Losing hours and money

[MegaPedsNurse]

Hello all!

Just looking for some advice/input on an issue that is going on in my unit. I work at a children's hospital in a preop/pacu unit. We are a closed unit and therefore we do not float nurses to the floor or have floor nurses work in our unit. We have been unusually slow recently with a decrease in surgical cases. We recently had a hospital wide meeting in which it was discussed that we need to be more financially aware. after this meeting my manager sent an email stating that in order to be more financially responsible as a unit that if there is a low patient census and you are asked to leave early that it is expected you leave. We were also told that if there are days that week that are busier than others that you will be moved to busier days. Can managers really force us to leave early (making us short on hours and having to use our PTO to make ends meet) and to switch our schedules the week of? Anyone experience anything similar?

[caliotter3]

I work in extended care home health. When the client does not need me and tells me to go home, I go home. The only say I have in the matter is that I am required to inform the agency in real time. If there is "low census", i.e. the patient is admitted to the hospital, I am out of work, unless the agency has me fill in on another case or assigns me permanently to another case. That is why nurses in this area of nursing that need to be gainfully employed learn early on to sign on with more than one agency.

If you can not live with current conditions, then you have to decide if you need to find another position that has more stability of hours.

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

I've been the victim of involuntary low census. I'm to the point of having zero time saved, so I have to take it with no pay. We do have the option of defaulting to no pay as well if we are trying to conserve time for vacations. But yes, it happens periodically. Not so sure about the changing in scheduling, but that is probably covered somewhere in staffing policies.

[Nurse Beth, MSN]

Yes, it is up to the employer, and there is no law prohibiting this.

I'm always surprised that nurses as a whole are so accepting of this policy.

I understand finances, but do teachers and firemen get sent home on a regular basis?

Yes, often nurses jump at the chance and volunteer to take an unscheduled day off... but it doesn't take long to completely run out of benefit time (speaking from experience lol)

and then you start to worry.

Does anyone work where this situation is negotiated by union contract or otherwise? Just curious.

[MegaPedsNurse]

Thanks for the responses so far. It's just frustrating when there are many nurses that I work with that want to be part time but management won't let them. Plus they are hiring another full time nurse for the unit when we obviously have plenty of staff. I love what I do but I might have to look for a supplemental position to cover my lost hours.

[caliotter3]

I have also found that when it comes to "making up" hours, providing overtime, or seeking to fill an unfilled need, that the employer will use their own 'criteria' to determine who gets the hours and who does not (otherwise known as 'favoritism'), in spite of seniority or union requirements. At a union shop, the manager confided in me that they told the union one thing but did what they wanted to do anyway and the union was never the wiser.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

Yes, that's pretty common in health care. Usually, they take volunteers first, and it could be that they have so many volunteers they won't force anyone to take time off or switch days. Find out what your employee handbook says about such a practic (if anything) and then work with your peers and management to establish a fair criteria for who gets sent home first. Will it be by seniority? Do you get "points" for volunteering to switch shifts, float to another unit or take time off? Then the person with the most points gets the choice of going home or not first, the person with the second most points second, etc.

Are you interested in another unit of the hospital and might there be the opportunity to cross train? Is there some unit that is habitually very busy where you could work some extra hours? That usually works out better financially because you may (according to your facility's policy) get overtime for the hours worked on another unit. Because it comes out of their budget and not yours, your manager may be good with this.

Good luck with this. I hope it's just a passing thing.

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

IMO, the OP is working in a department that is led by an incompetent manager. One responsibility of management is to balance staffing needs based upon patient census. This is not rocket science. Competent managers know how to Develop a FT/PT/PRN mix that meets patient needs and ensures minimal disruption of staff hours. The fact that a manager is allowed to hire excess staff is a signal that the entire organization is off the rails and does not have any sort of process for effective position control.

My advice to OP - seek a new job elsewhere because I don't believe that this situation is going to change unless you get a new (competent) manager. If you don't want to resign, get a PRN position in another organization to supplement your income.