ED shortage?

I have gone home early probably 2-3 times in 3 years in the ED but when I worked surgical floor I was called-off at least once a month. As agency I have been sent home twice in 2 yrs (in ED). In the ED our staffing is not census driven it is the same no matter what our dept looks like but there are times when we are over-staffed this is when someone can go home a little early (usually 1 hr or so where I work).

I think in the past year I've seen this happen in our ED maybe three or four times (nights). More often, we are understaffed.

I go home occasionally,.I work 7p-7a,..I might leave at 4a if it is really slow and for some reason we have a lot of staff. We are never forced to leave though,..I hate sitting around or doing "busy" work so I usually volunteer to leave.

2 or 3 times in the last 2 years, it was slow enough that I was sent home a few hours early, never a full shift

Very rarely are we sent home. Its usually always busy and if it is slow, it doesn't stay slow for long. And when you send people home, 5 minutes later you get a PNB coming in...so it ends up biting you in the butt when you play with ED staffing. When its slow and we've got a full staff, we make sure everyone gets a break before people start going home. I've worked at 2 different ED's and I've been sent home early once (it was a 12-hr shift and I left 2 hrs early, during a massive blizzard).

I work at 3 different ERs right now and it is so slow at each of them that all of us get sent home or cancelled on a regular basis. I hope it picks up soon.

Everyone is scheduling in 4 hour shifts now and looking at census every 2 hours and cancelling staff like crazy.

They know that since everyone is getting cut hours that if they really do get busy they can find someone to call in.

Some of the hospitals around me are actually laying off.

Why does this always happen right before the holidays. I am a little bummed.

I have worked at 4 different ERs/companies. Have been sent home early (and thanking my lucky stars.) Have also sent people home early pretty routinely when doing charge. In some respects it is a crazy thing to do. Usually I think to myself it's O.K. if it's only a couple of hours 'til shift change, but you know how that is...

I was let off early once. It was Christmas Eve, overstaffed (you were required to work either Christmas Eve or Day), and low census. I was glad too- I had some shopping to finish. LOL

Wow....Our ED is so busy we are required to take 2 on-calls a month.

We are offered the chance (but not required) to go home - by seniority of course.

I took the chance last month (too many obnoxious drunks in one night for me).