I am a Nursing Director at a very small rural facility. Our professional staff is also limited, and we do not have a pool to draw from, so when we have sick call ins it really impacts on remaining staff. Do any of you out there have policies that require staff calling in sick on their weekend to work to make up that weekend time to releive the staff that covered for them?
We have never such a policy, but are seriously considering it, I am sure that there will be strong opposition and any policy relative to this topic that you would be willing to share I would be most grateful for. We are not union, but the staff does have a committee that reviews personnel issuses and petitions administration for wages etc.
Half-time pay for on-call is an excellent incentive.
At one facility I worked at, we had a double-time incentive. Anyone, no matter their FTE status, if they signed up for any unscheduled time, got double time. Man, this was so hot, we had to start a list like the pull list so we could be fair to everyone who was signing up for it.
NEVER EVER had a problem with call-outs when doulble time was in effect. Double time was stopped once we had enough staff, attarcted through the double time incentive. Many agacey staff came on board to the hospital, and if you think about it, that is what the hospital was paying agency anyway, why not reward their own staff? Hubby used to say to me, I can't believe you are driving out to work, 45 min one-way, for a four hr shift. Hone, it's double time, like being paid for eight! this was so wonderful, esp when kids were small. I could easily pick up four hrs of db time.
Double time! Sorry I forgot to mention it before. A VERY effectove incentive!!
I am not frightened to defend myself...what I am is frustrated. Some nurses just continue to justify their poor behavior. Remember I never said ALL call-ins were avoidable. What we are talking about here are nurses who have abused more lenient attendance policies leaving no choice. Those who are abusing the sick benefit are the ones who are making it so difficult for everyone else. They are usually the ones who start defending their "right" to call in.
"Poor behavior?" Calling in? I suppose you think nurses expecting to be paid at the agreed rate is "poor behavior" as well! Face it. Sick days are a benefit, by your own admission, given by your hospital. If you turn around and require the nurse to "make up" sick days, you take that benefit away. Remember, the nurse is also receiving PTO for the sick day, unless of course your policy takes that away as well.
So, if upon hiring, suppose I tell you that I don't often take sick days, but when I do, I expect that I am exercizing my rights and using a promised benefit. I do not expect that I will be told that I have to make that up at your convienence. Now what? There's a nursing shortage, and if you won't hire me, someone will. And be happy about it.
Why do you presume, that because some people improperly use sick time on weekends, everyone does? Why do you proactively punish all your nurses? Why not identify the nurses who cause the problems, then deal with them? For example, if a nurse calls in sick repeatedly on the weekend, counsel that nurse about it. On her next weekend call in, tell her to come on in, and you will arrange for her to see a physician in the ER, or employee health. If she's ill, fine, send her home. If not, give her the choice of getting to work or leaving, for good. Finally, if this repeats itself, fire her. But don't punish all employees for the bad behaviour of a few.
I just have to say working at my hospital that would never fly. The reason is we are a unionized workplace and you can bet the nurse who is targetted because of excessive weeend call ins would file a grievance with the union before you could say call in. If a standard is applied to one nurse it has to be applied to all or the union would never let it go. Sort of ties the hands of the manger. It's either put up with poor behavior of those who abuse sick time, or force all employees to make up weekend time.
I also love the ideas about more pay for weekends on call and such, but with our budget restrants it would never happen here either. The only thing that keeps me from constant call outs on weekends is my own sense of professionalism, just like it does for the vast majority of nurses.
Fortunately I have recently changed jobs and this doesn't seem to be such a problem. It's amazing how the behavior of one nurse at my old job affected the entire unit's morale.
I work as an LPN in a rural area,we have only 4 full timers,one part timer and one casual.I a lumpectomy one day and 2 days later had to work because no one would cover me!Thats staff for you!But to call in sick-hey nurses have cruddy jobs its no picnic being a nurse-has its rewards of course,but no picnic many times,if we're sick,we're sick!Give us a break!maple
Maybe you live in a fantasy nursing world--I personally don't. We have the "weekend call in procedure." We have to make it up. If we didn't, we would have piles of call-ins!--sad? YES. Fair? NO. Changeable-PROBABLY NOT!! As for "putting up" with the policy, for those of us that live in a small town and need a flexible schedule so they can attend school--THERE IS NO CHOICE!!!! I don't "choose" to put up with this--I have to! And I shoulden't "call myself a nurse?" EXCUUUUSE ME? I worked very hard for my title, thank you very much. How DARE you say that!
How timely----the most recent addition to our Communication Book is a copy of our facility's scheduling/staffing policy, all 10 pages of it. Highlighted in yellow was the requirement to work the weekend following a weekend call-off.
