On-call nurses...how do you pay your bills?

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I have been tentatively offered an on-call position with a local hospice. As much as I would love to do this, I just don't know financially if I can..here is the basic offer..

2 days off during the week

Call from 5p-8p during the week (excluding the 2 days I would be off) then 5p on Fri through 8a on Monday. $2.00/hr for being on call. Paid another rate if an admission or visit is done during call hours plus 51 cents/mile. The "going out" rate I'm not sure on - yet. This is not a large company (less than 100 patients) so I don't think call outs would happen often...I can pick up visits/admissions any day I want to help supplement the hours/pay, several people want to take vacation, another nurse is resigning to locate out of state so I know there would be hours available.

My concern is I would literally end up having to work everyday in addition to the call to make enough to cover basic bills..don't live extravagantly so I'm not trying to keep up anything major - just food/utilities/mortgage.

Really don't see how nurses can afford this unless they have supplemental income of some sort - feedback?

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I would continue to look for full time employment.

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Specializes in BNAT instructor, ICU, Hospice,triage.

Live in a tent. Seriously though, its not worth it to me to have a big mortgage and bills out the ying yang. I have always driven an old car, never paid for anything except with cash. If you can't pay for it, then don't buy it! And I use a cheapy cell phone that I buy the minutes in advance so that is only $20 per month.

If you really want to do it, you can. People just don't like to lower their standards. Other case scenario is that they didn't live right in the beginning. We have always lived with very little, from day one, 20 years ago we promised each other to never borrow a penny no matter what. DH makes $40,000 which is a real good salary, and we try to be good stewards of it.

Also, we have our own insurance with a $10,000 deductible. If you put all the money you'd be spending in premiums and put that money into a health savings account (which is what we've been doing for 12 years now) you can have a big pot of cash! The $10,000 deductible is not a big deal, and we don't spend any money right now at this point in our lives, on healthcare.

We never have had TV. I gasp when I hear of people spending $30 or $40 a month on TV! They are a lot richer than me!!! My father in law spent $130 a month on satellite. What a waste in my humble opinion. There are tons of ways to cut back, unless you have been wasteful for many years, its a fallacy to say that you HAVE to work full time.

For entertainment, we watch the clouds in the sky and the wind blow the trees.

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Specializes in BNAT instructor, ICU, Hospice,triage.

Live in a tent. Seriously though, its not worth it to me to have a big mortgage and bills out the ying yang. I have always driven an old car, never paid for anything except with cash. If you can't pay for it, then don't buy it! And I use a cheapy cell phone that I buy the minutes in advance so that is only $20 per month.

If you really want to do it, you can. People just don't like to lower their standards. Other case scenario is that they didn't live right in the beginning. We have always lived with very little, from day one, 20 years ago we promised each other to never borrow a penny no matter what. DH makes $40,000 which is a real good salary, and we try to be good stewards of it.

Also, we have our own insurance with a $10,000 deductible. If you put all the money you'd be spending in premiums and put that money into a health savings account (which is what we've been doing for 12 years now) you can have a big pot of cash! The $10,000 deductible is not a big deal, and we don't spend any money right now at this point in our lives, on healthcare.

We never have had TV. I gasp when I hear of people spending $30 or $40 a month on TV! They are a lot richer than me!!! My father in law spent $130 a month on satellite. What a waste in my humble opinion. There are tons of ways to cut back, unless you have been wasteful for many years, its a fallacy to say that you HAVE to work full time.

For entertainment, we watch the clouds in the sky and the wind blow the trees.

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If we lowered our standards any more we WOULD be living in a tent. As I posted originally, we do NOT live high on the "hog" by ANY means..one car is a 1976 Plymouth and the other a used 2006 only because the other 1976 Plymouth died and we needed something that wasn't sucking gas like a frat boy at a keg. We do not have high speed anything, cell phones that do anything other than call, no cable, I shop at thrift stores...the reality is that prices are higher, mortgage payments increase when taxes do and living bare bones is close to what we do ALL the time - that said - there is no way anyone I know could meet basic - food/shelter/utilities/gas - and I mean basic - on $744/mo. and that's what this call pay would amount to - w/o additional visits. Working nights then working during the day as well is a large part of why they are looking for another nurse - because all the others have left - I do not mind working and working hard, and while I would like to be in this arena, I am not interested in a job becoming my life - it can be part of it but not #1 - that may offend some on here but when all is said and done, for me anyway, I would like balance - family/work and if one has to lean more toward the other I will lean more toward family. I agree that is it possible to live not working FT - but to me, working everyday, even if a few hours plus the night call - is working FT and not at a well compensated level.

I just wanted to see how other nurses who take this type of call are able to manage...evidently not many do given the lack of responses...or the high turn over. Ah well..

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Specializes in Hospice.

Well, this sounds unfair to me. Our on-call staff is paid a salary no matter how much they do or do not work. That being said, our on call staff is split:

Nurse A works Mon-Thurs 5p-8a and Sat 8a-5p and gets an average of 40 visits.

Nurse B works Frid 5p-Mon 8a and gets an average of 24 visits.

We are between 50-75 pts, and our on-call nurses are rarely bored. Our admissions often come late in the day, and there are always second nursing visits that need to be done, as well as deaths, gip visits (often we do 2 a day for our hospital pts), and emergency calls. You should ask them what their average visits have been for that position. Good luck.

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Specializes in LTC, Psych, Hospice.

It doesn't sound good to me, either. Our Mon-Thurs nurse get $50/night for 1630 to 0830. W/E nurse gets $500 for Friday @ 1630 to Monday @ 0830.

Call outs are paid in addition to the above rate. $35/visit and $50/admit or death. We have a very small company w/ our average census 17-20 and RARELY any call outs.

That's just my :twocents:

ETA: They also get mileage from door to door.

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Specializes in Med Surg, Hospice, Home Health.

Gentiva pays salary for on call nurses......$2/hr is for the hourly nurses who do backup for the on call nurses, then they get time and 1/2 for going out to do visits or admissions....

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Specializes in Med Surg, Hospice, Home Health.

AND mileage door to door...........

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Thanks everyone for the replies...I have declined the position because I can't work nights and days not having some idea of what the schedule would be. For a variety of reasons this doesn't work for me. I am hoping, sometime down the line, they will either increase the pay for strictly on-call staff or have other positions. I would LOVE to work in hospice but can't live on $800/month.

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Not a real offer. I would keep looking. I have been an on call triage nurse for a super small hospice locally. I only worked every other weekend, Friday 5pm to Monday 8am. I was paid $350 a weekend. If i went out... it was an additional $38 an hour for visit. I was also paid 45 cents a mile.

The 350 on call rate roughly transfers to a little over $5 an hour....

I'd keep looking. The job you offer I could NOT afford to take.

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Our weekend on call nurse is on from Friday 5p to Monday 8a and makes a salary just like the weekday nurses do.

Plus .49 a mile for driving time, $50 a visit, and $100 for an admission.

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