Sick of nights, wknds and holidays

renerian, BSN, RN · Dec 5, 2002

Nurse T I did home health for 11 years and that is why I left. I now am a sales rep for incontinence products and love it. When I left my job I was working 6 weeks in a row without a day off not even after being on call all night. Could not do it anymore. Now I have no nights, weekends, holidays or on call. Of course I make the same amount of money.

renerian

live4today, RN · Dec 5, 2002

As nurses, we simply MUST start loving ourselves better than anyone else we want to love us as much as we know we deserve to be loved...respected...appreciated...and the like.

If the job robs us of a good night's sleep, stresses us out to the point it starts to affect our health...physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.....it's past time to exit that job in search of one that we can control instead of allowing the job to control us! :kiss

Life is for "The Living".....how can we be really "living" if we are always "dead tired"??? :nurse:

hoolahan, ASN, RN · Dec 5, 2002

At my agency, if you were on-call the night before, you got to work x number of hours less the next day. This wasn't to be kind, simply to avoid paying you too much money in one paycheck....they are so tight, they sqeak!

Anyway, not sure if your agency does visits, or shifts for vented kids for ex, or hospice orr IV team, but I have always said, there is NO reason to have to do a SOC in the middle of the night or even after 5pm! All the agency needs to do is enforce a no admits rule, and watch, the hospitals WILL manage to get them d/c in the daylight hours!!! Esp if your agency is the only game in town.

If your agency keeps dumping on you like that you guys either need a union, or a diff job. Soon, they won't have a business when they have no nurses left to work it.

I don't even see why nurses have to work weekends in HH, and NO holidays. Sorry, but if the person is that ill, and has no family resources to look in on them on 12/24 and 12/25, they should stay in the hospital.

Believe it or not, there ARE agencies that are not opened on w/e or holidays, and don't abuse the beeper nurses by taking too many cases for their staff to handle during reg biz hrs.

Just think what would happen if a HH agency advertised No w/e's and no holidays or nights. Nurses would be beating down their doors to work there!!! Once one agency started it, others would lose their staff to the first agency, and they would do it too. Hospitals would be forced to comply with the hours of operations.

Now, realsitically, a hospice cannot run like this. People don't die conveniently on bankers hours. Neither can IV's sometimes, but you certainly do NOT have to be opening cases all hours of the night!!!!

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Dec 5, 2002

We do NOT schedule openings after 4PM. If a new enteral patient needs PM teach, RN goes out by 4-5PM to do consent paperwork and teach caregiver basics to get thru the night; OASIS is done in the AM next day---you do have 24 hrs to complete it! We admit ~800 pts a month in 5 county City/suburban area and have ONE RN on call in Eve---average go out 1-2 x per week with many weeks no visits. 4-5 RNS cover on call---sometimes they take a whole week but if a lot of eve visits for emergency catheter replacement due retenion, the will switch nights with each other. Motto id to have all staff off streets by 6PM. We DO NOT have IV infusion or Hospice---that is a different story. PM visits count toward weekly total so daytime visits would be cut.

Ive been there in 2 smaller outfits in similar scenerios to yours with IV teams BUT my visits would be reduced, knew what I was accepting to make $150/week on call plus $250/weekend oncall.

Get together with the other nurses, write up your concerns and try to give alternatives to group. If you all stand supportive, something has to give or feet will walk. I finally did that last position and they folded 6 months later, LOL. ONLY 4 persons on call leads to quick burnout if being abused.

Let us know what you decide.

renerian, BSN, RN · Dec 6, 2002

wowowowwo Karen 800 patients in one month HOLY SMOKES.........

renerian

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Dec 7, 2002

Very proud of my intake staff. We've been processing 1200+ referrals a month for three agencies; will be merging another homecare agency with three offices into ours in early spring---will process about 20 more referrals per day---adding about 600 more to that total.

renerian, BSN, RN · Dec 7, 2002

Karen how many people do you have in your intake department?

I am impressed.

renerian

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Dec 9, 2002

Currently, have 3 FT RN's, 1 retired RN who's per-diem (can't survive on pension), 2 clerks who data enter Intake info and 1 insurance verification specialist. One of the FT staff is also retiring Dec 31st. and position's been posted for a month with no takers as $5,000 less than field work (due to no paperwork). Since I'm still under probation, my position not yet filled so I also act as staff in afternoon's. Our ability to do any UR is minimal these days. We certainly manage to process a lot of work in one day and I've developed the statistics to prove need for more staff now. Any takers for open postion, PM me.

JNJ · Dec 12, 2002

I work pediatric home health, but as an independent nurse provider for Medi-Cal. I may be the first RN in SoCal to do this, although I think there are some LVNs running cases with an RN case manager. I have all the benefits of home care - great patients, with interesting, changing health care needs, technical care + teaching, get to set up my own cases. I also get to negotiate my own schedule and take care of me. The parents have a way to contact me out of hours, but in a year this has not been abused. I'm relatively stress free. I earn the Medi-Cal rate of $31.94 per hour with up to 42 hours per week plus some case management available at $35.77 if I want to work that much (mostly I don't.) I choose where I take clients, so don't drive further than I choose.

I think some of you are being abused by your agencies and it worries me. We all need to earn a living, but not at the expense of our health and sanity. Get together, get firm, read a book on assertiveness, ask for pay or better conditions or whatever it is you really want and stick with it until you get it. I doubt you'll get fired, but what if . . . there are so many good nursing jobs out there. You might want to check out independentrn.com. Needs membership to access the intelligent, supportive, forum, but it might be worth it. Good Luck JNJ

nurseT · Jan 2, 2003

JNJ: I finally did it. I told them I can't do it any more. My SUP said " you'll have to resign" I know it's a bluff, I am a really good nurse, they really need me. If they can do without me , that's OK too. I joined the NAIN. Real good info and ton's of support there. I gave my SUP till the end of the month. Then I'll do what she suggested, resign. I have been wanting to step out on my own, just didn't have the guts. Wish me luck.

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Jan 3, 2003

Best Of Luck to you too!