What does "On Call" mean to you?

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At our facility the nurse managers have an On-call rotation (Sun-Sat). We don't seem to have any type of policy for what is required of the manager whose on call... Our weekends are super short right now and are pieced together by the nurses picking up extra shifts, staying over, coming in early ect.. This weekend has been no exception. One of the three day shift nurses (who happened to be an agency nurse) was in an accident on her way to work this a.m. And wasn't able to make it in. One of the two noc nurses stayed to pass the a.m. Meds, the other noc nurse was already staying over for a day shift! We called every nurse on the roster and begged them to come help with at least the noon meds and treatments with no luck. We called the manager on call and the response was to call the other manager! That manager was out of town! I ended up having to pass the noon meds on both my hall and the hall where we were short. One of the PM nurses came in an hour early and was able to get one treatment done. After I ran my butt off working two halls from 1100 till 2:30 I then had to help out on the third hall until 6:30. Naturally there was no time for even a quick 15 min break! It irritates me that there's a manager "on call" who doesn't help in any way! Anyone else run into this kind of problem?

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Specializes in LTC.

Where I currently work if a nurse calls in for the next shift, we might as well settle in because rarely will anyone come in and the on-call certainly will not be there either. Without having received a formal outline of duties of the on-call, my interpretation is that they handle managerial type situations (crises) but will not cover available shifts. I truly do not know if they're supposed to or not. What I do know is that us floor nurses have to make the calls to try to get coverage and if all fails, we work over. I have yet to see the on-call come in to cover a shift. I'm not holding my breath for the day, either.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Med-Surg, Psych, Geri, LTC, Tele,.

At my job, on call means you have to work at least 4 shifts per month. Many on-call people want a full time position, so they work whenever called in. Some don't though... And they seem to not understand how that will interfere with them getting regular hours eventually.

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Wrong "on call" Vintage. I don't mean the occasional staff. I'm referring to the nurse managers who are on call during the weekends and during the noc. We are supposed to call them if there's an emergency or crisis. We don't usually call them if there's a call in or something. But in this situation we had no one to cover the remainder of the shift. And there's no clear cut direction as to what the on call manager's responsibilities are.

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Specializes in Gerontology RN-BC and FNP MSN student.

One place I work Our on call managers are about worthless....they will always tell us we are responsible for handling staffing issues. Which we do end up staying over to cover...

Another place, which I thought was awesome....the on call person was designated to take floor coverage as a backup plan. That is what we need and how it should be.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Med-Surg, Psych, Geri, LTC, Tele,.

Oh. I see!

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Specializes in Correctional, QA, Geriatrics.

I was a manager in a LTC for about two years. I and the other nurse manager alternated call every other week. We usually worked our normal 50+ hour week and two sometimes 3 additional shifts a week. It was brutal and I fell asleep in the car on my way home one day after working 30 hours straight. Fortunately I was stopped at a red light when I fell asleep and no one was hurt but it could have easily turn out much differently.

My co manager and I inherited a culture of no overtime allowed by corporate and a nursing staff that resisted strongly pitching in and helping out when call ins occurred so I can totally understand the on call managers reluctance to work shifts in addition to their already full work weeks. IMO the best solution is a reliable PRN staff who can respond to same day call ins or no shows, a willingness on corporate's part to pay overtime after a manager has pulled one shift on the floor that week and floor nurses being willing to work over or come in early a few hours in exchange for a shortened shift later in the week. I personally think it is unreasonable to expect managers to work more than 16 hours in a day or work more than 1 shift on the floor in a 7 day on call time frame.

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Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.

At my building, I am on call 24/7 and get called for all sorts of important and not so important things. I have on-call nurses every weekend, in addition to the supervisors. These nurses are either supposed to call around to fill a shift--so the nurse in the building who is trying to pass meds and do treatments doesn't have to. If they can't convince someone to come in, they are expected to go and fill the slot themselves. They are very motivated to make sure the schedule is set before they leave the building on Friday afternoon.

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Yeah, the ADON who wouldn't answer her phone at night. When she waltzed in the next day she was all interested in what I had done to deal with everything that she knew I was dealing with by myself. I still ended up staying over several hours to tie up loose ends. She was no help when she was there.

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Interesteing thread. I work in a smaller facility. If someone calls off, we try to call around to the other nurses to cover and if desperate we can try agency to staff. The on call nurses never, ever come in. They are just the ADON and DON. All they do is answer questions.

Sad and unsafe in some situations. Picture being up all day since 5am, doing family stuff and going into work at 3pm-11. Do you shift okay and safely but with the understanding that you are able to go home after it is over....nada..stuck staying for 11-7.

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Our on call folks do work the units if there is need but not often. We are fortunate enough to have on call nurses who often will work extra. Of course our full time staff also work extra hours to help with coverage. Our management team like our Infection Control, RCMs, MDS nurses also work to help cover the floor often not a full shift but until we can get someone to come in either early or on a day off.

Each place has a different on call policy that has duties, some only deal with staffing crisis by phone, others deal with everything under the sun including working the floor.

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