How does your unit handle low census?

Nurses General Nursing

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I was just called and told not to come in this morning due to low census. Well, technically I'm now 'on call', meaning if the bus pulled up, I could get called in. So instead of working my usual 12-hour shift, I'll be making $2 an hour to stay tied to a half-hour radius of my facility just in case I'm actually needed. We are only required to take 4 hours of low census call when it's our turn, so I'll go in for the remaining 8 hours (and one of my co-workers will end up being sent home). But low census call is getting to be an everyday thing on my unit.

Our unit is experiencing a drought that has lasted since the end of last year. Since mid-December, I've had to stay home due to low census on average, once a week. We do have the option of taking vacation time to offset the hours lost to low census, so in the 10 months I've been there, I haven't taken a day off for actual vacation- I've had to use it to offset low census call because I can't afford to lose 4 or sometimes 8 hours of pay each week.

Because I work on a specialized unit, we don't have the option of floating out to the house (I work in OB/GYN). I love my job, and I think I'm good at it, but I'm seriously wondering if I should look for a hospital/unit that isn't so 'overstaffed'.

Anyone else here in the same bind? How does your agency/unit handle low census?

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.

We basically handle it the same way, we take turns, however, per diem is called off first. Or if there is a volunteer, which there ususally is, they get first called off first. The difference with us being med-surg we don't do on-call, we just stay home. The irritating thing is it is sometimes just for the first 8 and we come in the last 4 sometimes.

Fortunately I have enough PTO that I volunteer/beg to be called off. :)

Right now one of our medical units is closed and we are in our "season", which is winter in Florida, so it's rare. During the summer season the census might drop.

Most often when our census is low we float somewhere else and being called off is a rare treat.

Good luck. Anyway you can work another unit, like med-surg on those weeks you've been called off to make up the time?

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Specializes in CCU,ICU,ER retired.

My unit is a part of ER, it is a medical decision unit MDU/chest Pain observation unit CPOU. When we have no patients we go to the ER.

But the other floors handle it the same way yours does

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I thought maybe it was the same on other units. I mean our system is as fair as possible, it just stinks that we've been a little too-well staffed lately.

We are supposed to be a closed unit, meaning we staff the unit with only LD/PP/GYN staff. Back when things used to get busy, supervisors used to float in staff from the house instead of us allowing us to call in LD/PP/GYN staff for extra overtime. There were problems with house staff not being comfortable working on our unit, and we had our own staff willing to come in for extra. So it was decided that we were to be a closed unit, and since we would not take float staff in, we would not be allowed to float our own staff out.

Perhaps the closed unit thing needs to be revisited. I envy that you have so much vacation time, Tweety! As an RN of just over a year, I have only a little vacation time in my bank- and a boatload of loans to repay! :uhoh3:

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

This is an ongoing problem, especially in OB. It's either "feast or famine". So yes, low census call-offs rear their ugly heads now and again. But there is always time to make up for them, if we are flexible.

Thankfully, they don't dump on PRN by low censusing us first all the time. WE ALL TAKE TURNS. Which is great, cause as a PRN'er in return, I bend over backward to help during crisis time. If they screwed me over first everytime, I doubt I would be PRN there much longer.

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

Being "closed" does not help you as you won't be floated out, but called off. But I have found over TIME, if you are flexible, you can actually get AHEAD. You have to look at the BIG picture here.

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Our hospital does much like Tweetys. Agency and PRN get cancelled first, then if someone requests it they get off 2nd and sometimes people will volunteer for it, then it goes to the books and it goes to the next persons turn, but it always comes around to you. We get 4-8 or 12's off whatever they need to cancel for. If the next person on the book takes a mandatory low census then someone extra on another unit fills their place or they bump everyone up to accomodate.

Isn't it interesting that there is a nursing shortage but yet we get low census days? A day without pay or using a vacation day is a lot of incentive to work there isn't it? I wonder if this is a trend across the country.

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We usually brace ourselves for another psych admission, hoping we won't get someone too nasty and/or violent. :p There is a minimum of staff that must always be maintained, and we don't go below that.

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I've heard that (in Texas) nurses working in hospitals are held under a different standard of Wage and Hour Law Rules. Can anyone out there please explain this to me? We also go home, mandatorily on call and have to use our personal leave (vacation time) to make up for the shortened check at the hospital where I work. Does this have to do with being "on the clock"? I cannot discuss this with HR, or they perceive I am a "trouble maker" by questioning their rules. No I'm not totally paranoid....I have experienced defensiveness, without reason:confused: on their part in the past.

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