For the public record: The day management attempts to enforce that provision against me is the day I will turn in my notice.
Indeed, after reading the policy in its entirety I may just "go agency" anyway. I would not be exaggerating if I summarized the 10 pages thusly:
1) Regardless of the area, shift or pattern of scheduling for which you were hired, we can change that unilaterally.
2) Full time employment means your minimum commitment to us; Our commitment to you for guarenteed hours is zip .
3) We have chosen to lump holidays, vacations, personal days, sick days into a single pool; in order to access those days you must have permission. The reasons to deny permission can fill pages. In fact, we don't even really need a specific reason.
4) One exception to item #3 is time off for illness. While we can't deny requests off for illness, we can discipline you for doing so too late, on the wrong day of the week or excessively.
I am well aware of the problems management has keeping units staffed----I have been on the management side of things many times in my career. I certainly understand the frustration. But let's be honest here: management brings many of these problems on themselves.
Facilities with longstanding inability to fill full-time FTEs will open new product lines/units/beds/programs without the slightest thought as to how they will be staffed. Or facilities will force all full time nurses to work 12 hour shifts without any consideration to the effects. (With all things being equal if your staff is now scheduled for 24 hours rather than the previous 16 on their weekends to work you should expect total weekend sick time to increase----and the resultant "holes" are more difficult to fill because they are larger and because many agency nurses don't want to work weekends.)
Of course there is the fundamental problem----hospitals do not want to pay enough to attract and retain quality full time employees. They become desperate and hire any warm body with a license. (Our hospital is one which actually encouraged potential applicants to apply over the phone in their bathrobes---job offers were promised over the phone.) Just what type of employee might one expect to attract with such tactics?
My view is if you want loyal, committed employees who will behave professionally and not abuse the employer's resourses then you should be prepared to compensate them adequately and to treat them as professionals. Attempting to manage via a morass of rules/policies will drive more employees to the flexibility offered by agencies.
Ours is an unwritten policy, that states if you call in on a weekend you will make it up. Sometimes it may not be the following weekend, since our schedules are made up a month at a time. But you will make it up by the next schedule.
Our facility has a big problem with weekend call-ins too. 9 times out of 10, it is the same people...VERY frustrating for those of us who come in on the weekends when we are scheduled....OUr floor is usually pretty decent about calling in...the skilled care unit in our facility is another story. Just this last weekend our department had to float out a CNA EVERY shift for that unit....I know people get sick on the weekends, and other things occur in life that are unavoidable.
My philosophy is to make it worth the employees effort to come in...give a liberal weekend bonus, offer employees DT if they come in on scheduled weekend off....make them feel appreciated...money talks in this world. Period. You could be darn sure I would work more than my fair share of "unscheduled" weekends if I was getting double time...... My Dad used to be a boiler room operator for a major pharmaceutical company. The boiler room ran 24/7/365....The employees got time and a half on Sat, double time on Sundays, and triple time on the major holidays...(including Good Friday and Easter!!)....Calling in his department was unheard of, and if someone did need off trading the shift wasn't a problem. And if something happened such a death in someone's family or some other family emergency, the guys covered it, no questions asked.
Most of the managers in our facility work a 40 hour week or less...My dayshift manager is out the door at 3:15 everyday....the call schedule is divided 8 ways, so they only have to take call once every 8 weekends....and if they do come in (after begging, pleading, threatening to walk out), you can make darn sure they will take a day off in that pay period "make" up for the difference....I commend you managers who are willing to come in and help when the floor nurses are swamped....it really helps with the morale.....:)
I am a Baylor person (36 hrs between Friday and Monday) and where I work, if I call in on one of my shifts, it comes out of the twelve days I allowed to take as vacation time. The rationale is that I called out on a weekend and I can't make it up on the next schedule bc I am only there on the weekend. To me it is unfair bc I am already THERE EVERY WEEKEND. I am someone who never calls in. In the past almost year, I have called in twice. (once for a dental emergency and once bc I couldnt get out of bed and was sick as can be with the flu) However, this policy does make me a little angry bc say I do get sick for a weekend, there goes 1/4 of my vacation time for the whole year. We are given 27 days of PTO, but only allowed to take 12 of them. This is strickly for the Baylor people. Other staff can use all of their PTO. Oh and if we do call in, we also lose the four bonus hrs for working Baylor.
Although the policy sucks, I am biting the bullet for now so that I can go to school during the week, let the hospital pay to further my education and move onto better things. So, it all works out in the end :)
I think if facilities offered things like double or triple time for covering a call in on a weekend, things would be different. If Ford Motor Co. can pay their employees double time and a half to work on weekends, surely hospitals with big budgets can do the same. Oh no I forgot. If they did that the CEO would have a smaller bonus next quarter! D***, he doesn't want to have to miss a Lexus payment!!
