On call requirements for per diem visit nurses

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Hi everyone,

I have worked at many hha's over the last several years. As a prn visit nurse I have never been required to take on call. On occasion I have taken it to help out but not mandated to. My agancy is now requiring me to take call and it is very low compensation. Does your agency require this of their prn staff and what do they get compensated? I would really appreciate your response as in my opinion it is an unreasonable request but maybe it is the norm nowadays.

Thanks!

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$25/night

PRN 's not included in the on call rotation

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Don't feel bad. I signed on with a new agency four months ago to do shift work on established cases and all I've ever received are three calls at ten o'clock or worse at night for a last minute fill in. I believe agencies are aware that work is harder to come by these days so they think everybody wants to sit by the phone holding their breath to jump at the chance to work when someone else doesn't want to or to take the call in the middle of the night.

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Specializes in COS-C, Risk Management.

The agency I work for has recently decided that any new people, full time or PRN, will be required to enter into the call rotation.

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Specializes in Home health, Cardiac Tele, Doc's office.

Per Deim at the agency I work for are required to participate in on call. We have weekend on call (friday at 5 to Monday at 8 am) and week on call M-Th (5 pm to 8 am) both are re-imbursed at $200. I think it may depend on what part of the country you live in also. When I lived in the midwest it was less like $15-20 per day, although that was 2 years ago, so that may be the difference too.

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Specializes in COS-C, Risk Management.

Ours is $25/day for weekday, supposedly $50/day for weekend plus the w/e visit rate but I haven't actually seen my on call pay yet for the weekend, so we'll see.

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Thanks for all your input. I am prn and business is very slow. I am only doing 5-8 visits a week at this point. On call pays 10 dollars a night. They cover a large territory so it is a lot of ground to cover for visits. I am going to just move on - with the little bit of work they give me I don't think I want to spend my free time answering the phone all night for 10$ !

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I am PRN LPN (all of our field nurses are PRN no matter how many visits or hours we work) and am required to take call. It is usually once every few months but we get $20 for the week and $25/visit that we are called out to. $20 if it is a scheduled weekend visit. I hate it but its part of the job...

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Specializes in COS-C, Risk Management.

I guess I should point out that only RNs take call at my agency. We have one full-time LPN who lets us know when/if she's available for straight visits, but most of our call visits are SOCs and ROCs.

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Our LVN's take call Monday to Monday I think they get $175. They rotate about every 8 weeks. The DON/Ast DON take call throughout the week M-Th. The RN's take call Fr-Sun and get paid $90. There is fewer of us, so we get call about every 4-5 weeks. And mostly we are the admit nurse for the weekend only, or resumption of care unless the CM can do it.

We have an answering service who contacts the LVN first, and if she needs help, she calls the RN.

The last two places I worked, one was call every other week--there was a triage nurse, but if someone had to go out, it was you. And the other, they literally forward the phones to you. So, you'd get all kinds of calls after 5PM. I think on-call is the norm, PRN or not.

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