frequent call in's or no shows

EmergencyNrse · Aug 18, 2011

There use to be a time when hospitals and other facilities had some depth to their rosters.

Full-time, Part-time, and PRN. Look around anymore. I see NO part-timers augmenting hospital staffing.

I really don't remember when I noticed the change. It seemed that there just weren't any part-time staff around to fill in the holes. Maybe the past 5 years...

Waaaaay above my pay grade but someone somewhere decided they weren't worth it to have around. We're hurting but I just don't see them hiring.

IdrilRN, BSN, RN · Aug 18, 2011

People want full time or almost full time jobs. In my area that is hard to come by. I work part time in the hospital and PerDiem at LTC. together that equals full time. I am scheduled for my Perdiem shifts ahead of time, and get called almost everyday to come in to cover a call out or just because there isn't enought people and I am the only Perdiem RN for the night shift in the nursing home.

Here at the hospital we have the regular full time staff, then the part time staff then the float pool, and then the perdiems. On my unit we use the perdiem staff to cover vactions and what not, but they are called off first for low census. One nurse was scheduled for two weeks of perdiem when someone was on vacation and she was called off every single day.

In the LTC I people evetually get disiplined for the frequent call outs, but there is something behind the frequent call out, job too stressful, etc...

Anna Flaxis, BSN, RN · Aug 18, 2011

My department is almost exclusively made up of part time and per diem staff. We have a few core full timers, but everyone else works part time and picks up extra shifts, or per diem.

Sehille4774 · Aug 18, 2011

Couple of places I worked had 'point' systems. At the last place, once you got to 100 points, you were fired. Period. It was actually pretty generous. If you had a Dr. Note then you didn't get points. Calling off on a weekend or holiday or after 2 hours before your shift resulted in 25 points, but each month of perfect attendance 5 points came off your total and the points only stayed on your total for 1 year..so in Aug 2011 any points from Aug 2010 came off. You also got 3 personal days per year that you can take any time for any reason..need 48hrs notice. Lateness was 5 points.

Amazingly people did get fired for attendance. Not nurses much.

Personally, havent seen much attendance problems with nurses. It's not a job like a cashier where if you don't show up the worse that happens is someone has to wait in longer lines at the check-out. Most know that.

Thomas RN · Aug 18, 2011

The company I work for has very strict policies and guidelines for frequent call in's and take a hard line when a nurse doesn't call or show up for work. If a nurse calls in sick at the last minute (sometimes an emergency takes place and it cannot be avoided) the nurse is given a verbal warning and an anecdotal note is placed into the nurses on site file. The second time during a one year period the nurse is given a formal written counseling notice, the third time a minimum of a thee day suspension and is terminated if there is another incident Every nurse is well aware of the company's policy that at lea a four hour notice must be given to their direct supervisor or his or her designee. That person is always available and must be called at home in the middle of the night if necessary. A nurse cannot leave a message or have someone call for them If a nurse doesn't show up for work, that nurse is given a formal, written counseling notice and an automatic three day suspension (no paid time off can be authorized) if during the following one year this happens again the nurse is terminated. The administrator has the authority to not terminate a nurse if it was some catastrophic event that resulted in him/her not showing up for work. (Perhaps the nurse had an accident on the way to work) We have several per-diem - on call nurses. Sometimes we are able to find coverage at the last minute and sometimes we cannot. If coverage cannot be arranged, the administrator (an RN), or the Director of Nursing must go in and cover the shift. In the setting where I am employed, it is unsafe for one RN to work alone in any area. The company makes certain that every nurse knows the policy and signs their name to a document stating they are aware of the policy and the consequences for violation of that policy

coolpeach · Aug 18, 2011

I have never understood the (call in 4 hours prior to start of shift). I work 12 hour shifts which end up being 13 with report. We always stay late so lets say an average of 14 hours. The hospital is an inner city hospital so most of us drive an hour both ways from the suburbs.

