On call most of night...work next day???

[SandraCVRN]

Just asking opinions, policies, etc.....

I got called in last night 2330ish, bring back heart, had pt in room by 0010. Left about 0230 home by 0300. We have to be at work at 0615.

What would you do???

Just go in at regular time?

Look at schedule....it's feasable for you to come in late (an empty room and a late room)

Not come in ...period...no matter what the schedule looks like.

So I tell the night RN I will call in the AM "when I wake up" to see if they still need me to come in. I'm not one of those that can just fall asleep the minute I get home. I can not function on 2 hours sleep. IMO it's not smart for me or my patient to try to work without sleep. I refuse to drive or work when I cannot even think.

Anyway she tells them I said I wasn't coming in at all. I got up around 8 called in and was there about 0915. Then I start hearing these snarky remarks about the heart team having special privileges. What a bunch of doo doo...I would do the same thing if I was on regular call. We have a few martyrs that always work sick, come in even if they work late, etc. The regular OR call crew rarely works until the wee hours of the morning, but if they did I would not expect them to come in.

Sorry I'm sure I'm rambling....need a nap......

So what do the rest of you do???

Also, I have gone in in the past thinking I would be first to go home, but nope, work all day with others leaving before me...

[canesdukegirl, BSN, RN]

I take night call too. My rule of thumb is that if I work 4 hours or more when I get called in, I won't be setting my alarm to come in for my regular shift a few hours later.

Most of the time I get called in around 0130-0300. I simply stay on, work through lunch and go home after the lunch relief crew is finished up. As long as I am not working more than 16 hours in a row, I don't mind doing this. Fortunately I have a wonderful NM that will check on me frequently when she knows I got called in.

I think that it sucks that people were making snide remarks to you...that's just inappropriate. Heart team has to take a boat load of call! When you get called in and still work (even if you come in later), you should have first dibs on going home early.

[Argo]

I am opposite and can work on minimal sleep so I would go in. I also do lots ofheart call and have come in for plenty emergency cases at all hours of the night, for general call too. If I was too tired I would go in and ask to leave as soon as the first room is down or relief can be called in early. If they can't accommodate this I would not come in at all if I was exhausted. If I got crappy remarks I would tell them to take some of my 200 hours of call per pay period and shove their snotty remarks up their @.

[lockheart678]

Whenever I get called in late at night and get a chance to go back home before my shift starts, I'll let whoever is charge at the time know that I'm coming in late. It's in our policy that we don't have to come in when our normal shift starts if we're out really late. I have had it though where I got the call at around 1:30 am and didn't get to go home before my shift started. I told the charge nurse that I wanted to go home as soon as possible because I have a very hard time functioning without sleep, and as the day went on, I got worse and worse. I probably called another 3 times because I got to the point where I wasn't safe to practice. Finally, about an hour or two before my shift was over, my relief came. I understand that staffing does not always allow people to leave early, but when patient safety starts to factor in, they need to do something. That's just not right.