I'm so upset! (warning-long)

Nurses General Nursing

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Oh man, have I been there....and I was fired up too! :angryfire

I actively went out and found another job without call and quit. I also made it know that I would not take call there either or I would leave. THERE IS A NURSING SHORTAGE, you are right, but treat us with respect, or WE WILL LEAVE! I was working BAYLOR shift and was REQUIRED to take call 3 days a week!!!! (we only got paid $1.00/hr!). We went to administration, the whole nine yards. Now there is only 1 NURSE left in this unit and she is looking for a job as well, everyone else is agency, blew her budget all to heck! It's not worth it sweetie. Get out and get our fast. There ARE other jobs, you won't change the system. We tried for atleast one year before I left. Basically, Directors do what administration tells them too...we even went to the CEO! Oh well, they will just be left with nurses that come and go and won't give the care the patient's deserve. I'm happy now with the baylor job I have...not bothered by a soul during the week and that's the way I like it..Good luck!

I'm at my wits end with my job, and I just don't know what to do anymore! Just a brief overview....I work at a large university hospital on a med surg unit, with about 30 beds. I am so sick of this ****** on call system we have going. Basically every 6 week schedule we have to sign up for 2 on calls (1 week day night, and one weekend day or night). We are on call from 5p-8p, meaning we have to answer our phone between those times and be able to be at work in an hour. We are NOT paid for this time (5-8), which I think is ludicrous. But thats not even what the problem is here.....

Basically there has been a run of call outs from nurses over the past few months...and so far every single time Ive been on call I've been called in. This REALLY pisses me off, because these "on call" days are MY DAY OFF! I NEED MY DAYS OFF BEFORE I EXPLODE FROM STRESS!!!! This is MANDATORY OVERTIME, and I don't care for it! I don't care about the extra money, I just need my day off for my own sanity. I deserve it. I work over my time ALL the time giving report and what not, and its a miracle if I ever REALLY take a full lunch. So give me a freaking day off already....Anyway, I digress...

Basically, tonight, I was on call. They called me in. Nurses at night shift on my floor can have a max of 7 patients, charge does not have patients, and we usually have 2 (if we are lucky) clinical associates (or aides with a little more skills). Mind you its a Sunday night...very slow since its a surgery floor and usually the floor consists of surgery patients waiting to go home on Monday. So I go in, and every nurse has 5 patients, 1 nurse has 4, and we have 2 clinical associates! (And no, they did not give me, the ON CALL person the 4 patients!..sorry but I think I should be treated a little better, since I was the one who got called in...) SO basically, if I hadn't been there, every nurse would have had 6 patients....BELOW THE MAX WE ARE SUPPOSED TO HAVE! I've worked PLENTY of nights having 7 patients, PLENTY! And we NEVER called the on call in. I realize that it is the charge nurses descretion whether or not to call the on call in, and I tried not to be biased in my thinking....but I really saw NO reason why I was called in. We did not have any hard-to-handle patients on the floor, it was very slow, we had two clinical associates too! In fact, the whole time I was there we were sitting around, and they ordered out food.

Anyway, I guess what really burns me up about the situation is that Day shift had a call out as well, and all of the nurses were AT THEIR MAX of 5 patients during the day...they never called the on call nurse in....want to know why? It was one of our Nurse III who was on call (We have a clincal ladder, Nurse I-III, I'm a measley Nurse I, we have 3 NCIII). Whenever "they" are on call, the charge nurses run around like a chicken with their head cut off trying to figure out a way not to call them in....but when its someone like ME, they don't even hesitate.

I'm just so sick of being treated like this. The conclusion of this whole thing is, I mentioned the "problem" I saw to the charge nurse right before report at 7pm...she suggested I at least stay until 11 to see how everything goes....at 11pm she let me go, but believe me, I didn't go without hearing a lot of huffing and puffing from the rest of the nurses who had to pick up my patients. I guess they were pissed because they weren't going to be able to sit around and eat take out food and play. I just felt like screaming to them "I'M NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE!!! THIS IS NOT MY WEEKEND TO WORK! ITS YOOOOOUR WEEKEND!!!!"

