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Discussion

Rant: Staffing issues & coverage for call outs

I work as the 11-7 supervisor in my building and am coming up empty with solutions to this problem. I think it's a combination of low morale and immaturity, but there is an epidemic of call outs among the GNAs in my building. Yes, I certainly do understand that people get sick but I had 3 call outs tonight out of 9 GNAs scheduled to work today. One of them calls out at least 1 Saturday a month and I can't speak for the other two. I called all 9 of the other GNAs who work 7-3 and got 5 numbers that weren't in service, left 3 messages and got 2 wrong numbers. And we don't have any agency and don't hire new PRN GNAs. The staffing coordinator left an empty slot for a GNA too, so we're really down by 4 GNAs. We have 6 GNAs where we should have 11. I can't blame my DON for this issue but it's frustrating when I feel like there's nothing I can do about it. I asked all of the night shift GNAs if they could stay over, but half of them are scheduled for 11-7 tonight! Maybe we're not budgeted to hire new GNAs so that's not a solution but have any of you found an effective way to decrease call out frequency aside from punitive measures?

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    • Featured Replies

    You have an attendance policy in place & it should be followed. "Punitive measures" stink but it's the only way I've ever been able to conquer an attendance problem.

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    Yep. Start writing them up, staring with the worst offender and the others will start falling in line.

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    • Experts

    I'm not a staffing coordinator...but speaking from the perspective of the staff nurse, if the attendance and cancellation policy is clearly laid out (that is, they're not some big secret that I have to guess about), consistent (they don't change every month/week/time someone sneezes) and applied equally (they're enforced with all staff, not ignored when it comes to certain people), then I'm far more likely to follow them.

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    • Experts

    unfortunately no...it sounds like progressive dicipline measures are in order. If there is a lot of OT at your facility amongst the aids that call out. develop a policy that once on warning for attendance they are no longer eligible for OT for the period they are on warning.

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    Where I work, if someone calls in on a weekend, they have to work the following weekend. That is usually because someone from the next weekend came in to cover.

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    Where I work, if someone calls in on a weekend, they have to work the following weekend. That is usually because someone from the next weekend came in to cover.
    Only problem there is if the employee is already doing every weekend or is doing the other weekend at the 'other' job. Like most problems are with schedules of the part-timers. Their commitment ethics freq not there.
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    During my very short stint as ADON we had a huge problem with call-offs. I made copies of the policy on attendance and gave every employee one, as well as attached one to an in-service stating that policy would be followed to the letter. It didn't take long for someone to "volunteer" themselves to be made an example of. She was subsequently terminated. After her termination and a few people receiving disciplinary actions as promised in the in-service, call-offs dropped dramatically. We from on average 8-10 call-offs/wk to maybe one or two. As staffing stabilized moral increased and the work environment improved as well. That's my experience, anyway.

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    ... I can't blame my DON for this issue...

    Don't understand your position on this.

    And without more, I must respectfully disagree.

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