Does census at your hospital determine OC

[labornurse]

I work in a rural hospital as an L/D nurse. Sometimes we are booming and sometimes we have 0-1 pts on the floor. We work depending on census. If low census such as 0-1 pts, 1 nurse works and the rest are on call. In a near by large city, nurses working at the large hospitals go in to work no matter what the census. Is it more common for census to determine how many and who works or, for nurses working no matter what the census is?

[Super_RN, BSN, RN]

Our census determines who is on call. I work in ICU and it's either feast or famine.

:) Jaime

[SmilingBluEyes]

Yep you bet. the census determines who works and who is on call...

and we all take turns at being "low censused"

count on it in L/D and be prepared.

[military spouse]

Yes, our census determines the number of people placed on call-back status. It usually works out okay since there are usually some people that don't want to work. Our assignment sheets usually have atleast one person for each day that has written "first call" and those people are placed on call first.

[cardiacRN2006, ADN, RN]

Only 1 nurse working? We may low census a lot (esp in summer) but there always has to be 2 nurses on.

[cardiacRN2006, ADN, RN]

Yes, our census determines the number of people placed on call-back status. It usually works out okay since there are usually some people that don't want to work. Our assignment sheets usually have atleast one person for each day that has written "first call" and those people are placed on call first.

military spouse...

Sierra Vista, I assume????

[christianRN]

I work ICU and we get lots of OT in the winter and some days off in the summer. It doesn't bother me.

We always have at least 2 ICU nurses working, no matter what.

[military spouse]

Yes, Sierra Vista for about another 60 days and it looks like we are moving to MD/PA area. We thought we were going to Dallas, but life is never that straightforward

[Mississippi_RN]

Our house supv walks around constantly to check who is being d/c'd and seeing if you are getting to low to keep everyone.

REALLY freaking annoying when you are busting your tail and they walk up expecting you to drop everything to give them a full report on who is leaving.

'Nuff to make you want to pull your hair out... :roll

[USA987, MSN, RN, NP]

We take turns with being put on low census based on the number of low census hour you have. That being said, we can also request low census call if we want.

We do approx. 2200 deliveries per year. We must have 3 L&D nurses and 2 SCN nurses in house at all times...

[meownsmile, BSN, RN]

Our hospital gives the L/D nurses and ICU nurses call option. Meaning if they are on call and the unit is closed because of low census, they have the option of working out on another unit and someone out there gets placed on call. Naturally there is a rotation to it, but they have to keep at least 1 ICU and 1 L/D nurse in the building at all times, so to have them float to another unit makes sense. They usually float and fill in gaps we have, maybe taking report on surgicals, doing an admit for us, helping answer call lights,, but they dont take assigned patients.