LTC weekend on call

[organicnurse24]

I am an rn/bsn with 3 years of experience. For the past 2 years I have been working in a SNF on their short term floor. I've been offered a unit manager Monday through Friday position, which im thrilled about, but I'll have to take call every 6th weekend. I know that's not very often, but I'm nervous about being the go-to nurse for every issue, and potentially having to work floors I'm not familiar with. What is your experience on taking call?

[sallyrnrrt, ADN, RN]

basically as you described

[Guttercat, ASN, RN]

Lots of call experience here.

Basically if you are on-call, expect to work. A lot. Yes, you will have to cover for staff that call out.

One weekend of call every six weeks is small beans if you otherwise enjoy the position. Just make sure that the call requirements are hard-and fast.

I once worked in an assistant DON position and I ended up being called in to cover sick-calls every weekend. Even for CNA's. I don't recommend it.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

You will be on call every sixth weekend. That's only once every six weeks, which means you'll presumably have five other nurses with whom you'll be rotating your on-call duties. Many unit managers would be walking on sunshine if they only had to take call duties once every six weeks.

To avoid having to work on weekends when you are on call, you will basically need to beef up the staffing at the SNF on those weekends. Therefore, if a couple of people call out, you'll still be covered.

Also, as the unit manager, you will be the go-to person for every issue, important or petty. I do my best to get the floor nurses and aides to think their way through the question before asking, because they often had the answer or could have deduced their way to the answer.

[amoLucia]

Does your facility have an in-house weekend RN super? That should decrease the number of calls.

But do you have to go in for some of those "Manager-on-Duty" requirements? Like you're supposed to be in for 4 or so hours an Sat. and 4 hours on Sun? All the other departmental MODs could disappear into their offices and catch up on some back work but the nsg MOD was on the floors always running...

[CapeCodMermaid, RN]

I have on call nurses who very rarely get called. The staff usually calls me with any big issue. The on call nurse occasionally has to go in to fill a shift if they can't get anyone else to go in.