Example:(day shift) Official end of shift is 7pm, but you have to stay until 7:30 for bedside reporting. Then you usually stay until 8:30 at least charting. If you drive an hour home then you pull into your drive way at 9:30pm. You shower, eat and its at least 10:30pm. Lets say it takes an hour to wind down and fall asleep its now 11:30pm.

If the official start of shift is 6:45 am, then four hours prior would be 2:45am in the morning. This would mean that if all you did was shower, eat and go to sleep you would need to wake up after only 3 hours in order to make the call. Who can do that. If you wake up sick its going to be when you wake up at 4:30am, not at 2:45 am. Right.

Sehille4774 · Aug 18, 2011

Agreed CoolPeach! There are lots of similar examples. With me I go to bed feeling slightly crappy not much more then any other night after a tough day..can easily chalk it up to so many things..usually I think I didn't get enough sleep the night before..or I must be working too many hours ect. ect. Only to wake up in the AM an hour or so before my shift to realize that I am SICK!

I only get sick a few times a year, sometimes less....so I rarely expect it. And to make matter worse, I have year round allergies, so I am always sneezing, nasal cong. ect. Hard to tell the diff.

Try to tell them this exact thing but half the time I get the lecture about timely call offs anyway :)

Mandychelle79, ASN, RN · Aug 18, 2011

Well, the ones who call off a lot, have FMLA for some reason or another and it is intermittent FLMA, so they can take days as needed. Many times they just use a FMLA day, whether or not the reason they are calling off is actually covered by the FMLA. They are protected by it.

Isabelle49 · Aug 18, 2011

As much as I don't like hospital work, I have bought of doing prn work when taking early retirement. The problem I find is all shifts are 12 hours - I did those for 16 years, not doing them anymore. Also, prn is required to work every other weekend - I worked weekends for 10 years straight in a WoW program, not doing that anymore. So, maybe wallyworld or other will have me part time.

netglow, ASN, RN · Aug 18, 2011

There are a few facilities around me where most people are not quite full time. They don't get benefits, the company rarely offers full time. Sometimes part time is the only game around. But after a while once you realize how little you get as far as feeling a part of an organization, you naturally become unavailable, for instance: Someone I know was hired part time as a NG, she was called in all the time on her off days and at first was eager because she thought that meant that people thought she was becoming a good nurse, and that she might be able to move into full time soon. Once she figured out that nobody had any real idea who she even was other than a number she started to get PO'd. It got to where she worked so many extra hours which of course gave her more income, but no benefits. She had wanted to take some classes too offered at the hospital but her manager said she was not eligible as a part timer to receive edu. She tried to interview at her facility for FT but her manager stopped her attempts to move as well. So, she became unavailable for call ins, and is looking elsewhere. We had bad storms this summer with very long term power outages that affected hospitals too. Her hospital suffered because nobody felt a need to go above and beyond for that employer, at all. They couldn't staff up during that time. Probably all management's fault.

nola1202 · Aug 18, 2011

People want full time or almost full time jobs. In my area that is hard to come by. I work part time in the hospital and PerDiem at LTC. together that equals full time. I am scheduled for my Perdiem shifts ahead of time, and get called almost everyday to come in to cover a call out or just because there isn't enought people and I am the only Perdiem RN for the night shift in the nursing home.
Here at the hospital we have the regular full time staff, then the part time staff then the float pool, and then the perdiems. On my unit we use the perdiem staff to cover vactions and what not, but they are called off first for low census. One nurse was scheduled for two weeks of perdiem when someone was on vacation and she was called off every single day.
In the LTC I people evetually get disiplined for the frequent call outs, but there is something behind the frequent call out, job too stressful, etc...

I'd forgotten about getting a call exactly 2 hours before my shift (and I'd already taken a nap so I could work nights) Thanks for the brain jolt. Geeezz, this business is tough.