AngiRN

Due to our staffing with nurses, each nurse has a designated day Mon-Thurs, it is the same day q week. Then they rotate weekend they are oncall q 4th week from Friday 5pm- Monday 0800. Thru the week, after 5pm, they are responsible for any PM admits, which we triage (will be an IV or BID wound or enteral feeding), then there may be scheduled PM visits, for BID wounds or PM IV clients, but they are already admitted. Then they also may have a PRN call, which we all know how that is....Some nights very quiet & others are a nightmare! We are unable to accomodate an extra day off at this time, hopefully this will change, but d/t staffing it is impossible. The good part is they may have a slow day thru the week and be able to get home at 2pm. Have any of you nurses had a comparable oncall to this? Do you guys think this is to much? What has worked for you homecare nurses in the past? Thanks so much!

How does other agencies do your oncall? We cover a 6 county area & have someone triage all the after hour calls, so the field nurses do not have to take time to answer each call. We have LPN's who are scheduled with PM visits, but the RN's may have an IV follow up visit in the PM, then an admit to do and answer the Prn calls (leaking caths, wound vac problems, IV problem) that requires a home visit. It can make for a long night at times..... I was wondering how other offices do their oncall and how often you are oncall? Does your agency tweak your schedule to account for the upcoming oncall? All the nurses complain about the oncall, but sometimes it helps to see how others have it. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated... Thanks!

I feel you have yourself covered... it is very frustrating when these clients only care about getting admitted to homecare when it's late at night and they start freaking about their wounds, meds, IV's, etc. If the client was not physically in the home when you called for him all those times, I would have questioned if he actually qualified for homecare, depending on the payor source. I personally feel that after you make those multiple phone calls without success, that homecare nurses should attempt to go to the home. This ensures the client has not fallen and lying there with a broken hip & can not reach to answer the phone. Once you have been to the home and they are not there, you called the doctor and reported it. It's exactly what I would have done! Good Job!!