RN staffing ideas for HHH agency

[stineknight]

I am a Home Health/Hospice (HHH) RN in Northwest WI. We are growing fast and looking for creative ways to staff nurse positions.

We currently have RN that case manage both HHH patients. These RN's work 4-5 days a week, 8-10 hour days. They have to be on call 4 days in a 6 week schedule and back up call 4 days in the same period. This does include the weekend they work (1 weekend every 5-6 weeks).

So a normal day is out visiting patients/case managing from 0800-1630, then on call from 1630-0800 the next day. Some call nights we get no calls and some nights, we may be out on 5 different calls for either Home Health or Hospice pt.

How do you and your agencies schedule nurses? Do you have someone designated as on call and not working during the day? What about late/after hours admissions?

Thank you for sharing!!!

[RNBearColumbus, BSN]

The hospice agency I work for has nurses the are hired to work days, evenings, and overnight.

Case managers work M-F, 8-4:30, NO on call at all, and we work every 6th weekend.

The evening and night shift nurses ( I think there are 2-3 of each) work a rotating schedule, and work every other weekend.

There are also triage nurses working the same shifts.

No one is ever "on call" except maybe for managers. It's done a great deal to reduce turn over.

[stineknight]

Thank you for sharing your staffing solutions with me. We are growing so fast we have just been approved to hire 2 more nurses as there is so much overtime and we are trying to reduce this. Always trying to think outside the box to make things work for our patients, staff and the organization!