Put On Call yesterday then found out.....

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Specializes in Med-Surg.

....that they floated another nurse from another floor to my floor!!!:angryfire

I went to the hospital about 7:30 this morning to get my daughters blood drawn for her thyroid. I had to go up to the floor and write in our Kronos book to make sure I got my on call pay. Something told me to look at the assignment sheet. So I went over and looked. I knew we had a lot of nurses on for New Years day and the census was at 16 when I left Monday night with 2 coming from ER. I asked the person who was doing staffing, when she came up to deliver the night staffing sheet, if she was going to have to call off people the next day, as I did not want called off. She said no, she had all the people she needed, all units fully staffed.

When I looked at the sheet today, I saw that they had called off 2 of our unit RN's and put me on call (I am an LVN) AND they floated an RN from another floor to OUR floor. THis was a scheduled day for me, not extra, and they put me on call only to float another nurse in!!! I was so mad because now I lost a day of work, plus holiday overtime that I would have gotten as well. Sure I get 12 hours of call pay ($7.00 an hour) plus 8 hours of holiday pay at my regular rate.

I called my manager today and she was mad too.

Would you be mad if this happened to you? I'm so mad. I am the only parent working in my home and my hubby and I have 3 kids and I was looking forward to that extra $$$ on my check!

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Yup and then I would be filing a grievance with my union, which I would win and recieve the pay.

Unions do have their benefits.

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I'd be making some noise about that! (Although I do have to add, $7/hour for call pay is great- we get just over $7 per shift for call).

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I'd be making some noise about that! (Although I do have to add, $7/hour for call pay is great- we get just over $7 per shift for call).

That is insulting. Is that all you are worth to them? Do you have to be on call. Can you refuse to do it if they call you off?

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Specializes in Onco, palliative care, PCU, HH, hospice.

That's ridiculous they did that! I bet the person that had to float was pretty angry as well, I know I would be if I floated to another unit only to realize they had a nurse on call. I'd be making some noise over that so that it doesn't happen again.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho.

Sometimes its about the staffing mix. Could it have been that they werent sure they didnt need an RN say with 2 more admits so rather than keeping a LPN for 8 hours when they really needed an RN, they had the RN work as a LPN and then if they needed the help for an admit or discharge or surgical they would have it there already? Just wondering because sometimes different circumstances call for different staffing mixes.

Like today we kept 3 RN's and we did TPC instead of keeping 2 RN's and 1 LPN. Both our LPN's floated to another unit. Sometimes types of medications needing administered is weighted into the staffing mix. Dont be to upset, just inquire and hopefully someone can explain it to make some kind of sense.

Oh and 7 bucks an hour for call sounds pretty good. We dont get near that.

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I'd probably be a bit huffy too... but I would ask and see what happened first.

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Are you classified as a regular full-time employee? If not, then you risk getting called off. In most hospitals I've worked full-time staff can refuse to be called off if there are part-time or flex staff working anywhere in house; if their own floor doesn't need them, then they are floated and the flex/part-time staff on the other floor is called off.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.
Sometimes its about the staffing mix. Could it have been that they werent sure they didnt need an RN say with 2 more admits so rather than keeping a LPN for 8 hours when they really needed an RN, they had the RN work as a LPN and then if they needed the help for an admit or discharge or surgical they would have it there already? Just wondering because sometimes different circumstances call for different staffing mixes.

Like today we kept 3 RN's and we did TPC instead of keeping 2 RN's and 1 LPN. Both our LPN's floated to another unit. Sometimes types of medications needing administered is weighted into the staffing mix. Dont be to upset, just inquire and hopefully someone can explain it to make some kind of sense.

Oh and 7 bucks an hour for call sounds pretty good. We dont get near that.

I work Acute care, RN's andLVN's take 5 patients each. Every nurse on the floor takes up to 5 patients, primary care. The RN covers my IV piggy backs and pushes, but that's it. I do all the rest of the care/meds by myself.

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Specializes in Intensive Care and Cardiology.

On a positive note, at least you had the opportunity to lend emotional support to your daughter as she got her blood drawn. I'm sure she loved having Mommy there instead of someone else.

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Specializes in Acute Care Cardiac, Education, Prof Practice.

Yeah I would have been mad too.

The last place I worked the shift was 11p-7a and we got about $2.oo an hour on call and this could happen up to twice a week during low census.

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Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.

The hospital where I used to work, we only got 1 dollar per hour to be on call, and we were pretty much expected to sit by the phone.

The hospital that I work now, we don't even have an "on call"; if the census is low someone's shift just gets cancelled, and they have to use PTO time to make it up. Sometimes nurses ask for "low census" if they just want that night off for whatever reason. The whole thing is a little frustrating, because if that nurse gets called off and things get busy, then that nurse is no longer available. Plus, it's frustrating to not be compensated at all for being called off.

It doesn't happen very often at all though; mostly around major holidays when the docs aren't wanting to admit patients. Plus, I do believe that if a nurse gets called, she can refuse to be called off and then the sup just has to call someone else.

I personally would have been glad to have the night off for 7 bucks an hour, plus 8-12 hours of regular pay? Was that pay for being on call during the holiday, or what that PTO time the OP had to use?

Either way, I guess I can understand the OP's frustration, because either way she did lose a good chunk of pay.

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