This morning, I woke up to a phone call from my supervisor. Apparently, she had been called overnight several times because I hadn't answered my phone. Somehow, I'd been so exhausted I'd slept through 7 calls.
Has anyone else experienced this? Tomorrow we are going to talk about whether or not I should stay on the on-call rotation. If so, may possibly look into me taking a day off the week after I'm on call.
I'm secretly hoping that I can be pulled from the on-call rotation altogether. After all, the LPN supervisor was just recently removed. And she can do a much better job than me when it comes to being on-call. She doesn't need as much sleep as I do. And although I'm an RN, she's a better nurse than me. In my opinion, they should base the on-call schedule on who can handle it well, not on who has which degree. I take a medication that makes it very hard to wake up spontaneously.
Anyway, what's your experience of sleeping through a phone call while on call?
After reading your posts over the past couple of years I can think of at least 6 reasons she's likely performing at a higher level than you and none of it has to do with needing less sleep. Honestly, and I've never said this to anyone, but I think nursing just isn't the right fit for you. Not because I think you're a terrible nurse or for that matter a terrible person. I just don't think it suits your temperament. I feel like you thought it was a good idea at one time and after graduation you got stuck and have no way out. I'm wondering if a session with a life-coach would be beneficial.
I agree a life coach would be beneficial and therapy as well. The downside of nursing is there are many difficult, unpleasant and even toxic jobs out there and this has worsened since covid, partly because so many nurses have decided to walk away due to the stress and short staffing and unsafe working conditions. Then if you are not a confident, assertive person you can just keep going thru the motions day after day staying at the same job, unhappy and disgruntled and management is probably piling on more work on you, mandatory OT, on call etc, but than may overlook signs of distress and burnout such as call outs, or they may not, and simply fire you.
The downside of this is prolonging your misery and increasing burnout and depression if you don't take the necessary action and find a better job! I can only compare nursing to my experience as a secretary where I worked over a half of dozen jobs in a variety of companies and industries some for a temp company. Almost all the jobs were pleasant overall, only one as a word processor was micromanaging and unpleasant and I quit that in six months. When I compare what I've heard about in nursing from others here and thru travelers and agency nurses it is usually the opposite, where the majority of the jobs tend toward the unpleasant or toxic and it is much more difficult to find a good job.
But I know they are out there. You just have to be willing to keep searching and looking and switch jobs till you get one that has good working conditions and meshes with your personality and skills. The alternative is changing job fields either thru further training, ideally via a community, non-profit, tech college or try to use your current skills to branch out in a different field. I know nurses who've gone into office management without additional education or real estate with minimal education, for instance.
"Speaking of sleeping through calls" Yikes been there done that one. I have never personally cared for any type of "on call .” I have been so tired sometimes and or just tried to stay up and soon as I close my eyes my pager would go off. I even had an interview I had to attend the next morning and I still went to the interview after being called in the am of the interview. Out of all parts of my job it's the most annoying . The Nursing supervisor called me and said we have been trying to reach you for an hour now. She/ he said that they had emergency or Peritoneal Dialysis machine alarm. It happens . We don't want it to happen. We just have to Hope doesn't happen a next time. Best
I will be taking intermittent FMLA mostly to get back into therapy and medication management. The main purpose of this is so that I can have a therapy session one hour every week without interruptions or taking PTO. I'm also trying to get my medications better established with my provider. Right now, I am trying to come up with something that can be reasonable to both me and my employer. They have mentioned the possibility of me being taken off-call, but I'm wondering if, from a professional standpoint, this is the right thing to do. I still feel that every other week on-call is too much. But I'm also thinking that one week a month would be the more reasonable option. Yeah, that week will always suck, but at least I would be trying to pull my weight as well. Trying to be fair to the other employees as well, I guess.
Specializes in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation.
Oh, I miss the on-call days and I miss the over staffing (dang you covid!). I actually have had slept through maybe 2-3 phone calls overnight but fortunately, voicemails were left saying that I was cancelled for the rest of the night. The OC hours at my previous hospital was that you could get called in any time between 7pm to 5am, but typically, if you didn't get a call from the house supervisor by 3am, you were safe basically to doze off the rest of the early morning. Depending on what number I was on the OC list for that night, I usually just stayed up till 3 before going to sleep and made sure my phone was on max volume. The huge bummer was being told that I was like the 5th person to be called in and in my mind I am like, "heck yes, I won't get called in," but only to be called in like 3 hours later because the ER filled up and a bunch of admissions came in.
Missing the phone call to come in (and you never picked up or called back until the next day) was considered a no-show.
I think anyone that takes a medication that changes their level of alertness cannot plan on working until it wears off. That would mean skipping meds for OP, and it sounds like call lasts a week at a time. Missing a week of nighttime meds might be destabilizing, so a med adjustment or a schedule adjustment might legitimately be needed.
OP you need to talk to your doctor, and come up with a plan. This is above our paygrade. And no, I've missed one call, but they kept calling, and I didn't miss call number two. Seven calls though?? If there was an emergency, how could anyone get you? If there was a house fire, could you get yourself out?
brandy1017, ASN, RN
2,910 Posts
I agree a life coach would be beneficial and therapy as well. The downside of nursing is there are many difficult, unpleasant and even toxic jobs out there and this has worsened since covid, partly because so many nurses have decided to walk away due to the stress and short staffing and unsafe working conditions. Then if you are not a confident, assertive person you can just keep going thru the motions day after day staying at the same job, unhappy and disgruntled and management is probably piling on more work on you, mandatory OT, on call etc, but than may overlook signs of distress and burnout such as call outs, or they may not, and simply fire you.
The downside of this is prolonging your misery and increasing burnout and depression if you don't take the necessary action and find a better job! I can only compare nursing to my experience as a secretary where I worked over a half of dozen jobs in a variety of companies and industries some for a temp company. Almost all the jobs were pleasant overall, only one as a word processor was micromanaging and unpleasant and I quit that in six months. When I compare what I've heard about in nursing from others here and thru travelers and agency nurses it is usually the opposite, where the majority of the jobs tend toward the unpleasant or toxic and it is much more difficult to find a good job.
But I know they are out there. You just have to be willing to keep searching and looking and switch jobs till you get one that has good working conditions and meshes with your personality and skills. The alternative is changing job fields either thru further training, ideally via a community, non-profit, tech college or try to use your current skills to branch out in a different field. I know nurses who've gone into office management without additional education or real estate with minimal education, for instance.