Night shift nurse required to fill call-off vacancies and scheduling

[JBaker77]

I was orienting for my new night shift job recently, 7a - 7p, and learned that I am responsible to find coverage for the next shift (nurse or CNA) should someone call off. Usually call offs occur at 5:00 a.m. so that means I get to scramble and wake people up to find coverage while passing morning meds and completing my nurses notes and other duties. Oh, and we are also required to schedule/assign each nurse and CNAs to one of the 5 floors. At the other facilities I've worked at, there was a scheduler and it was their duty to find coverage. Is is a more common practice than I realize and am I wrong that it bothers me? I'm not comfortable waking people up at 5:00 a.m. to see if they can come in.

[caliotter3]

This happened at each LTC facility where I worked. Usually, we completed our med pass and necessary tasks before worrying about doing more than the minimum for this task. Anyone called always refused to come in anyway, if they answered the phone, so it was a waste of valuable time.

[JBaker77]

Thank you for responding. I accidentally posted the shift was 7a - 7 p. It was 7p - 7a which you probably figured out.

[osis]

I worked NOC shift from 11p -7a and yes its my responsibility to find cover if anyone calls off. And NO, its doesn't bother me to wake people up just to ask if they can come in. Usually they won't answer the phone anyway so I just leave a voice mail. But if they call during my med pass , I just tell the AM nurses that I was busy and wasn't able to call anyone í ½í¸ Even if Im not that busy lol

[Jedrnurse, BSN, RN]

That's ridiculous. It's a management duty. You should be taking care of patients, period.

[Aunt Slappy]

The crap people consent to put up with......

Why in the world would you stay five minutes at a job that had this requirement?

[RainMom]

We don't have schedulers at my small hospital either & never have to my knowledge. So, yes, when I charged nights, I was the one to call people to see if they would work. Sometimes the shift supervisor would make calls. If it was a dire situation, the manager would be called & came in early to help. It can be a little stressful thinking about calling & waking people up but truly wasn't that big a deal. They did the same to night shift when we were short.

[psu_213, BSN, RN]

We don't have schedulers at my small hospital either & never have to my knowledge. So, yes, when I charged nights, I was the one to call people to see if they would work. Sometimes the shift supervisor would make calls. If it was a dire situation, the manager would be called & came in early to help. It can be a little stressful thinking about calling & waking people up but truly wasn't that big a deal. They did the same to night shift when we were short.

Exactly. Everywhere I have worked, the charge nurse on a particular shift tries to cover a call off for the next shift. If charge couldn't get it covered, then the charge may go to the nursing supervisor to see if there is anyone who can be floated to the unit from another floor or if there is an unassigned float pool person. Many times that charge would have an assignment--100% of the time on night shift. Patient care always comes first; otherwise, this is a pretty common practice in my neck of the woods.