SCHEDULING/WEEKENDS

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Our unit is reviewing our current scheduling guidelines and weekend requirements. I am trying to get the "good" and "bad" of how other hospitals do it.....so I can compile a list of suggestions and ideas to bring to the table and perhaps improve staff engagement, satisfaction and morale.

Currently, we have weekend requirements based on years in our unit, so our senior nurses work little to no weekends and newer staff works the majority. We also do set schedules, again, based on seniority. Our strongest days are the middle of the week and the weakest are the weekends. Several "newer" nurses (me included with 6 years experience) are wanting a change for the better, for fairness and for equal experience on all shifts.

So what does your unit do that you do and don't like?

Any suggestions for us?

Thanks!!

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that sounds ridiculously unfair...at least to a newbie like me...

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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

The requirements for weekends is the same for all where I work as per the union agreement.( 2 out of every four).

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Specializes in ER.

Union and non, I have never seen any arrangement where weekends were divvied up based on seniority.

Doesn't seem fair at all. Is this a LTC facility, or acute care, and how big is your facility?

Do all units in this organization schedule the same way?

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Specializes in Trauma Surgical ICU.

Very unfair.. We all work every other weekend period.. Our weekend is considered Fridays and Saturday.. So I work this weekend and off the next.. Holidays are slit into two groups A and B.. One year I work all A holidays while B is off those and the following year I am off those holidays while B works them.. No pinning co workers against each other with this.. Its fair across the board..

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Specializes in pediatrics, public health.

At the hospital I used to work at, nurses with 20 or more years of seniority didn't have to work weekends at all (though some of them still chose to). Everyone else worked every other weekend.

This didn't seem so unfair to me. 20 years is a long time. If you can hang in there that long, it didn't seem unreasonable to me to let you off the hook for weekends.

There wasn't a similar deal for holidays though -- everyone worked holidays. The only rule was that if you worked Christmas Day, you'd be off on New Year's Day -- and if you worked Christmas last year, you'd work New Year's this year.

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Specializes in Neuro, Neuro ICU.

I work in a bigger hospital, and we are required to work 4 weekend shifts per schedule which is 6 weeks. It works out nice because if you know you have things to do you can work 2 full weekends, or you could work 4 saturdays, 4 sundays (or fridays/saturdays on night shift). For holidays we do the A/B rotation, so If you are B you work 1 set one year & A works the opposite, then the next year you switch. We even include the smaller holidays like mothers day/fathers day/ halloween, etc..

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

Perhaps your facility could do a Baylor Plan to cover weekends? I strictly worked weekends for 4 years because I was being well-compensated to do so. Under the Baylor Plan, a person who works two 12-hour shifts on Saturday and Sunday will be paid for either 32 or 36 hours, even though they only worked 24 hours. In addition, they are considered a full-time employee and eligible for benefits. Also, many people like this arrangement because they have 5 days off in a row during the week.

Believe it or not, but many people would willingly work every weekend if they were to be compensated with wonderful shift differentials or a Baylor Plan.

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Our unit is reviewing our current scheduling guidelines and weekend requirements. I am trying to get the "good" and "bad" of how other hospitals do it.....so I can compile a list of suggestions and ideas to bring to the table and perhaps improve staff engagement, satisfaction and morale.

Currently, we have weekend requirements based on years in our unit, so our senior nurses work little to no weekends and newer staff works the majority. We also do set schedules, again, based on seniority. Our strongest days are the middle of the week and the weakest are the weekends. Several "newer" nurses (me included with 6 years experience) are wanting a change for the better, for fairness and for equal experience on all shifts.

So what does your unit do that you do and don't like?

Any suggestions for us?

Thanks!!

That sounds TERRIBLE. everyone does every other weekened, every other holiday. seniority doesn't count for anything. and the rest of the schedule is done by where the holes are ..........

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Specializes in Psych.

We do every other weekend. I take New Years off so to make sure I have that off I work Christmas and Thanksgiving. But for the most part, on this shift if we are naturally scheduled we work it.

And WOW, what's with all the Sr. Nurses having wekends off.

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Specializes in ER.

my current unit requires four weekend days a month plus at least one monday. this is nice because you can pick and choose what days you might like to work and those with strong religious beliefs can pick friday and saturday nights (friday day is not considered a weekend)

my last unit was every other weekend from here into perpetuity...which i did not like because it was not flexible.

i am sorry but there is no reason seniority should have any place in this discussion. i feel badly for your patients! they have no experienced staff available to them on weekends! how dangerous!

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Where I work, senior nurses work one weekend a schedule and others do every other weekend. This is because they used to have full baylor coverage for weekends and senior nurses were hired for Mon-Fri. Baylor is being phased out so all newer hires were hired as eo we.

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