Purpose of On-Call. I need to vent

ruby_jane, BSN, RN · May 2, 2019

My new favorite expression instead of cussing is "Yeeps," and I say this now. You have substantial overflow - and I can't imagine what the OT looks like unless that weekend pay is budgeted for.

Are the docs forcing these cases? Are you battling some kind of rule that people have to receive services within a certain time period? If not...there is no reason why a non-emergent procedure should be scheduled on Saturday. Unless your manager has an unlimited OT budget to knock out this sudden bolus of patients?

Good luck!

brownbook · May 3, 2019

Awful...."they" decided to expand the clinic hours to Saturday and without any staff input decided the on-call staff would staff it!

First of all what happens if an inpatient needs urgent care while the on-call team is working?

Sooooo stupid. This should have been discussed with all staff before Saturday procedures we're agreed upon.

My old out patient surgery clinic, we did GI also, started scheduling Saturday cases BUT only if they could get staff to voluntarily come in. If not enough volunteered it wasn't done. There were always enough nurses who loved the extra money.

MommyRN15 · May 3, 2019

I can’t even begin to express how frustrating the whole situation has become. We are a self-contained unit and do our own pre op and pacu. So 15 outpatients on a Saturday requires a whole team of people, not just a call team. The call team should not be required to do all those cases. They used to only approve the cases after they had enough volunteers. We are under new leadership and they are ruining our unit. We are treated as if we are children. There is no shared governance, staff input is NOT valued. This is at a hospital that was just redesignated as magnet. They don’t deserve it in my opinion!!

The overtime is a huge issue with leadership at the moment. They staff for 7-3, but the volume goes way beyond that. We are an extremely busy unit and often finish cases way past three. They let doctors book outpatients as late as they want which could be 7pm. They expect people to stay then send them home early on other days. We work our butts off, then still have to do all the pre op calls and post op calls because we have no PAT nurse. They blame us for milking the clock without having any idea how efficient we actually work. One day we had 52 patients between 7-5 with 9 nurses and 5 techs. But they tell us we are not productive. I think I am ready to move on from this place ?

Thanks for letting me vent!!!

MommyRN15 · May 3, 2019

And my original post should have said that we average 8 or 9 inpatients for weekend call. So the outpatients would be on top of that. But, we aren’t supposed to have overtime!!! Lol

JenRN30, BSN · Jun 5, 2019

They’re going to burn their nurses out quickly, and will probably have a mass exodus at some point. Sounds like you should find something new, no work/life balance at all.

NurseBlaq · Jun 5, 2019

On call Mon through Fri and they just threw in Sat because they thought they could? Oh hell no! That's employee abuse.

Is there some type of way to speak to HR as it was not discussed with staff nor is it apart of your duties. Them wanting to add extra days doesn't make it OK. You all weren't hired for that. SMH

**NickiLaughs, ADN, BSN, RN** · Sep 8, 2019

52 patients with 9 RNs and 5 techs? I wish i had the ability to hire you for our unit. All of you. Sometimes we cant make 40 patients work with a staff of 14 RNs and 9 lvns/techs. I'm guessing you arent unionized? You may as a group want to get a labor lawyer because adding a 6th day to your job because they decide to doesnt seem entirely legal.

I imagine they will lose almost all the staff if they keep this up.