I either want to make a change with this on call policy, like get together with my manager, see if we can make some guidelines for the charge nurses to follow as to when/when not to call the "on call" in....or if she doesn't like my concerns (which she probably won't, she is a real ***** sometimes), I'm going to quit....I can't stand this crap anymore!

Anybody else have similar on call systems...help me find a way to accept this! I really don't want to quit my job....not yet anyway.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Geriatric, Behavioral Health.

For your peace of mind, find another job, and shake the dust off your shoes as you leave that place. You deserve better. It's management's problem...not yours.

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Specializes in Emergency nursing, critical care nursing..

If they tried to do that "on call" crap where I work, they wouldn't have a SICU unit anymore! With the nursing shortage, I am surprised you would even consider doing this mandatory OT. I would be like, "sorry, not working here with this."

There are tons of better jobs than that!

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When I worked in the ER, we had to take one "on-call" nite per month. They usually posted a list and we got to sign up (there was a race to get the list first!). When we were short staffed because of a sick call, the charge nurse used to call the on-call nurse in. The entire staff was getting as burned as you are now. We had a meeting and policy changed. The charge nurses were told that the on-call was not to be used to cover sick calls. If you were the person calling in sick, you had to call the entire staff list to see if you could find coverage for yourself. You had to mark the time you called the person, their response, & if they were not home you had to try again. Only then, could you call in to the unit. This telephone list had to be turned into the nurse manager if you couldn't find coverage. We were paid a nominal, flat fee for being on-call, time-and-a-half if we were called in. Things got much better for the on-call nurse, and you were mostly called in for traumas or excessive volume, hardly ever for sick coverage. People need to be accountable for their actions!

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Management's ploy for us at my last facility was if 7 nurses were scheduled in my ICU, and only 5 were needed, the other 2 would need to be on call...even if they had been begged to go on the schedule extra, they were never just given the night off. They would even let us show up to be sent home on call...which was an aggravation. I always felt this was disrespectful to us, our families, and our private lives.

This practice led to many nurses just calling off if they saw census was down; and they wouldn't ever come in extra...afraid they would just be placed on call (or worse, floated to another unit...another sneaky trick disrespectful supervisors pull to staff the facility...after feigning a severe need in ICU they talk us into coming in only to be floated...GRRR. Some supes had a reputation; this was their M.O..

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Management's ploy for us at my last facility was if 7 nurses were scheduled in my ICU, and only 5 were needed, the other 2 would need to be on call...even if they had been begged to go on the schedule extra, they were never just given the night off. They would even let us show up to be sent home on call...which was an aggravation. I always felt this was disrespectful to us, our families, and our private lives.

This practice led to many nurses just calling off if they saw census was down; and they wouldn't ever come in extra...afraid they would just be placed on call (or worse, floated to another unit...another sneaky trick disrespectful supervisors pull to staff the facility...after feigning a severe need in ICU they talk us into coming in only to be floated...GRRR. Some supes had a reputation; this was their M.O..

I experienced that kind of crap too, at an HCA facility.

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That really stinks! Our unit is considering mandatory on call also. We will be paid $1.25/hour! I would rather have the time off, than this token pay. A cheap way for the hospital to get around paying a pool, or agency nurse- abuse the ol' loyal nurse. This is a 'day off' where you can't leave your house, bake a cake or plan a nice meal, babysit any kiddos, see a movie, go grocery shopping, or much anything else, because you have to be ready to leave at a moments notice. Held prisoner in your own home, for little or nothing.

We have got to get together as nurses to stop this. It is occurring more and more often at many hospitals, so soon there may not be anywhere you can go that won't have this ridiculous policy.

