Sick of being taken advantage of LONG

[adamsmom2]

Know I often post about this issue and do not do anything about it. But today was the last straw. I am a ADON in a personal care home. We do not have nurses at facility 24/7 but either me or the DON is on call. Lately we have had many call offs and of course no OT is allowed no one steps up to cover. So it is the managers responsibility to cover. No longer allowed to call an agency either. My DON writes the on call. In august she went away 3 out of 4 weekends. I complained. So in October she did every other. But then asked can we switch weekends. Which would give her 2 in a row and me 2 in a row. BUT the weekend she was on call I got a call off Friday night for a 12 hour shift that started 7am the next AM. She texted me not to bother her, she will.call me Saturday. So of course no one will come in so I worked 7am when I had a chance I called her to tell her what was going on. She said that's a shame. I stayed till 1pm when I finally was able to get someone to come in then.

So this weekend I am on call. She was concerned we would have a no show so got coverage for Saturday. Not Sunday so guess who has to cancel movie and dinner plans with the family and work the floor 4-10p. I wrote her a long text saying this is unfair that I work the floor even when she is on call and now I am on call the next 2 weekends. Not to mention when she is on call she doesn't answer her phone so everyone calls me anyway. So it really doesn't matter.

I typed up a 30 day notice but did not date it yet. Afraid in this economy won't be able to find a job. Companies no longer reward a good work ethic. They take advantage of it. So sad.

[MomaNurse]

You should look for another job. She's taking advantage and won't stop because you will always pick up. The DON/ADON should be a team. I would be careful not to put your foot down too hard til you get hired elsewhere. I think your DON could play some games or just up and get rid of you.

[geriatricRNBSN, BSN, RN]

Where is the administrator in all of this. He/she should be aware. What about compliance hotline?

[NurseGuyBri]

That's really sad The way we do it is that both myself and my ADON are on call during the week, every week for all kinds of things. If someone calls out and it doesnt get covered, we alternate coming in. So, if I have to go in tonight (DON), even if the next time someone needs to go in is 3 weeks later, she will do it. If the one after that is the next night, i do it. I realized that just because I am overwhelmed, exhausted, and tired- so is my staff, and it's my job to show them that I'm still there for them. We rotate on call nursing management on the weekends (once per month per mgr/ supervisor) so that one weekend is the Unit 1 mgr, one weekend is the unit 2 mgr, one is the tx nurse, and one is the SDC. It doesnt sound like DON is being there for the good of the whole facility, just for his/her self.