How does your unit do prn schedules?

RNKPCE · Sep 25, 2008

I think it varies from hospital to hospital. I do my availability like you did at your old job and this works as my unit is always short and they can use many any shift. However if a unit is fairly well staffed but has a few holes they are going to want you to work those shifts with the holes. As I said we don't have enough PRN nurses to fill all the holes, so filling some holes is better than none.

If my unit did staffing like your current unit/hospital I would probably have to take a statused oer permanent position to have a better guarantee of hours.

There are times my manager might say can you work Monday instead of Tuesday of a certain week and if I don't have plans I don't mind changing but it rarely happens. I have to work 4 shifts every 4 weeks, 2 have to be weekend shifts.

alkaleidi · Sep 25, 2008

I used to work for a major regional medical center with huge staffing needs. I worked prn. My requirements were 24 hours per month. period. I'd tell them which 2 12 hour shifts, or which 3 8 hour shifts I wanted to work for the month and that's what I'd work. Now I work for a small community hospital and expected the same scenario. It's all I knew. My nurse mgr does the schedule and gives me (on an average month) 2 shifts to pick from. They usually don't work for me. Then, on my eval. I get comments that I'm not flexible with my schedule. Hmmm. How does it work with your hospital?

I work at 2 hospitals.

Hospital #1 is a large level 2 trauma center. ED scheduling is done online via boomerang (icsboomerang.com). An ED-wide email is sent out when the next schedule is available for full-time employees (FTE's) to fill in their desired hours (self-scheduling). All of the nurses "request" for the days they want to work. At the date of the schedule being "locked," any FTE that has not signed up is filled in by the assistant manager that does the schedule. The schedule is also modified if needed to spread the staff evenly (i.e. if 10 nurses sign up for a tuesday and only 2 sign up for monday, they change the schedule of some of the people to appropriately staff). After the FTE's are all filled in, that portion of the schedule is locked (all of the shifts that people are signed up for change from a "requested" shift to a "confirmed" shift) and a calendar is posted online of "available shifts/shift needs" for the schedule -- all PRNs and registry staff can then request to work whatever shifts are open. As people sign up for hours, the assistant manager confirms people, usually first come first serve. We fortunately have enough PRN & registry staff as well as regular FTE's that want overtime on occasion that holes are almost always covered. After that, the remainder of shifts are slowly posted for time & 1/2 or double time if they are having a hard time filling holes. It seems really confusing but it really works, and is nice to be able to pull up your schedule at home or go online if you have plans that are cancelled and sign up to work.

The other hospital I work at is smaller but still busy. The schedule is paper and written in -- they also do self-scheduling, and after people have signed up for hours, the schedule is copied and signed by the director of the ED as "master" -- from there, PRN & registry staff are able to sign up for hours. After they have signed up for what they want, the charge nurses start making calls, trying to cover holes. They don't seem to have a lot of registry/PRN staff that want to go above and beyond their requirements, and a lot of the PRN staff don't seem to want to work much at all. For the most part it works. The first come, first serve policy is a little irritating when you work midnights and get stuck with working every other day all week, if you are someone who prefers to work a few on then a few off. But, in terms of coverage, it's ok. Nurses are sometimes pulled from M/S or ICU to cover the ED (they usually function as techs that pass meds once in awhile). At the larger hospital, the ED is a closed unit that does not float elsewhere in the hospital, and does not receive staff from other units for help.

Long long post -- but hope that helps? Maybe suggest self-scheduling to your current nurse manager? Or have her notify you of all days available once the full-time schedule is done, and ask to choose days instead? Don't know... sounds like your manager might be kind of micro-managing OR giving the rest of the PRN/registry staff pick over the available hours before she calls you.

aloevera · Sep 25, 2008

we submit what days we are available to work 2 weeks ahead of the month....then the monthly schedule comes out and usually get most of the days wanted, not always as much as we'd like but then when there are call-outs we are first to be called in....I ask for 2 12 hr. shifts a week and generally get that....

SixFive · Sep 25, 2008

our prn nurses fill out an "Availability Calendar". Any days put on that calendar are pretty much on the schedule for them to work. We also call our prns regularly to help cover call-ins or general staffing shortages.