How does your hospital do "On-Call"

[HeartsOpenWide, RN]

How does your hospital do "On-Call"?

We have to be available for our entire shift and are paid $4 an hour. If we get called in they have to pay us a minimum of 2hrs and if we get put on call without notice (you show up for your shift and they put you on call) they have to pay you a minimum of four hours. They use to give time and a half if you got called in but they took that away. We have to be on call for at least 2hrs for it to "count" and get our names written in the on call list (we take turns being on call when it is slow). Its sucks for me because I live 45 mins from my work so if I get called off I can not really go home because I would have to drive so far to come back in, at $4 hr I would be losing money.

A friend of mine gets twice as much for on call and they get"call back pay" at double time and are only on call for 10 hours, after that they do not get paid and can not be called in.

[Blouis, APRN]

I work at 3 different hospitals PRN/float pool. The units staff the schedule and you simply get called off at least 2 hours prior to the start of the shift for PRN and staff nurses. If you are called within 2 hours or show up and not needed, you get 2 hours pay. Open dates on the schedule go housewide for other unit nurses or float pool to sign up. If you sign up and call out, it counts against you. I have heard of other hospitals making staff nurses sign up for mandatory overtime in case the unit is short staffed. If you are not needed, you are called off.

[nurse2033, MSN, RN]

We get the same as you.

[cbcle]

At my current job we get paid $7/hr for being home on call, then straight pay if you get called in. Where I used to work we got time and a half when you got called in.

[luvmyboys]

We also get $7 for on call time - we do get time and a half if we are called in - and we get a minimum of 4 hours time if we get called in (very rarely would we use less than four hours when called in anyway). The other day I got put on call at about 1730 for a 1900 shift start then got called at 1830 to report to work. I got time and a half for the whole shift! Yippee : )

[SlightlyMental_RN]

We get about 2.50/hr for being on call. Then if you're called in, regular employees get time and a half. PRN employees, like me, get straight pay. If you're called in, they have to keep you for 2 hours, I believe.

[pers]

We get $2.00 for being on call, if you are called in (or they forget to put you on call and send you home) you get a minimum of 2 hours pay at your normal rate. Several nurses on my unit live about an hour away and they generally refuse to take call unless it is at the beginning of their shift. They get away with that because there is generally someone else who would like to go home but if everyone was wanting to work then they'd be forced to take call if it's their turn.

[danegerous, BSN, RN]

Wow, all of you are super lucky, check THIS out...

They took away our "on-call" and substituted it with "voluntary off" or "VO". Let's say I'm scheduled to work Tuesday with four other nurses, five total, and the census only demands four nurses. If it's mine turn to be "VO'd", then they will call me, no later than 2 hours prior to my shift beginning, and tell me I'm "VO'd". This means that as of right now, I am not working. They VO in blocks of four hours. So, that means (for me, at least), that I am off from 1900-2300. However, I can be called in as late as 1930 if needed, otherwise the call would be to tell me that I'm needed at 2300.

The key is, there is NO compensation for being called off and then required to wait by the phone. They purposely instituted this new approach to get out of paying the nurses on-call pay.

The real killer is when you're VO'd until 2300, then they don't need you at 2300...but then you get that nasty little call at 2330 to come in. OR, even worse yet, is when you get the call at 0130 that you're needed at 0300!!! That's right!!! They can call you in 2/3 of the way through your night shift!

So, you guys need to be glad that you get paid to be waiting there, like an idiot, because we don't. And actually, I'm pretty sure it's not legal, but I need to further prove that.

[ChristopherB, BSN, RN]

If they have time the charge nurse calls the staff members working that night and asks if anyone wants to be on call. We also have a voulintary call list where we can put our names and dates we will take call. If there are no voulinteers or if there is no time to call everyone, it goes by who has had the longest time since they were on call. If you are put on call, they also record if its voulintary or non voulintary.

My hospital pays us 1 hour for every 8 hours we are on call. For example, if you were paid $25/hr when working, then you would get $3.125/hr per hour on call.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

we get $4 for being on call, and if we're called it's straight time. i want that time-and-a-half!

[linz07]

We get two dollars an hour to be on call. We get paid time and a half for a minimum of two hours if we are called in. So we could recover a case in 45 min and leave and we still get paid for two hours.

[linearthinker, DNP, RN]

We get $1 hour for being on call, and straight pay if called in. You are to be available the whole 12 hours and be at the hospital within 30 minutes. Personally, I just refuse call. I'm either on or off, you pick, but once I leave, I am not coming back.