their own dialysis departments (like my primary job). They also have more hours than they can handle. They'd kill for a day to get sent home early. Here, it seems they can do 1:1 cases within the dialysis unit. But the couple I have seen are close enough to other units where they MIGHT be able to scream for help. There is one that isn't so I'm not sure what they do in an emergency if they're no one around.