getting pushed out

Nurses General Nursing

Published

I've been working at a small hospital for a year, as a fulltime RN on a 28 bed med-surg unit. Census has been down lately & I have been asked to take one day/week off- and, since I don't have seniority, I agreed. In the past month they have hired several part time RNs. What's making me feel "pushed out" is the fact that on my day off they are using these part time RNs who DON'T have seniority to work my shift & my unit. In addition, I have also been asked to take additional days off as needed- during those times they have used at least one of these part time nurses. My evaluation was great & I rec'd a raise. I have rec'd no feedback from my nurse manager as to why she's scheduling me this way, other than "census is low" and am now considering talking to the DON. Any advice?

Specializes in home health, dialysis, others.

Ask for clarification. Go to your direct manager first.

They might be trying to replace any peeps with benefits with PRN folks who don't work enough hours to qualify.

Gotta love health care.

I hope I'm wrong.

Specializes in ICU, M/S,Nurse Supervisor, CNS.

That sucks, especially in these economic times. Talk to your manager.

To stay employed, PRN staff have to work a certain number of hours a pay period.

This is usually never a problem, but recently we have also had low census for an extended period and per diem staff were canceled so much that they were not meeting the required hours.

The full time staff had to be canceled if the per diem nurses were going to miss an entire pay period without working. I don't think this is fair, but it is how it works.

I'm sorry this is happening to you. Your hours should be a higher priority.

Sit down w/your nurse manager & clarify as to what your facility's policy is. A similar situation was happening where I work, it was affecting morale, and causing divisiveness among staff. So we went to our DON as a group- where I work full time people get priority, those w/seniority first, then part time according to seniority. Per diems or employees w/out benefits are not required to work more than 1 shift/mo to stay employed. In our case the manager was new & inexperienced w/scheduling, so our DON called her into our meeting & we were able to clear the air. Things are much better now that full timers aren't "competing" w/part timers for their hours- & management did not want to lose their full time nurses. Good luck!!

Census is low and they hired part time staff??????

Maybe they don't want to pay out benefits....

otessa

I don't see the sense in hiring part time staff when census is low, except they don't want to pay benefits. If they would just tell people what the deal is, there would be a lot less ill will. Another example of management not taking anyone else's sensibilities about anything into account. Explaining actions to the affected people goes a long way to show that you respect the workers. A good way to get respect back from the workers.

That, unfortunately is the reason. This kind of thing is going to become very common.

I agree with the previous post about trying to save money. I would talk to your nurse manager as well and find out for sure also.

And then there is the possibility that the OP is, in fact, being pushed out. It has happened before and will happen again. When they start cutting your hours (especially when those hours are given to another), that is a strong hint in some cases. I know of a person who drove about 45 miles one way to their job. The new regime cut her hours more than once, until she came to the conclusion that it was time to resign. Desired action. New person worked full time.

Some facilities are experimenting with using a higher percentage of part time staff. I've heard it's changed dramatically at one of the facilities near me. No benefits what so ever. Unfortunately people will always take these positions, ending up needing to work at a few different facilities to make a living and buying their own insurance. What sucks is, you are expected to carry the entire deal as would a full time employee, off hours meetings... silly employee development sh*** too. Then there's always those who think a normal full time position will materialize for them if they work extra hard that these facilities know they can rely on.

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