I can never plan my coming weeks

Nurses Relations

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I just need to rant...

Where I work, the schedule for the coming week don't come out till Friday.

So if I want to know my schedule for the coming week, either I find out when I go into work the end of the week (IF i'm scheduled to work at the end of the week), or I call in on Friday or Saturday and ask somebody at the nursing station to look up for me.

Today (a Friday) I kind of have to know my schedule so I can make schedule with a couple of people outside of work. I called in 3 times to find out my schedule during the non-med-passing times in the mid afternoon. Nobody but the receptionist could answer the phone and the receptionist apparently can't look up schedules for me. The third time I got someone at the nursing station. She told me I'm due back to work Sunday night. I asked what are the other days I was scheduled for. She told me she only looked up the first day and I should just look up the my schedule myself when I go back to work. So I still can't plan my week!!! My bro (he's been a doctor for a year now), told me to be more aggressive. Right... a newly hired nurse acting like a doctor... that's so going to go well for me. Ugh. I'm just going to have to call during night shift. Hopefully the people are nicer.

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Specializes in PCCN.

Ugh that stinks

But i guess it's because no care if you have a life or not.married to the job........

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Specializes in SICU, trauma, neuro.

Wow that stinks...like nec fasc or GI bleed stinks... It's not the norm either. Pretty much everywhere I've worked has had the 4-week schedule come out at LEAST 2 weeks before it begins. Where I work now, it's posted a full month in advance. I'd be hounding the scheduler like white on rice "Hey I'm trying to plan my life, can you tell me when I'm on?" And if s/he doesn't have their work done in a reasonable amount of time, I'd be planning anyway and then calling back with my unavailable days. That's just me though; I protect my personal life pretty aggressively. When I am scheduled to work, I am completely available for work. My home life is not going to be completely in the air just b/c the scheduler is lax in his/her responsibilities. And yes, if it's not done until mere days in advance, that is lax. Even when I worked in a rural LTC and our ADON did the schedule herself, she had it done a month in advance. That was just part of her responsibilities, she knew it, and she did it. This was the same ADON who would work extra CNA shifts herself if we were more than 1 CNA short on a floor, so being overworked isn't an excuse.

I agree w/ your brother that you need to be more assertive. Not with the overworked floor RN who happens to answer the phone when you call the floor, but with the person responsible for making the schedule.

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Aye, now I have my DON's number so I can text her for schedule, yay!

Another problem I also have with the place is that we get cancelled/called-off often. So I'd take a benadryl during the day to make myself sleep for 5 or 6 hrs before I go into work, then get a cancel call mid-late afternoon. I'd feel like I wasted all that time sleeping during the day and now I don't know what to do at night. ugh. >.>

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