Taking Call

[Kansas_RN]

I hope I am posting this right.

My question is do any of you out there have to take call. Basically if we are overstaffed (yes I said overstaffed) and/or don't have enough patients on the floor to support the staff do you get called off. I'm obviously working in a smaller hospital. (we may hold 80 pts. full).

If we do get put on call we don't have the day off. Oh no... We get to sit by the phone just in case they need us. But of course the GREAT management:rolleyes: we have pays us a whole dollar an hour. We can't pick up a part-time call-in job, because we MIGHT get a call to come in and work 30min later or 6hours later. So far this year I have had to take 94 hours of call time. This means since I support my family I have had to use 94 hours of vaction time (we can sell it back) to cover the decrease in my paycheck. Guess how much vacation time I have left now!!!!! Who can afford a vaction anyway.

No we don't have a nursing shortage. We are full staffed. What ticks me off is when someone is home on call and we are running our butts off. Keeping the budget where they want it to be. If you point out the short staff just have to stay after 2 hrs apiece getting paid overtime that just starts the lecture about getting out on time. Oh yeah and the house supervisor will check to see if you are going to be late so they can get you out on time. Yeah mostly they check 15min before shift is over. Call them and you get the run down of how busy everyone is.

Of course tomorrow will might dismiss half our patients and be put on call. I do love the people I work with and my patients. And the next closest hospital I'ld work at is an hour away.

Just wondering if "on call" happens to anyone else.

VENTING, VENTING, VENTING...:angryfire

[ANnot4me]

At my hospital, we get paid 50% of our hourly rate and then time and a half if we are called in to work. It's a good deal. Thanks be to the union.

[meownsmile, BSN, RN]

We get 2 bucks an hour for call, and then if they dont "need" us on a regular scheduled day they will either call us off(sometimes mandetory) without pay, or they call off from a standing list for those who want to be called off(without pay). We also have the option of taking our vacation hours or any left over holiday hours if we want to make up the loss of wages for the day.

The only problem i have is if you are 12 hour shift, they will only give you call for the first 8,, or call you off for the first 8. If you dont hear from them again in the middle of the day and tell you that you can stay home,, you end up working the last 4 hours of your shift.

Id rather go to work, do my 12 and forget it. No point in taking the call off if you have to break the day and go in at 3. They dont even bother calling me and asking if i want off anymore unless it is for a mandetory time off because they know i wont accept.

[NurseKrissy]

We are on call every other week for eight hour shifts, mandatory. We get a whole 1.75 an hour while on call. If you get called in and maybe you only have to stay a few hours then the rest of your call is not cancelled, oh no. You get to go back home and sit by the phone. And, most of the time when we get called in it is to float to another unit sometimes two units. It sucks, I don't recommend taking a job where you have to be on call so much.

[KailuaNurse]

At the hospital that I work you have call for either 8 hours or twelve hours everyother week (the number of hours depends on your percentage of full time worked; the closer to 40 hours a week you work, the lessyour call). We get paid $3.50 and hour then if we get called in we get overtime plus the $3.50 an hour.

On days that our census is low you can opt to take a no pay and just go home, or you can opt to take a no pay with call, which means you get the call-time differential and then get paid overtime if you get called in.

[onco gal]

At our hospital we are "flexed off" if they can't "float us to another unit, when our census is low. Rather than "flex" everyone, they ask if we will take call at $3/hr. If we are called in we are paid time and a half. But we are not on call for 12 hr, However, I have been called in as late as 3pm. This is the only hospital I have worked that has this crazy call stuff!

[sandyth]

The RNs at my facility, 8 of us take turns being on call for weekends. My weekend comes up every 8 weeks. If i can get someone to go in for .. thats ok i get paid $45 each day Fri Sat and Sunday unless i go in to work then I get my salary, plus charge pay and $3 on the hour more. Our on call system works out ok.