Who calls staff to replace sick calls?

nursemary9, BSN, RN · Jan 2, 2005

Hi

I've been on both sides.

Presently, I'm a nite staff nurse & we take turns at Charge. When in chare, next shift staffing is our duty.

We have a mtg. at 0330, of all the charge nurses in our area. (all the med-surg regular floor units). We go over staffing--what we have, what we need.

We have a staffing grid that is a BIBLE on how we distribute staff. ( Makes no difference if you have x number of hard patients or the same number of easy patients---same staffing.

Did I mention the mtg. chairperson is our nite supervisor.She really makes the final decisions.

So, if a floor is short, they may get someone from a floor who has excess;

So, if there is any calling, it is the Charge nurse.

MaryAnn

Thunderwolf, MSN, RN · Jan 2, 2005

We have two supervisors during days and evenings and one at night. During days and evenings, one sup is in charge of patient bed placement (new admits and transfers) and the other sup is responsible for staffing (and clinical concerns)...making the calls or floating staff. At night, the one sup does both. Floor staff rarely have to make a call because that is the sup's job. We also follow a staffing grid on the floor. The charge nurse position rotates among the RNs, who communicates closely with either sup, regarding current and upcoming staffing and clinical needs. So far, it works out very well.

Nurse Ratched, RN · Jan 2, 2005

House super is responsible for that where I work. Staff nurses dont have time, and I really feel that that is a managerial responsbility to fill staffing holes. How do you tell a nurse who is already running short that she needs to take yet more time out of patient care to call people? (Technically it's the responsiblity of our nurse manager, but he's been doing a crappy job and there are LOTS of holes in the schedule and every day it's another call from the facility looking for coverage. The house supers need to address that with him and the powers that be.)

Our charge nurses carry a full patient load, so we don't have a desk nurse who could do that, and it just seems wrong to dump it on the unit secretary.

mattsmom81 · Jan 2, 2005

When I was house supervisor seemed this was all I did as well...and staffing was my biggest headache. You think the next shift is all set...then whamm... 3 late callins and the hospital is in trouble.

I lLOVED the units where the charge nurses would take ownership and call their own staff...they 'knew' who wanted OT or who was available...and they helped each other out. Some specialty areas liked to do this...OB, OR, PACU...sometimes ICU. I think its a great way to encourage a camaraderie. (There are some who will abuse it tho and scarf OT, cancel PRN's so it does has to be monitored)

Staffing for medsurg was ALWAYS a bytch. Don't miss it. Ugghh. :uhoh3:

Tweety, BSN, RN · Jan 2, 2005

We're large enough there's a staffing office that calls to help replace sick calls. The nurses or supervisors/managers don't do it. It's clerical work, not management or nursing work in my opinion.

talaxandra · Jan 2, 2005

Sick leave calls here are rung through to the ward. Any ward staff who are available to work note that on the allocation form, along with a time that they can be called. If there are no staff available, I report to the clinical coordinator that we have sick leave which needs replacing and she arranges a replacement from either nurse bank or an agency.

allele, LPN · Jan 2, 2005

At my previous job we had a 'nurse administrator' do all staffing. She was not a nurse, and I'm honestly not sure what her other duties were. I know there were more, but everytime I had to talk to her she was working on staffing!! LOL You couldn't pay me enough. Where I work now the charge nurse has to deal with the staffing issues. They usually deal with whether or not someone has to float to a short unit. If we can't float because our own census won't allow it or our only extra person is overtime and refuses to float (which they should have the right to do, if they're not needed they just want to stay home), then the short unit might get angry and get the house sup. involved, but it's rare.........and even though they're the boss they can't change our census, so I'm not sure why they're called in the first place. LOL Anyway, if the charge nurse is just too busy to make the calls, she'll just hand the rolodex to the unit clerk or the monitor tech (if they're not busy!), or a CNA if they're not busy and ask them to just call down the line. Anyway, as I said before, you couldn't pay me enough to do staffing, for the same reason the OP hates doing it. Waking people up, interrupting whatever it is they're doing. Hate it. :)

chip193 · Jan 2, 2005

the reason i ask this, is because i feel like that's all i ever do. at the job where i supervise, it is our job (the staff would never dream of doing it, and it's just something that's expected of mgmt). however, at my staff job, it's our responsibility as well, (the staff, that is) unless it's a week-day, and our unit nurse manager is in. weekend and nights have a house sup (like my other job), but somehow they are too busy to do it (again, something that is expected of staff at that place).
excuse my venting, but i worked one night at each place this w/e, and the # of call in's were unbelievable (weekend and a holiday, no less). i'm just so tired of being laughed at and waking people (and their children, parents, and s.o.'s) up. i mean, really, who wants to cover a sick call on a holiday weekend? not to mention, having to deal with the looks whrn the staff walks in and has to work short.
boy, am i learning a valuable lesson, being on both sides of the fence

our place has a staffing office that covers call-ins from 6a-9p. outside those hours, it falls to the nursing supervisor.

however, if you want to work (e.g. cover the sick call), you let the charge nurse know when the staffing office is closed. the supervisor will call the charge and look for ideas of who to call.

chip

Antikigirl, ASN, RN · Jan 2, 2005

According to our managment it is the charge nurse that deals with all call ins that come in during their shift. Luckily our receptionsist and CNA manager that do take on this during reg business hours because us nurses can't. But after 1700 and till 0800 the next day...it is that ONE shift nurse that is on duty that must.

Not only that, but we have to handle any staff probelms like disputes, complaints between shifts (my goodness does my day shift hate the swing shift and vs versa so they complain to us nurses constantly!), and of course the daily drama of "As the Caregiver's World Turns" LOL! I love my caregivers, but I feel that not only do I have to be a professional nurse for 160 residents, but a babysitter hired by the admin to keep everyone in line...and I really don't like it at all.

I feel if you have a need for management to be more involved for things like call outs or complaints or disiplinary actions, you hire someone to help during those times, or at least oncall, but I guess I am just to rational..LOL! Plus, they don't have us nurses involved in protocols or managment choises, or even declare us as 'adminstration' except when they are in a pinch...so it kinda ticks us off to be stuck with it, then get written up because our other duties aren't getting done!!! UHGS!

But we tried this new idea..and so far so good! We use to print out the entire shift schedule to give to everyone, that included all caregivers for that shift. For some reason I guess some caregivers would look at a schedule, see there were extra floats or someone that could pull their shift in a pinch..and would call in! Now they only get their personal schedle and the main schedule is locked up...call in's are down quite a bit!!!

If your facility gives out the full schedule which includes everyone on, I would suggest trying this...it has really helped!!!!!

SmilingBluEyes · Jan 2, 2005

Where I work, we who are charging that shift do. And yep, it sucks. I hate winter cold/flu season.

RNKPCE · Jan 2, 2005

Our staffing office does the calls. Before state mandated ratios the staffing office would ask for a list of people to call, they don't do that anymore. I think they have to document that they have tried to call everyone so that if they can't meet the ratios then they have proof that they have tried.Sometimes the units will call if they think they may have some pull with the nurse or can work out a deal such as" if you come into night I will give you next Saturday off and they you will have a 4 days weekend"

We are often robbing Peter to pay Paul