Fed up of losing working hours

Published

I know there's little we can do about this, and we're expected to just 'suck it up' but how do you all feel about your cancel / on call / being sent home early policy?

We recently got a new NM and since she started a few months ago, a lot of new nurses have been hired (all from her previous hospital wouldn't you know)...this has resulted in there being too many nurses on our floor now.

Also, the new NM has decided we can cope with our ratios being increased, we've gone from 5:1 to 6:1 (which in real terms means we often get hiked up to 7:1)

End result is, she has trimmed down the number of nurses needed per shift, so someone is cancelled every day, and we are getting put on call much more often. Also, whenever a nurse or two gets any discharges, someone gets sent home and the remainder of their patients given to whoever is staying (hence the hiking up of the ratio)

Some of us "old-timers" on our floor feel this new NM is gradually bringing in her buddies from her previous hospital and to heck with those of us who are losing working hours and pay EVERY pay period.

I made a comment at one of our staff meetings about how some nurses are bound to struggle financially as not everyone can afford to keep losing pay. The response?......"It's not about what YOU can afford, it's what WE can afford"

Yes, I understand it's a business and they have to balance the books, but what's the deal with keep hiring nurses when there's not enough shifts to go round already?

Thanks for listening.

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Where I live if you are a FT employee and you are available to work when scheduled, but get called off or put on call, if you don't get your FT hours, you are eligable for unemployment benefits. There have been several nurses where I work that have been supplementing with unemployment due to call offs.

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Specializes in Gerontological, cardiac, med-surg, peds.

For the present - get a part-time nursing job somewhere else to supplement the unreliable income from your "fulltime" position. Permanent solution - find a different job in a facility in which the staff are guaranteed hours or rarely canceled.

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.

Are you an agency nurse? I have never heard of full time employees being sent home after beginning a shift unless they are agency nurses. At times, I have seen situations where they anticipate a surplus of nurses on the floors and have offered them a day off, but they had to ensure that this nurse worked three 12 hour shifts that week since they are full time. Or, they have juggled days where some nurses were able to get about 5 days off, but again, because they anticipated too many, and they still had to ensure that these nurses received their paycheck.

Heck, I do say to go somewhere else where this silliness is not happening. We already count on our checks well in advance of receiving them, and that is disrespectful, IMHO.

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Are you an agency nurse?

Heck, I do say to go somewhere else where this silliness is not happening. We already count on our checks well in advance of receiving them, and that is disrespectful, IMHO.

No, I'm not agency, I have a contract for full-time hours, but that doesn't seem to be worth the paper it's written on, does it?

Wonder what they'd say if NURSES started to ignore the terms of the contract and called in to say "oh I don't think I'll work full-time this week, I can afford to take a day off"

And you're so right, it's silly AND it's disrespectful.

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Wow, do you have a union? And what does your contract says? In what state are practicing? I live in NY, and according to my job union contract, a full time or part time employee can not be sent home without being fully compensated. So when ever we are over staff -very rare though, we review charts in addition to our daily job. However, if you an agency nurse, you can be cancelled two hours before the start of your shift or be compensated for two hours of your hrly rate, same goes with per diem nurses.

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Wow, do you have a union? And what does your contract says? In what state are practicing?

No, we don't have a union. This is Florida, an "at will' State, nuff said eh? :madface:

My contract states......

Regular Working Hours : Full-time as defined by applicable Hospital Policy, US Federal and State Laws

I work 3 x 12 hour shifts, but it's getting to be a regular occurrence that most of us are not getting our 36 hours in every week.

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Specializes in Med Surg, Hospice.

If we get called off for low census, we can use our PTO to make up for the lost hours. Course, we've been so busy lately that no one is getting called off..

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Is it possible that the new NM wants to replace current staff with her own people. I have seen behaviors like this before and they do pull those sort of tricks.

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Course, we've been so busy lately that no one is getting called off..

Glad you mentioned that, because our hospital has also been very busy lately. Heck, we were even on divert during the holidays but STILL this calling off was happening!

As I said in my OP, seems they're just letting the NM keep on hiring and hiring and there's just too many nurses.

Madness :icon_roll

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Is it possible that the new NM wants to replace current staff with her own people. I have seen behaviors like this before and they do pull those sort of tricks.

BINGO!! :bow:

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If it was consistent, I would look for a new job and not waste my time there.

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