Whoa, whoa, whoa....$1.25/hr......I am a soon-to-be nursing student and reading these numbers scares me....That's below minimum wage, right??!!

Well what the hell is regular hourly pay?? Or do nurses get salary? Either way, you could wash cars for more. Am I naive or is this the harsh reality??

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Whoa, whoa, whoa....$1.25/hr......I am a soon-to-be nursing student and reading these numbers scares me....That's below minimum wage, right??!!

Well what the hell is regular hourly pay?? Or do nurses get salary? Either way, you could wash cars for more. Am I naive or is this the harsh reality??

I believe the poster is saying the get $1.25/hr, plus their regular salary, plus overtime if applicable. Even if not called in, the get $1.25/hr for their oncall shift as a bonus.

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The Labor law clearly states that you can be made to work forty hours a week and no more. Therefore, the times you are on call should be a week when you have worked less than 40 hrs. They CAN NOT MAKE YOU WORK OVER 40hrs A WEEK NO MATTER WHAT THEY SAY. This is mgmt. problem and they should fix it before they get into trouble.

Federal labor law doesn't state that unfortunately -- either clearly or obsequiously. Individual states can adopt labor laws that prevent mandatory overtime; however, if they don't, federal labor law only requires that they pay time and a half. You most certainly can be fired for refusing to work mandatory overtime in many, if not most, states -- and won't be able to collect unemployment either.

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Whoa, whoa, whoa....$1.25/hr......I am a soon-to-be nursing student and reading these numbers scares me....That's below minimum wage, right??!!

Well what the hell is regular hourly pay?? Or do nurses get salary? Either way, you could wash cars for more. Am I naive or is this the harsh reality??

At one time, I got no pay at all for being on call, then it went to about $1.25 an hour, this is for being on call, not for working. Say you sit at home for 4 hours, you get $1.25 an hour for those 4 hours, then you go in to work for 4 hours, and get your regular pay for that 4 hours. If on call for the whole 8 hours, you get $1.25 an hour for those 8 hours, it used to be nothing. This was in med-surg, and if the census wasn't high enough, they would put one on call instead of canceling. Someone probably complained to the labor board since on call pay went from zero to a lousy $1.25 an hour. HCA facility.

It may be different elsewhere.

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I just had to drop to part time so that I can handle the mandatory "on all" overtime. I work in an ER that sees 58,000 pt's per year and is a Level 1 trauma center. Full time nurses have been required to take 32 hours of "call" per month. I have yet to have a "call" shift where I wasn't told days before to just be here and have worked 100% of those call hours. we get $2/hour on call then overtime (over 40 hours) plus $1.50/hr. Part time requires 16 hours a month of call time. We have more per diem staff than full time and they are not required to cover call which essentially is used to staff the dept. All of our staff who does not need to be the family's benefit carrier has gone to per diem status to get out of our disastrous "call" situation. By the way, our ratio is anywhere from 4-7:1

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Specializes in pediatrics.
When I worked in the ER, we had to take one "on-call" nite per month. They usually posted a list and we got to sign up (there was a race to get the list first!). When we were short staffed because of a sick call, the charge nurse used to call the on-call nurse in. The entire staff was getting as burned as you are now. We had a meeting and policy changed. The charge nurses were told that the on-call was not to be used to cover sick calls. If you were the person calling in sick, you had to call the entire staff list to see if you could find coverage for yourself. You had to mark the time you called the person, their response, & if they were not home you had to try again. Only then, could you call in to the unit. This telephone list had to be turned into the nurse manager if you couldn't find coverage. We were paid a nominal, flat fee for being on-call, time-and-a-half if we were called in. Things got much better for the on-call nurse, and you were mostly called in for traumas or excessive volume, hardly ever for sick coverage. People need to be accountable for their actions!

You have to be kidding ! I'm sick and I have to call around to find someone to work for me. I think I would rather have the on-call

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