Shift Cancellations (Please HELP!!)

ThePrincessBride, MSN, RN, NP · Mar 13, 2014

This is why I'm not a fan of seniority. I'm sure you need to pay your bills just as much as the most senior nurse. It should be rotated because losing a week's pay due to low census is ridiculous. I would start looking elsewhere, a place that does not pull the seniority card.

ParvulusPuella · Mar 13, 2014

My floor goes by date last called off. And new nurses to our floor have to be there for 3 months before entering the rotation. There might be times where someone gets called off twice in 3 months and someone else hasn't gotten called off in the last year, but it all depends on who all is working that shift and their last dates.

amygarside · Mar 13, 2014

I suggest you find a stable company.

MrChicagoRN, RN · Mar 13, 2014

Thank you for your response. This hospital is fairly new (less than 2 years old). Most of the nurses with top seniority have for about 18 months. I've been there for about 8 months and i am not under any unions. We are basically talking about an employment gap of 10 months lol. Doesn't make sense right?

Do they carry seniority from transferring from another facility in the same system?

18 months isn't a great amount of time, and not what I'd consider senior staff. It should be a rotating system based on regiistry or OT, requests, then by turns.

BTW, if your income drops below a certain level in any given week due to being cancelled, you may be entitled to unemployment compensation for that week.

Ruby Vee, BSN · Mar 13, 2014

Step One: check with your unit manager to find out if this is POLICY (written in stone) or HABIT ("how we've always done it"). If it's the former, it's time to find more stable employment. If it's the latter, ask her about addressing this problem, as if it keeps up, all the newer staff will be leaving and then her "senior" staff will be working when they didn't want to. Not to mention how word spreads about unfair arrangements
Goodluck!

I agree with this very good advice. Years ago, when I worked out west there was a hospital near us that did the very same thing -- cancelled the least senior person on every shift first. The least senior people fled en masse and started working with us . . . and the hospital was forced to change its policy. Unfortunately for them, they'd already lost several good nurses!

himilayaneyes · Mar 13, 2014

That stinks. Speak to your manager about this. The places I've worked usually had a sign up sheet for cancellations...or they rotated who was cancelled. You may want to try finding another job or at least some per-diem work with another hospital or staffing agency. Good luck.

jrsmrs · Mar 14, 2014

Come to my hospital lol! No such thing as low census.... We're in constant gridlock :/

LoveMyBugs, BSN, CNA, RN · Mar 14, 2014

I would look into policy and if you can propose a new system.

My hospital is really in my opinion fair with canceling.

It goes by a point system that is on a continuing 6 month rotation.

It is a whole math equation to figure it out.

But you can sign up to be volunteered cancel (AV)

They staff hospital wide 1st before honoring AV request

So if your unit is low you can get floated to other floors or once you had your orientation then you can get floated to the PICU or the NICU

If there is no AV request then they start to force cancel

Usually if you are cancelled you get put on on-call status

The person with the lowest cancelation points gets cancelled

If census drops mid shift and you get sent home early those hours are added into your points

Every month the points are re calculated as it only looks at the last 6 months.

They really try to only cancel us once a pay period, double canceling is pretty rare but not unheard of.

New nurses can not float for 6 months and to have a fair balance of experienced nurses vs new nurses they may get cancelled out of turn.

allnurses Guide · Mar 14, 2014

Cancellations are exceedingly rare in my hospital, but when they happen, whoever is signed up for overtime that week gets canceled first if there are no part time or per diems scheduled.

trishmsn · Mar 14, 2014

I would look into policy and if you can propose a new system.
My hospital is really in my opinion fair with canceling.
It goes by a point system that is on a continuing 6 month rotation.
It is a whole math equation to figure it out.
But you can sign up to be volunteered cancel (AV)
They staff hospital wide 1st before honoring AV request
So if your unit is low you can get floated to other floors or once you had your orientation then you can get floated to the PICU or the NICU
If there is no AV request then they start to force cancel
Usually if you are cancelled you get put on on-call status
The person with the lowest cancelation points gets cancelled
If census drops mid shift and you get sent home early those hours are added into your points
Every month the points are re calculated as it only looks at the last 6 months.
They really try to only cancel us once a pay period, double canceling is pretty rare but not unheard of.
New nurses can not float for 6 months and to have a fair balance of experienced nurses vs new nurses they may get cancelled out of turn.

I haven't been bedside at the hospital in many, many years, but we used a similar method...first staff the whole building, floating as needed, then "request cancel" volunteers, followed by per diem, part time, and full time, in that order. Each subgroup (PT, FT, etc.) had their own cancel log, and we just went down the alphabetical list by category, and dated the cancel (voluntary cancels did NOT count). It was pretty simple, and every charge nurse knew how to do it.

Neldavi · Mar 14, 2014

Huh. I would be interested to know what your policy actually states, and how the "right to work" laws play into it. I work in a small, rural hospital and it mostly works itself out. We have a "wish list" where people can put a specific date they would like to be called off, if the census is low. Plus, if you are a 40-hour position, you never *have* to be called off, but you have to be willing to come in and do education or float to another unit if the census is low. Plus, we always have the choice to use PDO or not, we never have to if we are called off due to low census.

classicdame, MSN, EdD · Mar 14, 2014

we cancel in rotation, to be fair to everyone. Senority is a great way to lower morale. We also cancel aides first and allow another nurse to work instead, because the nurse is more flexible. One reason we have trouble keeping aides no doubt