Per diem

[tammygartley]

I am currently working as a per diem hospice nurse in South OC California. I can be booked for an assignment that usually is with that patient and family until that patient expires. Or I meet the 36 hours 3 day shift. I am not eligible for benefits. I prefer per diem because I can work when I want to. Although I do have to be mindful of census and post my availability. My question is... Per diem is based on my availability. If I am booked and my patient expires anytime during my availability. I have been either pulling my availability and or posting my availability as open with my other hospice job to try and secure shift work. Since the nature of hospice is based on patient need. What are my rights as a per diem employee? Currently St Joseph is not happy with me pulling it and or opening up my availability for shift work. If my patient expires, there is no guarantee there will be another continuous care case for me to work. But yet St Joe wants to keep me on standby "in case" there is another case. They are trying to reprimand me for this..???

Has anyone ever had a similar situation? And how did you handle it?

[NedRN]

Rights? It is their job, they have the right to define it. Do you have a contract or employee handbook spelling out the procedure?

[caliotter3]

You should probably look for another employer. I would not want to work under these circumstances myself. I have done per diem continuous care hospice as well as defined shift extended care and none of my employers have tried to keep me on the hook like you describe, even when I was drawing unemployment. My problem has been that they just don't keep me employed, according to their parameters even. If they want you to sit around waiting for the phone to ring like they want to reprimand you for, then they should be paying you accordingly.

[Seaofclouds, BSN, RN]

If you keep your availability on the book and another continuous care doesn't come up, what happens? Do they then cancel the shift? I'm not familiar with staffing in that situation.

In my experience, if one of my prn employees decided to pull the shifts they had signed up for, it would bother me too, even if our census dropped. This is because if census drops and I see I have extra staff, I always try to move people around to fill holes on other shifts. So while they may think they were going to be extra, it may have changed and now that shift would be short. We tell our prn employees that trying to cancel a shift they have already signed up for is equal to calling off. Once they have signed up for the shift, it is a scheduled shift and they will be held to the same standards as the other staff for scheduled shifts. All of our staff knows this ahead of time though when they sign up for shifts. If you haven't received similar information regarding your schedule, then you should clarify what their expectations are. Good luck!