RNs what do your weekly/monthly schedule look like?

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · May 14, 2012

I work a 0.7 FTE by choice. That's about 1400 hours per year. I used to self-schedule but found it wasn't all it was cracked up to be. (As in, my "self" - schedule never looked even remotely like the one I submitted at the beginning of the scheduling period because the committee would move me around to suit their own purposes.) Now I work a rotation, an 18-week rotation that will probably take me a year or so to memorize because it's pretty un-uniform. It's a combination of days and nights, 2 or 3 in a row, with a handful of longish stretches off interspersed. On our unit there are LOTS of hours for casuals and there's lots of OT too.

Silverdragon102, BSN · May 15, 2012

My schedule is 2x12 hour shifts (either days or nights) one week and 5x12 hour shifts (days or nights) the second week with every 6th week off so out of ever 6 week rotation I work 10 nights and 9 days

Daisy_08, BSN, RN · May 15, 2012

FTn 2 12s on days, 2 12s on nights five off.

babywhisperer333, BSN · May 16, 2012

How does "casual" scheduling work exactly? Do you give your availability and then they call you if they need you?

Daisy_08, BSN, RN · May 16, 2012

Casual would depend on where you work, if there is a contract ect. Where I work now you give availability a min of 45h bi weakly and one of two weekends. Some places are call in only, smaller places tend to work with you more larger places follow the contrat exactly. It really depends on each individual place.

loriangel14, RN · May 16, 2012

Where I work you don't give availability for casual they just call you.

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · May 16, 2012

I think that depends a lot on where you work and what your collective agreement stipulates. On my unit, our casuals are pre-booked far in advance. (We have a severe staffing shortage and are often scrambling for warm bodies.) Right now we have one casual nurse who has worked so many hours that she's getting overtime on most pay cheques. To get that one has to work a minimum of 155 hours in the preceding 4 weeks. So in essence she's working full time without any of the benefits. But then we have other casuals who only pick up (pre-booked) shifts on the statutory holidays so they can make time and a half (or double time and a half if they have a full time position somewhere else in the system). Casuals on our unit are almost never short-notice call-ins. There's also a requirement that casuals work enough hours in a certain time frame and to participate in mandatory education/recertifications in order to maintain competence but that has frequently been ignored in the recent past. We've had people just decide after years away from our unit that they want to pick up shifts and in a matter of days they're back in their old roles... whether they're actually competent to be in those roles or not.

Then on the other hand I had a casual position at another hospital but had some difficulty fitting their open shifts into my regular schedule so after 3 months when I hadn't picked up any shifts there I got a letter from the manager telling me I'd been removed from their casual list. Same system, different units. Very different expectations.

babywhisperer333, BSN · May 16, 2012

OH I see...Thanks for the info!!

RN58186 · Jun 19, 2012

I am spoiled - I work Monday to Friday 0800 to 1615, every 4th Friday off. (I work in an outpatient clinic). When I worked inpatients I worked 8 hour shifts, full time days/nights. My last rotation was Mon- Fri days, Mon-Sat nights, Tues-Thurs days, Sunday to Friday nights. Repeated every 4 weeks. I hated it. (Not to mention the constantly flipping shifts did horrible things to my diabetes....)

petethecanuck · Jun 20, 2012

I'm casual right now.. evenings and weekends and loving it. Won't do nights.. can't do nights :)

Fiona59 · Jun 20, 2012

I'm casual right now.. evenings and weekends and loving it. Won't do nights.. can't do nights :)

Come to the darkside...we have the bigger shift premiums and pizza.