Specializes in ICU, Haemodialysis, acute medicine and s.
A difficult posistion to be in Paris, I hope you get it sorted. I am in a similar position as your staff nurse, in that due to living far away from family, and having a husband who works a silly job and has to be away quite bit I canot work a full time flexible contract but we need to do set shifts and reduced hours. I am a dialsis nurse with 7 years experience and my local dialsis unit is desperate for staff but they will no accomodate my requests therefore I cannot help them out with their staffing needs. I have asked for 24 hours and as the unit work 12 hours shifts i have asked for one set day where i can place my children in daycare then i could work one day at the weekend, but they will not accomodate me. They have also lost several nurses recently due to these issues as they have told them that although they only work 2 12 hour shifts per week they will have to pay for ful time childcare for both their kids making it not worth working in the first place. I have also approached the ICU's and they also say the same thing, even though i have experience in this area also
I can understand that if one person gets shifts then it sets a precendent for other staff wanting them too which can be a problem, however before we moved I worked in a dialysis unit that was fantastic, there were several nurses who had families who did set shifts etc. and it worked fine, because there were wnough people who wanted to do nights, that covered those who hated them, and enough people wanting to work weekends to make up for those who didn't want to work them and it was mostly harmonious.
As for me now, I work on the nurse bank and do what i please to fit in around the family, the only problems are i have been degraded back down to a bottom D grade when i was Band 5, point 7, and i no longer get any of the benefits of being employed on a contract.
Thankyou all for replies. Let me say that when this nurse was appoinment we were already aware of her high sickness record, i know that hospital she came from were not very good in managing sicknesses, so we thought we will give her a chance and manage her sickness. She knew we were very relunctant to appoint her in the first place but i told my manager to give her a chance. So we are not that bad employer. I dont really understand her, if she wants to spent time with her childrnes than why she is always doing overtime, somtime when she has finish her normal duty you see her on the wards doing extra shifts. She also does lots of weekends, somtime working 7 days with extra work. She requests school holidays off and then you see her on the ward doing whole week as extra shift. Then she goes off sick. We have observed her sickness pattern, and i did warned her not to overwork. I know we all need some extra cash and what she does in her own time is none my business.
As said before our workload is not routine like ward work or out patient work, our 90% of workload is like urgencies and we are required to work around our workload and not set time. I have spoken to our in-patient ward manager to see if she can accomodate this nurse but ward shift finishes at 9.30pm not 8pm. Therefore ward manger is reluctant to have her. Also ward area has no vaccancies for more staff. I have also spoken to out patient manager but again their shift finishes at 6pm. Unless this nurses comes out with reailsitic hrs it is not going to be easy for her. Last week i asked her if she has any alernate hrs in her mind but she said no. So will have to wait and see what happends, i am seeing my lead nurse and human resource next week. Will keep u updated.
Paris it sounds like you have done everything reasonably possible to accomodate this nurse, I can understand where you are coming from as in a small and very specialised team it is difficult when you loose elements of flexibility. I know that without the flexibility that my team provide, then I would find it very difficult to provide the service that is required of my department.
You also took her on knowing that she had a poor sick record and gave her a chance when many others would have said no. I know when I interview and employ new staff one of the first things they are told during interview is that the post requires flexibility and has a very unpredictable work pattern, this is documented within the interview paperwork so when a job offer is made it is on the understanding that flexibility is needed. It works out that actually most of the team I manage find that this is more family friendly than not, although there are times during busy periods that long hours are needed and then it is expected that the service is covered.
With what you have posted here I think that HR should be able to support you, let us know how you get on.
It sounds to me like she should save herself some time and energy, and just find another position. All of the hub-bub over 13 hours? Nurses are not that hard to come by.
It sounds to me like she should save herself some time and energy, and just find another position. All of the hub-bub over 13 hours? Nurses are not that hard to come by.
It's not that easy in the UK, from a managers perspective, you need very good reason and it is a lengthy process to deny a work life balance issue, and even with a nurse who is performing badly it can take up over 6 months to go through the process of disciplining them or dealing with capability or sickness issues.
As far as the nurse goes, jobs in the UK are really hard to come by, finding a post for 13 hours may be almost impossible and trusts are not using agency nurses because of the costs.
According to my lead nurse and human resource we are unable to accomodate this nurse's request. However we are going to offer her 4 day a week 37.5hrs week. Although my lead nurse is not entirely happy with 4 days but then she is leaving that decision to me.
I will have a meeting with this nurse tomorrow and see what come out it.
what capacity does she get the hours on the other wards, on one hand you are saying that the hours in other departments dont suit her, but then tell us that she is already doing extra work which includes those hours. is she bank staff within your hospital or is she agency? either way, she would probably be better off just working bank hours and working when it suits her.
as a single mother now, of course maybe she needs to work all those extra hours for the money.
what capacity does she get the hours on the other wards, on one hand you are saying that the hours in other departments dont suit her, but then tell us that she is already doing extra work which includes those hours. is she bank staff within your hospital or is she agency? either way, she would probably be better off just working bank hours and working when it suits her.
as a single mother now, of course maybe she needs to work all those extra hours for the money.
her normal working pattern can be anything from 7.30- 6pm, 37.5hrs a week. she has join the agency so she does extra shifts thru that nhsp agency on wards if someone has gone off sick etc. and then she does all the extra hrs during her holidays via same agency. as you said she would be better off working for agency. also she is not single parent, it is just her husband decided to go back to his old job which 100's of mile away. so she says to us.
Update: I offered this nurse 4 days over a week but she refused to accept it. I offered her 4 days normal shift with reduced 32 per week (against my lead nurse's advice), but she also declined this offer. I aksed her if she has any other option in her mind, she said she hasn't and insisting to have her original request. My lead nurse is insisting that the job must remain full time.
This nurse handed her resignation today. I ask her to remain on NHSP (agency) so that she can work when she like and where she likes.
I am going to be advertising for her post tomorrow.
suzanne7575
109 Posts
A difficult posistion to be in Paris, I hope you get it sorted. I am in a similar position as your staff nurse, in that due to living far away from family, and having a husband who works a silly job and has to be away quite bit I canot work a full time flexible contract but we need to do set shifts and reduced hours. I am a dialsis nurse with 7 years experience and my local dialsis unit is desperate for staff but they will no accomodate my requests therefore I cannot help them out with their staffing needs. I have asked for 24 hours and as the unit work 12 hours shifts i have asked for one set day where i can place my children in daycare then i could work one day at the weekend, but they will not accomodate me. They have also lost several nurses recently due to these issues as they have told them that although they only work 2 12 hour shifts per week they will have to pay for ful time childcare for both their kids making it not worth working in the first place. I have also approached the ICU's and they also say the same thing, even though i have experience in this area also
I can understand that if one person gets shifts then it sets a precendent for other staff wanting them too which can be a problem, however before we moved I worked in a dialysis unit that was fantastic, there were several nurses who had families who did set shifts etc. and it worked fine, because there were wnough people who wanted to do nights, that covered those who hated them, and enough people wanting to work weekends to make up for those who didn't want to work them and it was mostly harmonious.
As for me now, I work on the nurse bank and do what i please to fit in around the family, the only problems are i have been degraded back down to a bottom D grade when i was Band 5, point 7, and i no longer get any of the benefits of being employed on a contract.