Who calls staff to replace sick calls?

Nurses General Nursing

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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 :rolleyes:

Specializes in Pediatrics.

thanks for the input. of course, we have a charge rn, but it's not like anyone really makes the charge rn do everything (like seeking staff). we kind of work together, because there are usually only 3 of us (2, lately :angryfire ). i just don't trust the house sup. in that she did everything she could to find coverage. case in point, we recently were short, and she said there was no one to cover, and then at the 11th hour after she made her rounds, realized the picu had more nurses than pts!! so i'm guessing they usually don't check the other units, as they will certainly here from them if they are short (but they're not likely to call the house sup. to say they have extra staff).

another reason i don't trust them is because last night when i suped (?sp), i'm getting report, and the day sup tells me we need to mandate a nurse tonight. :uhoh21: i simply asked "who did you call?". i wasn't testing her, but wanted to know who else i should attempt to call (didn't want to call someone twice). her answer was i tried everyone :rolleyes: . i looked at the schedule, made one call to the floor, negotiated with a nurse (gave her the next eve off if she did the double), and that was that. i mean, i could sit there and say i called x,y,and z, but if the staffing remains unsafe and the poop hits the fan, who ends up dealing with the consequences? it bothered me too, because it was the middle off the day, and she wasn't going to have to wake people up when calling them.

also, the thing that really bothered me (on both ends, staff and sup, that is) is that they weren't sick call coverages, they were holes in the schedule that were never filled by those who were supposed to (there was one sick call). i know you can't pull staff out of thin air (and i do not envy those whose job it is to schedule), but this technically wasn't a situation in which you should be mandating. ls anyone in agreement with this? it has been my understanding that abandonment and mandating are only issues when it is an emergency, (not chronically poor staffing).

Specializes in Geriatrics/Oncology/Psych/College Health.
also, the thing that really bothered me (on both ends, staff and sup, that is) is that they weren't sick call coverages, they were holes in the schedule that were never filled by those who were supposed to (there was one sick call). i know you can't pull staff out of thin air (and i do not envy those whose job it is to schedule), but this technically wasn't a situation in which you should be mandating. ls anyone in agreement with this? it has been my understanding that abandonment and mandating are only issues when it is an emergency, (not chronically poor staffing).

oh, yeah!

that's been the problem at our hospital. sick call-ins are almost never the issue. there was no one scheduled to begin with.

the day my hospital mandates me to stay and fill a hole that has been on the schedule since it came out will be the last day i work there. agency nurses are available - mgt just won't use them.

I thought this is why God made float pools and PRN.

Silly me. :rolleyes:

Specializes in Geriatrics/Oncology/Psych/College Health.
I thought this is why God made float pools and PRN.

Ain't it the truth.

Specializes in Nurse Scientist-Research.

We have a large unit with average 20 nurses, 2-3 techs and 2 secretaries scheduled each shift. I'd say we have about 100 nurses on each shift between FT, PT and PRN. It falls to the charge nurse to call but is often delegated to the delivery nurse, a tech or secretary. I don't get in the middle of that mess. I also don't answer the phone when I see the hospital calling. What I find interesting is when I look back on the staffing sheets and see a day that was short. They will have a list of all the staff that was off and a short note after; something like: no (wouldn't come in), no answer, or msg left (answering machine). What I find interesting is when I see my name with a "no" by it when I know I didn't talk with anyone. I would have said no but I haven't talked with anyone. I think some people cheat when they get asked to make those calls.

I've also seen some amazing things like coming in to a very short shift, night charge walks in and sees the pitiful numbers we were given, asks the day charge who they called (everybody!!!!). The night charge makes one quick call to a nurse she knows is looking for overtime and soon we have one more person promising to come in as soon as they get dressed.

I hate when you look at the schedule and see 8 nurses schedule for several days and then 5 nurses on other days. Wouldn't it be better to be staffed more evenly. Our core staffing is 6. Or when none of the cna's want to work on Monday so there is never any one Monday. What is with that??

Another problems that has happened frequently is the manager says Nurse Nancy can have the day off( after schedule posted) but she never changes the Master schedule so we have a no show. Or a nurse on disability gets her time off extended but she doesn't check her messages timely enough to make the changes on the Master schedule.Have gotten into having to double check her when we know she makes some change.

The funny thing is she says we can no longer make changes on the schedule even direct switches with another nurse because of problems such as no shows, she doesn't get that she is responsible for most of those errors not the staff nurse who suffers from those errors.

My nursing office frequently got schedules with NOBODY on AT ALL in some units/shifts, and 8 nurses another night. This pizzed me off to no end...because it should be the managers' job to make a decent schedule of core staff. As supervisor it was my job to fill those huge gaping holes...and I balked. It had been allowed too long so I was the lone dissenter (other than griping in private nobody else would speak up...a familiar theme here in Texas)

I would call those managers and ask them what they were going to do about 'no nurses on your unit tomorrow night", as I doubted I could pull enough qualified nurses out of a hat to run their units. Needless to say, they didn't care for my style (any more than I cared for theirs...LOL)

Keeping a flexible pool and treating and paying them well is THE best solution to staffing but seems hospitals prefer to run them off, work us short, and mandate OT if absolutely necessary IMHO. I can't figger it. :uhoh3:

Specializes in Surgical Services.

I am currently a Staffing Coordinator for a 182-bed LTC/Sub-Acute facility and love my job. Now don't get me wrong, I have my days that I would love to give up but I enjoy my staff. I staff approx. 160 employees on 4 units. We have a massive amount of paperwork and I also do payroll. We are staffed according to FTE's and according to GA law we are required to staff at 3.0 FTE whereas we staff at 4.0. I believe that we are one of the best staffed LTC facilities around. I have been doing it for 2 years and will be starting the clinical portion of my school this upcoming week.

Any other staffing coordinators out there??

Specializes in Pediatrics.
I thought this is why God made float pools and PRN.

Silly me. :rolleyes:

They never seem to be available when you need them. The float pool is fairly new where I work staff. They've used them quite a bit on our floor (they cringe when they find out they're coming to us :eek: ). As far as PRN, I'm the only one on my unit. At that place, per-diems are unit specific.

Where I sup, we have phonebook of prns, probably less than half work on a regular basis. The rest I hardly ever see. They have no minimum, or weekend/holiday requirement. for me, because I'm a per-diem, yet I worked new yrs eve at one place, and new yrs night at the other :rolleyes:

Specializes in Home care, assisted living.

The other day it was me and the maintenance director calling down the list to replace a sick NA. (I'm an NA as well, but since I was night shift supervisor...guess who got to wake up people.)

Specializes in Home care, assisted living.
They never seem to be available when you need them. The float pool is fairly new where I work staff.
With one exception, this seems to be true at our facility.
Specializes in Pediatrics.

what's with all the people that don't have caller ID? My hospital's name actually comes up on the ID. If you can't work, don't answer the phone!! Even if you don't have caller ID, I wouldn't be waking up just to answer the phone. If it's that important, the person will leave a message

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