Low census input help

[litlamp]

Our facility has been faced with unusually low census the past few months. This has lead to staffing changes and many nurses getting "called off" or put "on call" for the shift. The problem with this is there is no policy or procedure to do this fairly, no rotation schedule in place. I inquired how they decided who to call off and I received different answers. For the most part they call off per diem first, then part timers, then they go by how many hours the full timers have.

That may sound ok but they only go by the two weeks viewable on the schedule and don't take into consideration that the previous two weeks you may have been called off 2-3 times and others 1-2 times, you can see the issue.

My question is, how do your facilities keep track of called off low census days, and how far back is the time examined? Do you use a calendar? Spreadsheet? Can you offer any ideas to better track these days visually and for a longer period of time?

I'd appreciate any input!!

[gastronurse]

I have the same problem at work here with low census, this pay period i only worked 15 hours cos I kept being cancelled, it sucks. do all hospital cancel staff if its low census, I worked in U.K and we never cancel staff wether per diem,part time or full time. if ur on schedule to work then your working no question about it. I asked the staffing the same question on how do they keep track on who to cancel and they too gave me different answers.

[Flare, ASN, BSN]

We had similar practices when i worked on a unit. per diem first, the p/t then full time. But i also recall there being a "list" of sorts that the full timers would use to sign up to be cancelled if there was one. They did keep track when the full timers and the p/t benes were cancelled but the per diem people were not cancelled rotationally beyond looking in the assignment book for the few days prior to see if thet person had just been cancelled within a few days.

[nursej22, MSN, RN]

We have quite a detailed process spelled out in our union(I know, dirty word) contract. Staff may request up to week ahead for voluntary low census( staffing as a message line) and these people are called off first. First in line for mandatory LC are per diems, next is whoever has the least number of LC hours in each department. Per contract if we are mandatoried greater than 48 hours in 6 months we have to get paid whether we are called off or not. This is a huge incentive to see that LC is spread out equitably. In 16 years, we have only come close once to paying people to stay home. management threatened layoffs, but then suddenly census picked up.!

Lately, we are chronically short-staffed and maxxed out census so call-offs haven't been an issue. Plus people are so sick of working they are clamoring for an extra day off when census drops.

[uscstu4lfe]

Low census is optional at our hospital (since we are union, we have a lot of perks). Low census at our hospital is a first come, first serve basis. You can ask to be the first one called off if you want. However, if no one is interested in not taking low census at all, well then they are just overstaffed.

It's really nice not being forced to take low census. We are always guaranteed 3 shift per week, no matter what.

[stressgal, RN]

Each unit tracks who has been called off low census and when. It rotates. For instance I am next in line to take a low census day, everyone else in my unit has taken a low census day since I last did. If a day comes that requires the hospital to call off a nurse, and no one else has requested the day (this includes all units, they may decide to float one of us out if they are short elsewhere) it is my turn and I must take it. I'll then drop to the bottom of the list. When census becomes low in the whole house and low census seems to be handed out alot they do offer us the opportunity to cross train, shadow or attend education to make up the hours. Perfect? No. But it seems to work ok.

[RNKPCE]

I work at a union hospital so is it spelled out. During low census staff can sign up for the day off. They are called one hour before start of shift. The staff member with the least amount of called off hours or % of hours(in last 90 days) gets the requested low census day off. If no one wants the day off. They cancel per diems first ( if there is more than one per diem off they cancel by lowest hours called off in last 90 days), followed by the regular staff(full or part time with the least amount of low census hours in the last 90 days. If two people both have the same number of LC % the person with the least seniority is cancelled. We have a chart that has the work status at the top and the number of hours from 15 minutes up to 12 hours on the side. So if a full time person is cancelled 8 hours that is 10% of his work status, if he is sent home 4 hours early that is 5% of work status. All of this is kept track by computer so the person above would have 15% hours cancelled if someone else had 10% total they would be cancelled before the one with 15%. A nurse who works 1/2 time one full 8 hour shift off would be 20%. The 90 day period is continuous so if some one last low census day was August 21 it would still be included until Nov 22. It seems complex but it is really easy. We float this same way too. Now if we have registry or travel nurses on we can't cancel regular full or part time staff per contract unless a staff member wants the day off.

[pugluvr310]

I work on a mother/baby unit so our census is always up and down. We have a book on the floor that keeps track of all the employees and the date and hours they were downstaffed, and there's also a sheet where people can sign up for voluntary downstaffing if they want that particular day off. When they do need to downstaff they start with whoever wants to be (whoever signed up), anyone who's picked up shifts (the time and a half-ers), then hourly/registery people, then for part and full time people they look at the dates the people were downstaffed, and then hours if everyone's dates are pretty equal. I think it's a really fair system. It does hurt a little if you're new since you have low hours, but they do start you out with 48 hours and it adds up quickly, and that works with seniority too, so I think it's fair and it's not too tough to keep track of. Hope you can figure something out! Good Luck!

:heartbeat