Missed a call for an on-call shift

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Specializes in NICU, Post-partum.

It's been awhile since I have posted.

I have always prided myself in being professional and I make myself available to work as much as possible.

I work the night shift and I am one of those people that can go to bed that night after sleeping all day.

I was on call tonight...and they made a really big deal before I left the previous night to fully expect to work tonight at 6:00 because they were on high census.

I slept all day, washed my uniforms, got up, took a shower, fully expecting to work.

It came 6:00 ....no phone call...so I called them, and they decided to "work with the staff that they had" which meant that a couple of nurses probably got higher assignments than normal.

I was disappointed because I needed the money.

So at 10:30...I went to bed.

At 11:00...they called.

Guess what? I have a Blackberry and I got up around 3:00 a.m. and checked my phone for e-mails and discovered that I had 3 missed calls...I ALWAYS hear my phone ring.

So I tried to call from my house phone and discovered that my ringtones were not working.

I called work immediately, offered to come in right then, they ended up calling someone else in for me....and I know darn good and well that several of my coworkers probably got woke up in the middle of the night trying to get someone to cover for me.

I cannot tell you how embarrassed I was....what makes it worse is that this is the SECOND time I have missed a call from work because my Blackberry ringtones suddenly stopped working and required the phone to be rebooted in order to get them to work.

The only reason my work doesn't have my house phone number is that the clericals that work the day shift think NOTHING of calling night shift people at 11:00 am., 1:00 pm...whatever...for non-emergent reasons..even if you are already scheduled that night...calls that can easily wait another 3 to 4 hours.

It's hard enough to sleep during the day...so when I get woke up, I'm up. I can't get back to sleep and have to work that night severely sleep deprived which isn't safe.

I called and offered to come in on the day shift if they needed help...charge nurse wasn't exactly nice about it.

Now I can't get back to sleep because there is nothing that I hate worse than looking like an idiot at work and now I'm worried about getting in trouble on Monday with my manager...which I fully expect to happen because they see this no different than a no-call, no show.

Those of you that have experience on the night shift much longer than me....how does your hospital handle these? Is some sympathy given? Or do they not care that sometimes technology fails.

I would love to go to my cell phone company tomorrow and get a different phone, but I am 8 months from a contract ending and it would cost me over $200 to make the change.

Any advice and encouragement would be greatly appreciated.

0 Votes
Specializes in home health, dialysis, others.

Are you supposed to be on-call all night? Is there a cutoff time? I find it hard to believe that they did not know they would need you untill 11 pm. You were good enough to call earlier, and they indicated that they would not need you. I think you should be off the hook unless it is stipulated that you should be available all night.

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Specializes in NICU, Post-partum.

Yes, they require us to be on-call all night.

I work as a NICU nurse and of course, we never know when babies are going to be admitted.

All I heard before I left is how they had 11 nurses on the schedule, but had worked the night before with 14 so to FULLY expect to come in at 6:00.

I was very surprised when I called and they said they didn't need me...but they still expect you to sleep by the phone to be called.

Oh yeah, for the sum of $26.00.

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I think it was not your fault, because you had called your co-workers earlier.

In Taiwan's MICU in medical center, however, no one really knows what will happen in next minute, so I always come to my work place whether they call me or not unless I am off that day.

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Specializes in NICU, Post-partum.

I mean, this is not something I can tell my manager, but this is really what happens when you try to thin the staff as much as possible, HOPING you won't get an admission to prevent from paying a staff member OT and one admission will cause you to call someone in.

I had an assignment about 3 weeks ago of 4 infants...on paper, it looked like there wasn't much to taking care of them, but all 4 of them had belly or cardiac issues that needed to be watched closely, tons of meds, frequently alarming, and I felt like I didn't do any of those babies justice because I was struggling just to keep up all night and lived with the fear that if something subtle had changed, I probably would have missed it.

0 Votes
It's been awhile since I have posted.

I have always prided myself in being professional and I make myself available to work as much as possible.

I work the night shift and I am one of those people that can go to bed that night after sleeping all day.

