On Call On Call.. Who Hates Oncall???

[AmPmRnoncall]

Hey everyone.... Who hates those long hours of on call... Tell me what oncall is like at your agency.. Where I work, the PRN's pick up as little as possible and get away with it... It's up to us 1 full time and 1 half-timer(ME) to pick up at least 4-5 days to cover... What do ya think... Let me hear your story..:trout:

[cookie102]

everyone hates "on call"

we are very fortunate at our agency to have a call nurse, she does M - F and qo weekend, the regular staff have to alt. the rest. but even with that little amt of call they still all complain when it is their turn. just one of those things in home health. i would recommend having your agency advertise for a call nurse, there just may be someone out there looking to do just that.

[jenrninmi, MSN, RN]

everyone hates "on call"

we are very fortunate at our agency to have a call nurse, she does M - F and qo weekend, the regular staff have to alt. the rest. but even with that little amt of call they still all complain when it is their turn. just one of those things in home health. i would recommend having your agency advertise for a call nurse, there just may be someone out there looking to do just that.

We have a call nurse too. We also have a back-up call nurse. The rest of us alternate as a back-up for the back-up call nurse. Pretty cool.

[lossforimagination]

I used to have to be on call every other week for the whole week. I hated it, it's the only thing I can't stand about home health. Even so, the agency paid zilch for it unless you had to go see a patient. This agency paid lousy and had zero benefits for FT employees.

Here in town, I know some small agencies don't have any FT nurses (they are all PRN so as not to have to pay any benefits), and they have to take call just as if they were FT. I have a real problem with that! No FT, no benefits and having to take call routinely!