Weekend Staffing

[Kathleen Case]

I'm in a group of staff nurses who are trying to improve weekend staffing at our hospital. We have just begun, and are seeking information about weekend staffing from other hospitals, and from other nurses. We have lots of questions . . . here they are:

Do you have a shortage of nurses in your community?

Do you have a w/e staffing problem?

What are your w/e requirements - how many per month--8 hr shifts? 12 hr shifts? FT, PT, and PRN the same?

Do you have some closed departments that manage their own staffing?

Do you have a "weekend option" and if so, how does it work?

Do you have mandatory "on call" just to cover call ins and if so, how do you rotate that call?

If someone calls in on w/e, do you penalize, and how?

What is the starting day of your pay period, and how many days is it?

How do you define weekends - esp for 11-7 staff?

Do you have a weekend bonus?

Do you use agency staff to cover weekends?

Finally--We haven't found any recent Journal articles re to weekend staffing (most are in the early 80's) --if you know of any good sources, please pass them along. THANKS!

[Christie H.]

I'm on a busy med-surg floor. We use 8&12 hrs on weekend. we work every other weekend.Our staffing is less on the weekend because census is less. If you call out sick on w/end you must make up time on w/end at managers descretion.We do not use agency nurses. PRN nurses work one weekend a month.

[bluesboyj]

We do 12 hour shifts and on nights we have to do 3 weekend nights and 1 Sun night every 4 week schedule including 16 hrs call time in the same 4 week period. We get a 26% weekend diff. No staffing problems except during the summer when our census drops.

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[bluesboyj]

Also our weekends for nights are Fri and Sat nights. No penalty for calling in sick either.

[3651bht]

We tried to penalize people for calling out sick but it didn't work because if I have a wedding this weekend and have to work I want the weekend off. If nothing is happening next weekend or the one after that I don't care if I have to work. Also unless someone is working penalized on the weekend I have called out the system doesn't work for that particular weekend;you are still short.

Ever hear of swapping. Some people don't mind working a Sat or Sun for a day off during the week.....

[jkh]

There is an article in Nursing 99 for August that deals with inadequate staffing. I work in long term care on 11-7 shift. Weekends are Fri-Sat. No penelty for calling in. Not a real problem for nurses. But sometimes for CNA's. We have about the same number of nurses on weekends as weekdays minus a float nurse on the day shift.

[carriec]

I'm a unit coordinator that works only weekends (Saturday and Sunday).We work every third weekend on our unit, and if Friday's are worked in conjunction with a Sat and Sun, they count as our weekend time...

prn nurses must work one shift every 6 weeks on weekends.

We have some premium pay weekend people, who work only weekends, and get extra money....and we offer weekend shift differential...

We do have to use agency nurses occasionally for high acuity...

We also have a float pool at my hospital to help out with the staffing..We aren't a closed unit, but there's talk of it......

[purplemania, BSN, RN]

We are obligated to work 2 weekends per month (Fri midnight to Sun midnight is a weekend). If you miss you have to make it up ON A WEEKEND. There is presently no weekend diff. Some people do swap, but still have to meet criteria (or else they are forever swapping and never taking a turn). Absenteeism, tardiness and failure to work w/end can result in an "occurrance". These are carefully outlined in our policy. 3 occurances in 6 months = termination. Maternal Child seems to be the only dept. that can self-schedule and never uses Agency.