I was on call tonight...and they made a really big deal before I left the previous night to fully expect to work tonight at 6:00 because they were on high census.

I slept all day, washed my uniforms, got up, took a shower, fully expecting to work.

It came 6:00 ....no phone call...so I called them, and they decided to "work with the staff that they had" which meant that a couple of nurses probably got higher assignments than normal.

I was disappointed because I needed the money.

So at 10:30...I went to bed.

At 11:00...they called.

Guess what? I have a Blackberry and I got up around 3:00 a.m. and checked my phone for e-mails and discovered that I had 3 missed calls...I ALWAYS hear my phone ring.

So I tried to call from my house phone and discovered that my ringtones were not working.

I called work immediately, offered to come in right then, they ended up calling someone else in for me....and I know darn good and well that several of my coworkers probably got woke up in the middle of the night trying to get someone to cover for me.

I cannot tell you how embarrassed I was....what makes it worse is that this is the SECOND time I have missed a call from work because my Blackberry ringtones suddenly stopped working and required the phone to be rebooted in order to get them to work.

The only reason my work doesn't have my house phone number is that the clericals that work the day shift think NOTHING of calling night shift people at 11:00 am., 1:00 pm...whatever...for non-emergent reasons..even if you are already scheduled that night...calls that can easily wait another 3 to 4 hours.

It's hard enough to sleep during the day...so when I get woke up, I'm up. I can't get back to sleep and have to work that night severely sleep deprived which isn't safe.

I called and offered to come in on the day shift if they needed help...charge nurse wasn't exactly nice about it.

Now I can't get back to sleep because there is nothing that I hate worse than looking like an idiot at work and now I'm worried about getting in trouble on Monday with my manager...which I fully expect to happen because they see this no different than a no-call, no show.

Those of you that have experience on the night shift much longer than me....how does your hospital handle these? Is some sympathy given? Or do they not care that sometimes technology fails.

I would love to go to my cell phone company tomorrow and get a different phone, but I am 8 months from a contract ending and it would cost me over $200 to make the change.

Any advice and encouragement would be greatly appreciated.

It sounds to me like you really don't want to be bothered after a certain time, but hate to admit it. You say your phone acted up before, and yet you let it go on. Then you say you haven't given the clerics your home number because they call at funny times. You are going to have to break down and give away that home phone number, or else you will be explaining away in the future about why your blackberry keeps conking out. I think that is part of being a nurse, being on call 24 hours a day with or without sleep.

0 Votes
Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

It is not part of nursing to be on call 24/7!!

I too had a blackberry that had issues. I did end up paying the $200 though I was quite whiny about it. lol

0 Votes

Shake it off. It was an honest mistake, no one died over it, and they're not going to fire you over it. Fess up, apologize, and life will go on.

However, I would suggest you get a different phone, maybe a cheap prepaid one, for work calls only. That way there will be no issues with miscommunication. Oh, yeah, and one of these days call the clericals with a stupid question at two a.m. and say something obnoxious like "what? you been sleeping all night?" or my favorite "did I wake you up?"

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Oh, and find out who worked for you. Then go to her and offer to work some shift she really wants off. After that she'll be your BFF.

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If you are oncall, you are oncall. Give them your home number and when you aren't oncall, unplug or turn off the ringer before you go to sleep.

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Specializes in NICU, Post-partum.

I really like this suggestion...and that is exactly what I'll do!

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Specializes in NICU, Post-partum.
It is not part of nursing to be on call 24/7!!

I too had a blackberry that had issues. I did end up paying the $200 though I was quite whiny about it. lol

I'm going to call my cell phone carrier and see if they'll do something for me...I have been a customer of theirs for 6 years and have never asked them to cut me a favor for anything.

We'll see.

I agree that I don't want to keep using technical difficulties as a reason for not being able to be reached.

However, the only people that have my home phone is just a couple of very close friends and my family.

I have elderly parents so they need to have a number where I can be reached at 24/7 in case of an emergency...that is the reason for my home phone.

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