The hospital is super busy and I requested to work extra ONLY on my floor tonight if they needed me. I just contacted the charge nurse on my floor (ortho) and with all the discharges and no surgeries, there will only be 5-6 patients and there are 3 RNs working tonight. So, I contacted the House Supervisor to cancel my extra shift and let's just say she didn't take it too well, but she did cancel it. If I didn't cancel my shift, I would end up working tonight on my floor and two of the RNs scheduled to work tonight would float to the most undesirable, worst place in the whole hospital (its med/onc)- everyone hates floating there due to all the bad staffing, the attitudes of RNs that work there, and the way the charge RNs split the assignment (you either get the front, middle, or back of the unit... the charge RNs do not split the assignment to where the floats get patients they can feel comfortable handling).
I mean, I shouldn't feel guilty right? Its the facility's fault for not having adequate staffing due to the hiring freeze we're experiencing, right? I already worked an extra shift last week and in the middle of my 3-day off the house sup calls me in the middle of my sleep asking me if I can work extra and I am like "umm, uhh" and ended up signing on again for an extra shift because I feel bad if I say "no".
Sorry if my post is too long... Just sharing some feelings.
In fact you are giving them an opportunity to label you as unreliable. If they have to telephone many nurses on the list, next time, and are not able to find a replacement for your cancellation, they'd have to call registry. Expensive. That means you are screwing with their budget, and if I were your boss, I'd fire you. Your boss's goal is to stay within the budget in order to get a bonus and promotion. Sorry, but I'm telling you the truth :)
Are you an LVN or an RN? Are you a boss?
She may not have done the thing most beneficial for her supervisor or the facility, but she did the right thing for her co-workers. Kudos to her.
Nurses are people who want to help others. We feel bad when we can't. This leads us to never wanting to say no to extra shifts (God bless the inventor of caller ID) or any other request by our employers. If we could ALL get over this, our employers would instead be forced to hire adequate staffing in the first place, IMHO.
You did your co-worker something good…..but this will definitely not sit well with your boss and with management. I hope though that your co-workers are worth fighting for and that they’d also be considerate when you need them to be considerate of you!
It was an extra shift, and apparently you have been doing them regularly. I would not be too concerned if you gave adequate notice - at least as much as considered appropriate by your facility. Too many, and you will burn out.
Also, don't be too quick to be available all the time, and don't cancel if you can avoid it. It may be treated like any other instance when you don't work after you've been scheduled - check your facility's policy before you find out too late that they are holding it against you.
Nice of you to think about your coworkers, but not at the risk of your job.
I think it depends when she was asked to work extra. If you are asked before the schedule is posted because there are deficiencies in the schedule( or someone on LOA) then I would think you should work. Where I work there is no specific day you are extra , you are just over your hired work requirement for the pay period. It could also mean you could float if it is your turn.
However if you were asked Friday night to work Saturday night because your unit is short then I would think you could cancel. Also in this instance, you would never float, being called in on short notice.
In the future I would tell the unit only, that you are available if they need you for short notice. This would stop your unit calling in extra help and paying OT then floating to another unit who is short staffed.
I agree with the prior posters is why the nursing field is messed up that sort of thinking right there when ONE time a nurse doesn't come in for a extra shift where she wasn't needed is considered unreliable.
Unreliable to me is not calling in until 30 minutes before shift or a no call no show. I agree with poster that said employers dont give a fig about employees and some or most think all we are is a body to do a shift even if we had done our 40 or our hours scheduled. We are human and I refuse to do more work if I make a mistake being tired and hurt a patient or resident I know my employer wont cover for me. I hate that I feel this way but after 8 years in nursing I have learned to protect myself this way. OP shouldnt feel guilty .
Specializes in Give me a new assignment each time:).
How would she be labeled as unreliable because she asked the supervisor to cancel her extra shift? They are already overstaffed in the first place (which I really don't understand why she would be expected to come in since she told them she only wanted to work if needed, which she clearly isn't ).
Some really need the overtime but they don't get the opportunity. Others get overtime all the time, and with easier assignment too. Favoritism. There are more grey areas than you think. They may have had to replace with another staff member whose pay rate is higher than the one who cancelled, even if it's not registry. How do you think the cost of overtime labour will factor into the budgetting for that unit? Need for overtime staffing does not mean you want to spend on overtime cost for that unit. At our place when you sign up for extra shift you have to sign a form to that effect, and if you need to cancel, you are required to find your own replacement.
