Poll: Do you like taking call?

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Do you like taking call or would you give it to someone else if someone else wanted it?

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Specializes in Operating Room.

Sometimes I keep it if I have things I'm saving for(vacation, classes etc) and other times I give it away. I don't hate it or love it, really. I just accept it as part of the job.

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Specializes in OR.

I'd rather not take call. Our call sign-up sheet goes up on the board as soon as the new schedule comes out. Those who like call stalk the board to get all the call slots before anyone else can sign up which is just fine with me:) I think I've taken call twice in the last 16 months.

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I live outside the call area so I have to be at the facility when on call---so I give all of it that I can to anyone who will accept!!!!

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Specializes in O.R., ED, M/S.

I LOBVE taking call! I have been like this for 30+ years. What better way to get OT and make extra money. I live waaaaaay outside the hospital I work at and have to stay there for 9 straight days, therefore I take call almost every night and the weekends I stay south. Don't anyone take offense but I feel when all your time is spent trying to get rid of all your call where is the dedication to your specialty? Call time os a part of OR nursing and everyone should at least take their fair share. The wide range of cases allows you to experience procedures that you might not get to see during your regular shift. I know that some places have sign up sheets where you get to pick and choose the days, but I know of others where the dayd and weekends are assigned to you. Other places have enough people who desire alot of call, like Kaiser here in Calif. At Kaiser you have to fight to get call, why? Standby is, I think, around $15 an hour, so who wouldn't want call. MamaCheese, twice in 16 months with only 2 years experinence? OK, everyone can now rip me for being so insensitive.

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Specializes in OR.

No offense taken. If there are open slots on the call sheets (which there almost never are) I fill my name in when needed. I'm not trying to shirk my responsibilities. I'm simply letting the people who are fighting to get the call shifts have them. My dedication to my specialty takes place between 6:45am and 3:15pm monday thru friday. The rest of my time is spent dedicated to my primary specialty. My family :heartbeat

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Specializes in Operating Room.
I LOBVE taking call! I have been like this for 30+ years. What better way to get OT and make extra money. I live waaaaaay outside the hospital I work at and have to stay there for 9 straight days, therefore I take call almost every night and the weekends I stay south. Don't anyone take offense but I feel when all your time is spent trying to get rid of all your call where is the dedication to your specialty? Call time os a part of OR nursing and everyone should at least take their fair share. The wide range of cases allows you to experience procedures that you might not get to see during your regular shift. I know that some places have sign up sheets where you get to pick and choose the days, but I know of others where the dayd and weekends are assigned to you. Other places have enough people who desire alot of call, like Kaiser here in Calif. At Kaiser you have to fight to get call, why? Standby is, I think, around $15 an hour, so who wouldn't want call. MamaCheese, twice in 16 months with only 2 years experinence? OK, everyone can now rip me for being so insensitive.

I won't call you insensitive. But, in my hospital, you certainly don't get $15 for standby...more like $2.00. That is certainly not worth it for some people. If there are people who want the call, nothing wrong with them taking from someone who hates it. It usually evens out in the end..people negotiate with holidays, working with undesirable surgeons etc.

Also, in many ORs, surgeons abuse the call system. I've worked in places where they'd call you in not because something was an emergency, but because the doc wanted to get an elective case done or didn't want to do it the next day. Im in a trauma center now, so that at least isn't the case anymore!

I like night call at my place because it's scrub call..and I love to scrub.

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Specializes in O.R., ED, M/S.

Surgeons have been abuing the system for decades and nothing is going to change them. If I only got $2 an hour for call I might even think twice. Luckily we are up to $8, a little better. It's just people, not necessarily on this forum, beg and beg to work in the OR. Knowing all of the responsibilties, most seem to never want to take call once they get off their 90 days. The people I work with have it made. Me and another nurse take about 80% of all call. Call sometimes is the least stressful time I can have.

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Specializes in Case Management, Home Health, UM.

I didn't mind taking call when I was getting paid for it.

I am not getting paid for taking call (among other things), with my current job.

Administration is of the opinion that we get paid "enough" for what we have to put up with.

If that is true, then why do we have such a high staff turnover?

Needless to say, I am looking for another job.

As the old saying goes: "Loyalty doesn't pay the bills".

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My wife and I are always running here and there, so being on call forces me to stay home once in a while...:yeah:

As long as I don't get slammed with late night cases I don't really mind it. There's something special about being the only staff in the OR, running the whole show.

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No offensive taken with me. I only make $2 hr on call too. It doesn’t pay for my gas there and back, let alone meals. We are a small facility so if we do not have any cases (which sometimes happen), it is only the $2 per hour. So I actually sometimes loose money when on call.

The other thing is that there is not any work at giving call away. I simply place a sticky on the call list stating anyone wanting my call can have it and it goes within a week.

I don’t worry about loosing my skills in other specialties as I am the person that gets moved and dumped on like no tomorrow. No one has done one??? It has been years since one has been done here?? The new person is uncomfortable?? No one has done one with this doc. The scrub in the room feels queasy?? Etc….They pull me from my room and send me in, so I get my fair share and then some. LOL

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Specializes in O.R., ED, M/S.

It is nice on the weekends where you are the person calling the shots. Our call is sometime pretty dull where there are times where we might not do anything the whole weekend! I hate that. I want to do something. I have to stay at the hospital so I want something to make the time go by. I have always said my wife comes first, then my dogs, then my house, then work. Even with these rules in place I still get alot of OT, so it works out fine.

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