What do other hospitals do regard to scheduling staff for weekends?

[Metalchild]

Hello,

At the floor I work at, a lot of people are unwilling to work weekends, me included. I normally work beginning of the weeks and had agreed to work up to half of the Sundays as needed. But due to many who absolutely do not want to work Sundays, I recently ended up working most of the Sundays, and the new schedule shows me being scheduled to work every Sunday. I feel very stuck. The assistant manager and the new scheduler both know I am reluctant to work weekends but don't mind doing it once in a while as my contribution as a staff member. I've already sacrificed a lot having to forfeit many Saturday night activities and now feel like I'm being taken advantage of. I've had other people work in other facilities telling me such scheduling is not fair and that weekends should be rotated. Is that the case in most facilities or am I complaining too much?

[ayejay09]

We self schedule. You have to pick 4 weekend days (out of 6 weeks) and have to do 1 on call on the weekend. Our weekends tend to be covered more because who doesn't want an extra $6 an hour?

[adnrnstudent, ASN, RN]

We work every other weeke4nd. Only the most senior nurses (2 of them) don't have to work weekends. Any staff "unwilling" to work their share of weekends should be shown the door.

[A.Robins]

My particular unit self rosters with a very small team, so some people tend to request weekends, or we all try to keep it fair. I tend to work 1-3 weekend shifts myself, depending on when my rugby games are.

The general ward are just about to self roster and their nurses have been told they HAVE to work two weekends out of four.

[Harveyslake]

Everywhere I've worked, hospitals, has had a robust, if not fully staffed, weekend program. Very popular and significantly decreases scheduling nightmares, short staffing due to call outs and whining about having to work weekends.

[LessValuableNinja]

In the hospital system I work in, most 24/7 units require every other weekend. There are some exceptions depending on how staffing is done (IE, all 12's, some 12's some 8's, all 8's), but most are 24/7 staffed with all 12's. Weekends include Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. So your schedule would go something like: Week 1: Monday/Wed/Thurs 7a-7p. Week 2: Thurs/Sat/Sun or Wed/Fri/Sat. Some people have fixed schedules negotiated during hiring or just after being on the same floor for 10 years or whatever. IE, I know someone who ALWAYS works Fri/Sat/Sun, gets full time pay and benefits, attends NP school M/W/Th, and another one who ALWAYS works one week Wed/Thurs, then the next week Tu/Wed/Sat/Sun. I work another place (Non-hospital, inpatient mental stuff) that is 8 hour shifts. Some people have set schedules, IE M-Thur, then Friday Off, work Sat, Sun off. Most people rotate. There is no set rule at that place for how weekends are split, but people who have been there a long time pretty much get the schedules they want since there are a lot of PRN people. Charge nurses work when they're scheduled, because most people can't charge (most staff are LVN there).

I do not live in a Union State.

[NotYourMamasRN]

My current company has Weekend Alternative employees. They make time and a half for working 2 days (Sat and Sun) every weekend, and they get full time employee benefits including health and tuition assistance.

[whisperingsage]

I already work weekends, I am a Pastor's wife and run the music, bake the cookies, tend everyone's needs, clean the building, we have three services on Sundays, 10 am, 11 am and 6 pm, some lingering long past (or before) actual service times. Sometimes there is counseling. Often there are potlucks, guess who has to make the main dishes? I have to assist my husband in many of his duties, I am support staff. I have had to quit nursing jobs because of rotating schedules (which also would ruin my ability to finish my RN [am currently LPN]) or rotating weekends. I have worked a lot of registries because of my right to refuse Sundays (and Thursdays on evenings), ironically one of my bosses in the registry was SDA and they are OCD about Sabbath (Saturdays). Also oddly, one of the places I had to quit I had worked through a that same registry for 11 months but the new scheduler decided to put me on the rotating schedule just like the permanent staff, ignoring my registry status. This was disturbing. I was already working 6 days a week for them, 12 hour days and sometimes, more. I was their most reliable "staff" at the time.

I will never get over the amount of abuse that rehabs and nursing homes heap upon their workers.

Interesting one mentioned LVN's can't be charge nurse,I can't count the number of times I have been charge nurse. Also my last rehab, i was the only LPN that had my IV cert recorded on my license with the board, others ostensibly were but "lost the paperwork" so I had to run around doing everyone's IV's, and yes many times on NOC's there was not any RN on duty in a 200 bed rehab.

[Swellz]

We work every third weekend and 3 Fridays out of 6. The only exception is a few of the nurses who won't do 12hr shifts, and they have to work every other weekend. Anyone who volunteers to work extra weekends is always accommodated, but we don't get any extra to work weekends.