Question for current Hospice nurses

Published

For those who are currently working in hospice I have a question. How does your company handle on call shifts? We had an on call nurse for Mon-Thurs at night that worked and a different nurse that worked on call for the weekends. Just so happens both of them quit at the same time. They are trying to make the rest of the employees now work Mon-Fri AND take call at night. Obviously, those of us with children and no husband this isn't really possible. I was just wondering how other places do it. Do you guys work on call too? That just seems like too much to me. This job is hard enough already without throwing sleepless nights into it. Thanks so much.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in lots of specialties.

When I worked for a company that had no oncall at one point , we , the case managers rotated the days through the week and weekends. Never a full weekend. if you have 8 nurses for example then over the course of the week you rotate your 8 nurses for on call at night. on the weekend you give each nurse a a singular weekend day to cover but never the whole weekend and never a nurse working days back to back unless it is set up that way. so essentially you split the days up evenly. I hope this helps

Up Vote Up Vote ×

We have a special on-call team that works all after-hour shifts and all weekends. Regular case managers are not regularly assigned on-call shifts, though they are asked to volunteer (for extra pay) when there are call-outs.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.

Yup, I worked a hospice job that required every case RN to cover "on call" on week nights and over weekends. At one point the oncall requirement for one FTE RN Case Manager was an additional 150 hours per month. It was brutal and they bled nurses for quite a spell. I was one who left after a year of torment where the catholic employer was quite certain that they were entitled to every bit of an employees personal time...because the patients were dying you know. Bah.

At one point they decided that they should offer HHA services 7 days a week and then implemented that policy without hiring new aides to provide the coverage. Instead, they bullied the poor HHAs into working 12 days consecutively and then they would give them a couple week days off (unless they were really busy then they would call and brow beat the poor girls until someone gave up their personal time).

Up Vote Up Vote ×

No, its your choice to work on call as a case manager UNLESS you agreed to it when you were first hired. You can simply tell them you can't. They would have to hire a PRN nurse.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
No, its your choice to work on call as a case manager UNLESS you agreed to it when you were first hired. You can simply tell them you can't. They would have to hire a PRN nurse.

They could also fire the case managers who don't agree to it. I think that is the hidden threat behind their asking.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Hospice. Worked ER, Med-Surg, ICU & ALF-Dementia.

Let me tell you about my shift instead because I do not know what other companies do besides my own. I work 8-5 shift, and usually have 5 patients a day, 4 if I have a new admit. My supervisor asks me to see an extra pt (mine or from somebody in my team) if there is nobody from the pool to see them. Probably happens once a week. And then I also have an extra weekend shift every 3 months, sometimes not, when there are RNs looking for extra hours.

We have what we call telecare manned by RNs that does triage and direct on-call RNs and LVNs to pts that needed to be seen asap. And telecare happens after 5pm all the way to 7:59am. And we have on-call supervisor that they can call when they needed more advice.

What I am really saying is, I never get a call on my day offs and never after my shift ends.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I work with a small company. My branch usually has 20-40 patients on our census with 2 FT RN case managers and 1 FT LPN. Currently, we are blessed with 2 PT RNs that take primary and backup call on the weekends and 1 PT RN that takes call Mon-Thur. Our Mon-Thur on-call nurse is fortunate in that she is able to afford several long vacations every year and during her "away" periods the rest of the RNs are needed to fill in. We rotate so no one is too burdened. I'm on call 1 day this week and a few PRN nurses are also covering. We haven't always been this blessed though- a few years ago we had a lot more turnover with our PRN nurses so me and the other RN case manager were taking call at least 1 weekend per month plus a few weeknights and still expected to be at work at 0800 (though no one complained if we came in a couple hrs late if called out the night before).

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Ugh...Catholic companies seem to have the worst record when it comes to treating employees humanely. I sympathize.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I work for a small office. 3 full time case managers with a census of around 40. We have 2 dedicated on call nurses. They each work one week on and one week off. They cover from 5pm to 8 am on weekdays and from Froday at 5 pm to Monday at 8 am. When they want a day off they negotiate with each other for coverage. Case managers very rarely are asked to volunteer to cover call.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med/Surg.

At my company we pick up what we can. During our RN meetings they pass around the calendar for the upcoming month with the shifts that they need covered and we pick up what we are able to do. For the most part we have regular PRN nurses that pick up quite often.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Our company has one person take on call from Friday night until Friday morning the next week, and not just case managers but LVNs too, for a flat weekly rate. It involves handling all distress calls and scheduling cc if needed during the weekend and 5pm-8:30am weekdays. The CMs only do it if absolutely no one else takes it. Usually the field RNs and LVNs do it.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion