Do you have to be on-call?

We have to be on call 16 hours each pay period (2 weeks) and I am so mad about it that I am seriously thinking of quitting.

That's ridiculous. I hope you get compensated for that. If not, I'd definately quit. Luckily where I work now doesn't make us do on-call even if we work one weekend a month. At my last job, if we worked every third weekend they made us be on-call once a month. Hospitals need to learn how to staff without inconviencing the staff they already do have.

I've worked in some institutions that do and some that don't. The first was a tertiary care center and needless to say they were extremely busy so call was mandatory. It was 12 hrs a pay period. We were paid call pay and then time and 1/2 if we were called in. The call pay was about $2/hr while we sat home. Another institution I worked at paid minimum wage for call time (while you sat) and time and 1/2 for coming in but again call was mandatory. I used to scrub so my call time was usually getting called in for a section. When the section was over I was done and went home. Both those institutions were located in Arizona.

I've since moved to Florida and have not been required to take call time. However, there are times when the unit gets busy and nurses get called and asked to come help. When I'm on the drowning end I can tell ya I sure appreciate the help. The extra money from the call time came in handy when I got my first divorce and my x took half the furniture. I replaced it all with better stuff and paid cash for it all.

Labor and Deliver can be much like an ER ie it goes from 0 to 60 mph in 5 min. Frankly I was shocked that neither institution I have worked for here in Florida mandated call on their labor and deliver units. In any case I'm greatful they don't but I'm willing to go help out if they call me cuz I know what if feels like to be drowning on the other side.

No, we do not have mandatory on-call or over-time. I think having a union in place helps with that.

I WOULD NOT work in a facility that mandated on-call or over-time. How is a person supposed to have a life??

We will go "on call" on occasion , we only staff 2 RNs in our 6 bed unit, if we have a vent pt they get 1:1. So if we have 4 pts that is fine, but if the 5th patient comes in we call in another RN. I always sign up to be on call cause you we get 4.00 an hour for the time spent on call and if they call us in it is time and a half pay.

We get paid $2/hr for the time that we're on-call, and time + 1/2 if we get called-in.

Bookworm - How do we have a life? I feel as though I have no life sometimes! Because I have to be available within 30 minutes of being called to come in, and it takes me about 10 minutes to put the dog out, grab my badge and work bag, and turn off the lights, and then 20 minutes to get to work, so I basically have to twiddle my thumbs at home the whole time.

I don't mind some call, because as zoni said, L&D does triage pregnant women, and so it can get very busy very fast. I just don't like that they can mandate me to be available to them more than 40 hours per week.

In our department we have to take 40 hours of call in a 6 week time period. You get to choose the two shifts that you would want to do call. It's rough.

On my unit, the pay for being on-call is $5 and time and a half for a minimum of 3 hrs. if you do get called. Call is 24 hrs. at a time but you might not be on call except once every 6-8 weeks. More often than not, you don't get called because of the good staffing. If anyone has been given low census, then they get called in first.

At our facility, we have to be on-call 12 hours every 4 weeks. We can choose to go ahead and work if we want and the need is present. We get compensated double time for this... We can do this in any block of time we would like.

Call time around where I live is the norm. One facility I interviewed at had 40 hours every 2 weeks (and you are called in pretty much any time you are on call), another had 20 hours every 2 weeks, another had 12 hours every 2 weeks.

The job I picked has 24 hours every 2 weeks, you decide how to block it out. You are paid $2.50/hr, 1 1/2 when called in for a min. of 4 hours.

40 hours every 2 weeks?!??!?!

Is this for full-time people as well?

I just can't fathom turning over half my life to work. I like my job and all, but it's not my reason for living, kwim?

We have gone back and forth on this. It's never been "mandatory" that we sign up for call but it has been strongly suggested. A call list is put out and then everyone signs up, if there are slots still open the director would often look at who hasn't been taking call and everyone seemed to do a good job helping out. We were always paid for on call at the $2 rate and time and half when we came in. We were also paid time and a half if we were called in even if we were not on call, if we're dying and no one else could come in and you agreed they compensated you in that way.

Now on the other hand, we're on some sort of ridiculous budget crunch. Staffing is bare bones and there is no longer a call in sheet because we have been told that there is to be no time and a half. So, when things do get bad (we're a small unit often only have two nurses, sometimes an RN and an LPN) or we need to transfer a patient we have to call someone in that is NOT on call, so we randomly go down the list. I will tell you that the security of having that ONE life line out there was and is much underestimated where we work.

I have had nights when I go down the list and find someone to come in and then later have to go down the list again to find yet another nurse to come bail us out... It's been a real pain and an issue we are dealing with day to day!