SCHEDULING/WEEKENDS

We all work 7 on, 7 off, so everybody works two weekends per month. We don't get holidays, or holiday pay, because the philosophy is that you get every other week off.

How does that work?

Federally mandated holidays are required to be paid at time and a half.

In Illinois it's illegal to schedule someone for 7 days straight; 7th day is a required "day of rest," although if an employee volunteers to work it, it's allowed.

Our scheduling requires all staff RNs on my unit work every 3rd weekend (which is balanced - we have 3 teams with a mix of experience) and work at least 2 Fridays and Mondays every 6 weeks.

That sounds very unfair to me also I am familiar with every other weekend point blank period. I once was at a facility where seniority was highly favored and I moved on from that organization.

In the winter everyone has to do 2 weekends a month. (Winter is our high census month).

I work nights and I don't mind working weekends. Our unit hasn't had a problem with any of it because we have one strong nurse that only works Th,F and Sat. (Th are heavy days on my unit) and so they only need 1-2 more night nurses to cover on those days. Because of that if she does need a weekend off, she will get it. But so far there hasn't really been any problems with our schedule except getting newer people into the Master so they have some consistency with their schedule.

Our holiday rotations and amount our people on our unit worked out perfect too. We each work one summer and one winter holiday a year and has nothing to do with length of time.

Again, any of this can be swapped up though if people are willing.

we dont do seniority, if you are fulltime (36hrs weekly) then you are expected to sign up for 4 weekend shifts per schedule (each schedule is 4 weeks.) the way we do holidays is everyone fills out a sheet in late Sept telling which is their 1st choice off, their 2nd, and their 3rd. The choices are Thanksgiving Eve, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Years Eve & New Years Day. if you want to work one of them or all of them (like i do, cause i want the moula) then you put that on the holiday sheet. then they assign the holidays out and that's that. it's worked pretty well. Management doesnt care as long as the shifts are covered, some people find a buddy and split a shift into 2 6hr shifts which can be really nice.

Thank you guys so much for all of your input. It sounds to me like most nurses in this post work every other weekend or 4 shifts/month and several alternate "teams" for holidays.

I am also curious how your units engagement and turnover rates are? We seem to have a higher turnover rate and I'm wondering if weekend requirements are related to this.

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?

I work in a Level III NICU, 30 bed unit in an acute care hospital

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.

We have asked for the Baylor Plan and our hospital used to do this, but unfortunately that is not an option anymore

We have a very very low turnover.

Our turnover was nonexistent. We had a prn position about once a year. It was 8 years between FT position openings.