i am so hopping mad:( ...and where does it all end?...got the word yesterday at work that our er nurses are going to have to start taking mandatory on call....l'm wondering if other facilities practice this too....the deal is supposed to be we get paid premium for the hours worked on call and so much an hour to be on call...still, i work full time, my off time is mine and mine alone to share if i want to....isn't this kind of the same thing as mandatory ot?.....they keep cutting our staff, they give us less rn's, and more pemt's...(and l love these guys, but they are so restricted in the er that the rn's have to help a lot w/ their assingment).....also, we have been attempting to get a sane program up and running...trained some staff, bought expensive equipment...but don't want to pass a budget to pay the nurses! ...we just get busier and busier, staff has shrunk, and responsibilities are ever increasing......and our nurses seem to just sit back ant take it time after time....they never say enough!...reminds me of the old children's nursery rhyme song.......there was an old lady who swallowed a fly, who swallowed the spider that swallowed the fly, who swallowed the bird who swallowed the spider..that wriggled and wriggled deep down inside her...i don't know why she swallowed that fly...i guess she'll die........l wish l could remember the rest of the lyrics...but you get the drift...they just keep shoving it down our throat......we just eat it....it's killing us and our profession.....and it's our faults......thanks for listening................lr:crying2:
BadBird I am with you. I am seriously looking into Agency and getting out of the hell hole where Iwork. On call would be the last straw. I'd quit on the spot, new job lined up or not. It is mandatory OT plain and simple. I couldn't agree more l.rae, when the hell are nurses going to stand up and scream I AM NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS CRAPPY TREATMENT ANYMORE!!!!!!!!!
By the way, Peter, Paul and Mommy 2 has a live version of that song.
Peter Paul and MOMMY?...l never heard of them......l'd like to get ahold of that......at a music store?......LR
Where I work,we have to sign up for 1 mandatory overtime shift every pay period(2 wk). If we get "busted"(have to work),we get incentive pay. I have signed up for only 3 8hr shifts a wk,so a shift q 2 wk is not a big deal for me. I have already taken early retirement from another hospital so I can afford to do this. If I need extra money,I just have to let someone know and I will get extra hr. I can go on vacations without using vacation time and have built up a good bank. I have time to babysit my grandson 1 morning a week. I am allowed to have family health insurance with working part time and that has saved us bundles. My only complaint is the policy here that if you take a weekend off sick,you have to make it up,even if you are off for a long time with a serious illness! One of my coworkers has a seriously ill husband and had to take several weeks off and I hear she is coming back weekends only so she won't have to work all the weekends for a year! Guess if I need to take any serious time off,I will just retire again! Seriously,agency is the way to go at least in the larger cities where there is more than 1 hospital. Good luck!
Hmm..sounds like I have it nice. We sign up voluntarily for on-call shifts in 4 hour increments. We're paid half our hourly wage just for being on-call, and if we're called in, we're paid double our hourly wage, plus our shift differentials. If you don't want to be on-call, you don't have to sign up, and those who want to do it can sign up for as many as they want, but can only sign up for 16 hours the first 2 weeks the schedule is posted to give everyone a chance to sign up (yes, some people "hog" the hours!!).
My theory, if the pay is made worthy, and nurses aren't forced into something, they're more willing to do it... heck, some nurses in my ER are fighting over the hours!
Peter, Paul and Mommy was an album by Peter, Paul and Mary back in the mid-60s.
There's always what one place I work at does, call you off then turn around and require that you be available, but not on call, for the next 8 hr (for a 12 hr shift) if you're the unlucky one being called off 1st. The 2nd one called off has to remain available for 4hrs. You're not on call, they'd have to pay for that, just available. (And trust me, written up if you refuse it.)
And they wonder why their nurses are considering a union.
...we just get busier and busier, staff has shrunk, and responsibilities are ever increasing......and our nurses seem to just sit back ant take it time after time....they never say enough!...reminds me of the old children's nursery rhyme song.......there was an old lady who swallowed a fly, who swallowed the spider that swallowed the fly, who swallowed the bird who swallowed the spider..that wriggled and wriggled deep down inside her...i don't know why she swallowed that fly...i guess she'll die........l wish l could remember the rest of the lyrics...but you get the drift...they just keep shoving it down our throat......we just eat it....it's killing us and our profession.....and it's our faults......thanks for listening................lr:crying2:
l.rae
772 Posts
Peter Paul and MOMMY?...l never heard of them......l'd like to get ahold of that......at a music store?......LR