OR RN Schedule

Yep, it basically means for those 8 hours you might spend some of it working or you might spend it waiting by the phone. And I'd love to only be responsible for 8 shifts in 10 weeks! I average between 64 and 120 hours of on call per two week pay period.

In my facility, the vast majority of call hours spent working is finishing up cases that are running. Some of the time it's being called in for emergencies- appys, fracture management, ex laps, bleeding tonsils, tight left main (widow maker) MI, things like that. We're also a trauma center, so we can also get called in for traumas. We do staff a team in house at all hours to start the traumas, but if they're in a case, another team has to come in to staff potential second traumas/emergencies.

Have I spent all of a call shift working? You betcha! And my call shifts aren't 8 hours; they're 16. I did my scheduled shift, stayed late to finish the late-running scheduled case, and then, while in the locker room changing to go home, got notified of an emergency. So, started the emergency and got relieved the following morning when the rest of the staff showed up for the scheduled shift. That's only happened once.

But, it's also going to be very dependent on the facility- is it a trauma facility? transplant facility? staffed 24/7? Definitely things you want to verify with your supervisor.

You what??!!!??

Yep. You read that right. I'm part of a small specialty team, and we cover all of our own call. Our shifts are 16 hours M-Th (end of shift to beginning of next) and end of shift Friday to beginning of shift Monday (total of 64 hours straight on call). I get paid a whopping $2/hour when I'm on call but not working (time and a half for a minimum of 2 hours when called in/staying late).

In addition to those call shifts, we have the "loser list". These people are on call for 2 hours following the end of the shift. They stay late if we have two cardiac ORs running beyond first shift and can be called back during those 2 hours if the primary call team is working and another emergency comes up.

So, my call schedule for last week and this:

Call Sunday (finishing my weekend)- 24 hours

Loser list Tuesday- 2 hours

Call Thursday (Thanksgiving as my holiday)- 24 hours

Loser list Friday- 2 hours

Call Monday- 16 hours

Loser list Tuesday- 2 hours

Call today- 16 hours

This coming Friday loser list- 2 hours

Total: 88 hours. And that's just with one weekend day. When that weekend falls in the same pay period, that number would be 120 (changing the holiday 24 hours to a regular day of 16 hours). Sometimes it's less, sometimes it's more. I have to take the same amount of call per 4 week schedule, so if I have days off or a vacation, I have to squeeze those call shifts into fewer working days. Of course, we all knew at the interview that the call requirements were crazy. And several people have turned down a job offer after hearing it. Don't blame them.

Our main OR is a lot different- 8 hours of call per week is the requirement and sometimes they don't even need to cover that because there are so many of them.

Rose_Queen,

Well, I did get into this with the hope of making some money with overtime pay. I think medical resident hours would be a bit excessive though. At least for me. I like to sleep sometimes.

Well, most of my call back time is spent finishing the scheduled cases- we don't have a second shift cardiac team. Sometimes it's only 30 minutes (the minimum to get paid for 2 hours), sometimes it's the full two hour minimum, sometimes it's longer. Honestly, the number of times I've been called out of bed is probably only 2-3 times a year. I have no problem falling asleep- I have a very special ring tone for my work that is guaranteed to wake the dead. I don't have to worry about the phone ringing and me sleeping through it.