On-call requirements

[kaprielipp]

Just wondering what your units call requirements are if any.

[klone, MSN, RN]

We are a union facility, and on-call is strictly voluntary. We have a core staff (6 nurses during the day, 5 at night). If we don't have enough nurses for core staffing (due to LOAs, or PTO requests, or open positions) then we have that open shift listed on the bottom of the schedule. We ask/encourage/sometimes beg nurses to sign up to be on call for these open shifts (broken down into half-shift segments).

We always try to keep one nurse on call in case we get a few walk-in labors, so the charge nurse will usually send out a text blast for the next shift, asking if anyone wants to be on call.

[labordude, BSN, RN]

We currently do one on-call shift (Sat day/night or Sun day/night depending on your preference and standard schedule). This is a bone of contention amongst our staff as it has historically been used for staffing purposes rather than true call. Now that we are nearly fully hired, we are about to vote this call shift away and add Friday as a weekend shift with additional total shifts required to meet the weekend requirement in a 6-week period.

[AZBlueBell]

No call requirements shift wise, but any of our schedules shifts you can be put on call if there is low census. Unless someone volunteers to be put on call for that shift (and there is a low census need for it), then it just goes by whoevers' turn it is. When you're on call, you have to come in within an hour of them calling you and you get automatic time and a half if that happens.

[NICUMurse87, BSN, RN]

We can put ourselves on-call and get paid a pittance to do so, but it has to be for an entire 12-hour shift and I have yet to see anyone not get immediately called in when they are on-call. I'm in a NICU however, and not L&D.

[ashleyisawesome, BSN, RN]

We used to take 16 hours of call per 6 week schedule in 4 hour increments, they have recently changed it to 8 hours. Only part time nurses have to do it (.9 or less), and if you do charge you don't have to sign up for call. We get paid $5/hr to sit at home on call, then base rate if we get called in. We get time and a half if it puts us into overtime though. Everyone hates it, but when I am working short staffed I am grateful to have someone called in to save us.

[Skips, MSN, RN]

We are required to sign up for 8 on-call shifts per year. I am full-time. I am unsure if this number differs for part-time or PRN employees. You are on call for 12 hours, are paid $3/hr at home. If you get called in, it's time and a half.

[mtnviews]

I work at 2 hospitals and neither has call requirements.

The one I've been at longer, until about a year or year and a half ago, we had 4 hour shifts that were mandatory, anywhere from 1-3, rarely 3, mostly 2 4-hour shifts per 6 weeks. The amount of pay depending on how picked over it was when you signed up. It started with straight pay and went to time and a half when they were all picked over.

[CocoChanel]

On the unit I work on, we are required to take 40 hours of call per schedule (4 weeks) in 4 hour increments. We get $3/hr for being on call and time and a half if called in. Over the 4.5 years I've been on this unit, our call has increased from 24 hours/month and to 40! Our call is mainly used for staffing purposes (high census, call ins, short staffed, c/s). We will soon be switching to 6 week schedules, so it will be interesting to see how much call we'll have to take then.

[Lauraingalls, BSN, RN]

We have 24 hrs of call in a 6 week shift. We have to do 6 or 12 hr increments. I get called in for almost every shift I do. I HATE IT!!!!!