The main problem here is in the BIG management, whether it's a hospital or nursing home, the BIG guys want their profits and the rest of us can go to h*ll in a basket as long they get theirs. I kind of feel sorry for those in lower and middle management in a way, because these big guys are tying their hands, they do what they have to because they're desperate and we all hate them for it.
And no, I am not management, would NEVER EVER be management! But I think MONEY talks, and if they want staff, they should start talking OUR language!
How awful to call in sick, and all you get is, "You know you will have to make it up next weekend?!!" Uncaring and punitive! I had 2 sick days in well over a year, and both were sick family members. I have been very 'lucky', and my colds, and such, fell on my days off!
If I am sick, I will stay home. I will not make it up another day.
I don't expect management, or office staff, or anyone else to come in to work Saturday and Sunday if they missed a couple of days thru the week with the flu, either.
The "business" has to figure out how to best cover legitimate call offs and to counsel those that abuse this benefit. My job is to perform my job to the best of my ability, and I do. I am bone tired and ready for my days off when I am done.
As a nurse, I work very hard long hours. I am responsible for much more than I can safely handle on an almost daily basis, and the stress is unreal. I am exposed to deadly diseases, and occasionally I am subjected to rude and demeaning medical staff. I work weekends and holidays. That is what I am paid for. I don't want this responsibility every day of my life. Just the days I am responsible for. That is why there is a management team. They don't work the floor, I do. Their job is to staff and otherwise run the units. My job description does not say I have to figure out what happens on the days I am scheduled off or am sick.
For the record, I do occasionally work for other co-workers when they need a particular day off. I will re-arrange my schedule to satifsy the unit requirements, but it has always been done with my approval and with mutual respect. I am lucky to work for such a facility.
There should be good incentives for the ones that do want to work their off days. Such as, double pay or decent bonuses.
There should be agencies to call, in-house pools, or whatever it takes to allow nurses to have their much needed time off. If there is not, nurses will feel abused and burn out and they WILL leave.
What I am trying to say is, this is a MANAGEMENT problem. Not mine. If you can't staff, then you need to go to YOUR higher ups, and threaten whatever YOU have to, to get the staffing in place you will need when there is an unexpected hole in staffing. Be it agency, pool, or God forbid, "lots of money" to whomever fills the spot at the time of need.
Nursing has changed thru the years. The idea of double shifts and working days off because you are a "team worker" is all well and good. But, it should be done only IF the person doing it truly WANTS to do it. And you shouldn't be penalized when you are sick.
I am grateful reading some of the managers responses on this thread. You are truly trying. But, some of the responses leave me dumbfounded and saddened from the lack of respect. My response comes from my own experiences as a nurse for almost 20 years.
Once again the sole focus is to punish the "offender". The nurse that dared to be sick on a weekend. How can nursing ever hope to recruit new nurses into nursisng with this kind on mentality. If there is a pattern then by all means punish the offenders, but for gosh sakes don't punish everybody. Why not try to make working weekends more attractive. At my hospital they use to pay 2/1-2 pay for working extra weekend shifts. And never had a problem geeting nurses to work extra shifts. Now the nurses must work extra weekends with no compensation, even to having split shifts on weekends. No wonder nurses call off sick. After all even"nurses" have a life outside of the hospital. Please there needs to be some compassion shown by management or the nursing shortage will just keep getting worse. jlc
My Dad used to be a boiler room operator for a major pharmaceutical company. The boiler room ran 24/7/365....The employees got time and a half on Sat, double time on Sundays, and triple time on the major holidays...(including Good Friday and Easter!!)....Calling in his department was unheard of, and if someone did need off trading the shift wasn't a problem. And if something happened such a death in someone's family or some other family emergency, the guys covered it, no questions asked. 
hoolahan, ASN, RN
1 Article; 1,721 Posts
Half-time pay for on-call is an excellent incentive.
At one facility I worked at, we had a double-time incentive. Anyone, no matter their FTE status, if they signed up for any unscheduled time, got double time. Man, this was so hot, we had to start a list like the pull list so we could be fair to everyone who was signing up for it.
NEVER EVER had a problem with call-outs when doulble time was in effect. Double time was stopped once we had enough staff, attarcted through the double time incentive. Many agacey staff came on board to the hospital, and if you think about it, that is what the hospital was paying agency anyway, why not reward their own staff? Hubby used to say to me, I can't believe you are driving out to work, 45 min one-way, for a four hr shift. Hone, it's double time, like being paid for eight! this was so wonderful, esp when kids were small. I could easily pick up four hrs of db time.
Double time! Sorry I forgot to mention it before. A VERY effectove incentive!!