When I was new, I was admitting and discharging, just as the RNs. Except run IVs. I was very excited about doing stuff. I got all the overtime that I could handle while other RNs were getting their hours reduced. Soon I got a better idea about the situation, started feeling bad about the RNs who were losing their hours, (cos they had families to feed too), and I did less and less overtime. I was getting burned out too. But I'm still there cos chief of staff is my friend and I rent from him. If I get fired, he'll need a new nurse and a new tenant as well or I might get free rent for a while haha. Shh! Don't tell anyone I said that :)
Some really need the overtime but they don't get the opportunity. Others get overtime all the time, and with easier assignment too. Favoritism. There are more grey areas than you think. They may have had to replace with another staff member whose pay rate is higher than the one who cancelled, even if it's not registry. How do you think the cost of overtime labour will factor into the budgetting for that unit? Need for overtime staffing does not mean you want to spend on overtime cost for that unit. At our place when you sign up for extra shift you have to sign a form to that effect, and if you need to cancel, you are required to find your own replacement.
When I was new, I was admitting and discharging, just as the RNs. Except run IVs. I was very excited about doing stuff. I got all the overtime that I could handle while other RNs were getting their hours reduced. Soon I got a better idea about the situation, started feeling bad about the RNs who were losing their hours, (cos they had families to feed too), and I did less and less overtime. I was getting burned out too. But I'm still there cos chief of staff is my friend and I rent from him. If I get fired, he'll need a new nurse and a new tenant as well or I might get free rent for a while haha. Shh! Don't tell anyone I said that :)
I agree with the overtime comment you made Ayeloflo.. I work on call for the DOC in my state and their nurses there that are permanent staff get first dibs at extra shifts even if it means overtime pay for them and that costs the state more money than working me a shift . I get whatever is left and that is rotated between me and another intermittent on call nurse like myself. It is favoritism. I think its why my state is going broke and the permanent staff there are working their butts off trying to keep their jobs. I am needless to say looking for more work and it kind of reminds me of rats deserting a sinking ship... I am sorry but just :) Well you have to do what you have to do in life. Look out for yourself no one else will.
Specializes in Give me a new assignment each time:).
Are you an LVN or an RN? Are you a boss?
She may not have done the thing most beneficial for her supervisor or the facility, but she did the right thing for her co-workers. Kudos to her.
Just think about this: Nurse A is stuck in traffic, called in to say she was running 15mins late. Nurse B also called at the same time. She was 1hr late. Nurse A gets written up (set up for termination. how many strikes before it happens?). Nurse B does not get written up. Nurse A challenges CNO and refuses to sign the form cos it's not accurate. Do not sign it no matter how they intimidate you. They want to have a thing on everybody so they can terminate at will.
You can't judge my abilities by whether or not I'm LVN or RN. There is more to my work/life experiences than those titles. Even as far as bosses go, not all will be fair or unfair. We can go on and on and on. If you are employed At-Will, you could be let go for any reason. Fair on unfair. It's sad how we forget that part when we were applying for the job. It should say on the form. It's very common. Somebody lost her ICU position and another person (son of another boss) got the job in order to get ICU experience for CRNA school. If you have been in nursing for a while, then I'd say let's leave the subject at that cos you should be familiar with these things already.
You can't staff with OT....it's not right, and it's not fair. Facilities need to staff for safety....PERIOD!
HOWEVER,
As a nurse who works in a similar circumstance....I would rather you didn't sign up, than give the false impression that help is on the way....I for one would not appreciate you cancelling, and in my area I make my displeasure known to those who do it. Especially on days I am charge! There is nothing worse than planning on assignments to be told that someone cancelled their shift. In my opinion, too many cancellations would equal NO OT for you as my recommendation to the manager. It is equivalent to staffing regular shifts. You are either reliable or not.
In our hospital, signing up for an extra shift means that you are committing to working. Canceling is the same as calling in last minute, and is treated as a no call/no show. Supervisors and staffers aren't just thinking of units individually, they are looking at the entire beast. Your unit may not be short now, but if another unit is, staff is spread thin. If you get several admits or need a sitter, suddenly your unit *is* short, because you're only looking at the forest and not the trees.
I see from most of the posts that our hospital's policy would not be very popular with many of you. No one I work with seems bothered by it. I understand it, and when we're on the short end, I sure do appreciate it.
Ah, but to play devil's advocate, why is it your responsibility to staff for the hospital? If my unit is short, we have a staffing pool we can utilize. However, due to the type of care we deliver, we aren't always able to use them (they aren't able to run our specialized equipment). So, if we are short, sometimes we are short..it's at that point you should have management support (members of administration coming in to staff charge and allow a staff member to staff, for example)...ahh, if only it were so. That's how it SHOULD work but it doesn't.
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:) Well you have to do what you have to do in life. Look out for yourself no one else will..thumb.jpg.755b83f43c9f3860c778e2fcb2022ecb.jpg){kind=small}
Mulan
2,228 Posts
Are you an LVN or an RN? Are you a boss?
She may not have done the thing most beneficial for her supervisor or the facility, but she did the right thing for her co-workers. Kudos to her.