OR call compensation>>please help

[RN1015]

Hello fellow OR RN's!!

My department is desperately seeking some more realistic compensation for being on call and we need information on how other institutions compensate their surgery staff for call.

We need any information you can give us including the size of your OR and how your shifts run etc.

We, for example, are a six room OR open from 7am to 5pm. Our call team, two RN's, start call at 3pm and are paid 3.35 per hour call. We get a "call guarantee" IF we work under four hours. This call guarantee pay is only paid ONCE in an eight hour period and only up to four hours (i.e. work two hours get two hours "call guarantee" at our regular hourly rate)

Ok did I totally confuse you? SORRY! Please help us and give us any info we can use I would love you forever.

[mcmike55]

I don't have all the numbers off the top of my head currently, guess I should though, huh?

Anyway, we have a small rural Ohio hospital, 6 OR's but staff 3, occasionally 4, at a time. Our shift is days, 0700 to 1530. We try real hard to be done by 1530 of course, but if and when we run over, we try to get down to one room, and the call team takes over at 1530.

We take call until 0700 the next day, on call is a base pay, with a two hour min., that is, say we get called in for a trauma stand by, and we're released after 45 minutes, we get 2 hours call premium. Anytime we're called in, we are paid call premium, but our base on call pay is suspended.

If an second team stays over to finish a second room, volunteers, that is, they are on OT after 40 hours.

Traditionally, the post call people are first out when we slow down the next day. If someone stayed over, we'll try to get them out early too, but many times, it's all hands on deck for the duration of the shift.

Hope that helps.

Mike

[FLAreN]

The OR I used to work at was a 10 room OR that operated from 7a to 7p but most of the nurses worked 7a to 3:30p and there were about 4 nurses left to staff the 3:30p to 7p portion.

If we needed more than the 4 nurses than there would be a 3:30 to 7p call person. There was always 1 team during night shift housed in the OR and 1 call team. The call rate was $15/hr. If you came in and clocked in, you were automatically paid 2 hours of your pay rate even if you were there 5 minutes.

We had a call team from 7p tp 7a during the week and then a weekend call from Friday 7p to Monday morning 7a.

We would be on call 2 weeknights a month and 1 weekend call every other 3 months.

[RN1015]

Thank you all for your info!!!

[USA987, MSN, RN, NP]

Hi there! We have 14 rooms. Most RN's work 07-1730, a few work 07-1530, one works 11-1930, a few work 15-2330. Call M-F is 23-0700...weekends/holidays are 07-0700. We get a whopping $1.70/hr. for being on call. If we get called in it is time and a half plus we get a $25/per case bonus.

[shudokan-RN]

$4.00 per hour on call pay ( pager)

call back , auto 3 hours of time and a half

after working four hours double time

hope this helps

marci

[RNERHOUSESUPOR]

I have worked various jobs with on call. My current one pays one hour of regular shift pay for eight hours of on call. You are paid time and a half for your call back time. There is no minimum. Back in the old days in EMS I clocked 16 hours in an 8 hour shift of on call. Got called in 4 times during the night each with a minimum of 4 hours pay. Had to stay for only 30 minutes each time and were released by the night crew. The management changed the rules after that episode, added a maximum of 8 hour pay for 8 hour on call shift.

[tin2]

hi,

i worked for almost 3 years in one of the US territories.we've got 2 main OR, 1 for minor/endoscopy procedure room.we worked 8 hours a day (7am-330pm), 3 staff on call, every other day or every 2 days (330pn-7am), 24-48 hours on-call on weekend (once-twice a month).standby fee per hour was $1.50, on-call pay $24 per hour.

i was quiet heavy for me that time due to understaffing and at the same time we are the first assist of the surgeon, even on a regular working hours.

patience is the only key to keep going and enjoying your job.God bless

[crackerjack]

$2/hr on call time, pager provided...aren't we lucky :-s

[smalltownornurse]

Our OR has minimally compensated for on call time, but recently, in order to not compensate for overtime at all hours of the night, day or weekend, has been sending people home--and not to their benefit, but 15 minutes here, 1 hour there, 30 minutes--until the overtime amount is reached. No federal or state laws protect us from this, and we don't have union. I've been assured by coworkers that inviting union means certain job loss, and have read about both advantages and disadvantages to unionization anyway. Isn't this minimizing what we do? What can we do about it? Any suggestions at all? Thank you.

[Surgical1968]

I use to believe union representation was bad too until moving to the San Francisco Bay Area and seeing first hand what is does. This area has the highest nursing pay in the country and it is because IMHO the California Nurses Association is based here and is so strong. I actually am not a union member and have no affiliation with them. But the bottm line is that we do not have a nursing shortage here in this area because we are paid well, even when you consider the cost of living. We make tons more than nurses in New York City, Boston, Hawaii, Los Angeles, Washington DC and ohter high cost markets. I have done the research. We have great benefits as well, must better than nurses I know in other areas. I make a base hourly rate of $60 per hour (this does not include shift differcials either) and for on call I am paid 50% of my hourly rate to be on standby and time and a half when called in. This is common in the San Francisco area. I am not telling all this to brag, but to let other nurses know that we need to stand up for what we are worth including on call pay.