Just wondering if this is going on at your hospital. I'm a 3rd year nursing student, soon finished my preceptorship on a med/surg floor. I have heard that some RN's work part time so they can get called in once and twice a week in order to get payed overtime. Nurses here get a lot of calls to do overtime. When a nurse comes in on her day off she/he get payed twice their hourly rate. They may do the same amount of hours as an full timer but get payed more.
just like to hear some thoughts, I have heard in the media that Nurses do this.
Depends on the facility. The downside is that you aren't GUARANTEED the hours, so if you need a minimum number of hours that's more than part-time, you can't complain if you aren't getting them. (It really irks me when our float pool that makes way more per hour than the rest of us complain that they aren't getting "their hours." You want a guarantee, you have to give up the cash you get in exchange for not having a guarantee.)
Yes this happens in my hospital, at least on my unit. Call-back pay or double pay is in our contract if you're asked to work less than 4 hours before the shift starts. If you make yourself available then it's not the same so no extra pay. Per diems are supposed to be called first but don't get call-back pay, so most won't come in unless they really want the extra hours. So usually a part-time nurse will end up coming in, but it's not something they can count on, just nice for them when it happens!
This is how I have been running my life for the last 20+ years. I work two 12 hour shifts per week and make myself available for IHR( in house registry, which is time and a half). I usually pick up one IHR shift per pay period and I could always pick up more if I wanted to. Some weeks I have picked up one or two extra shifts. That is my gravy money. Why am I able to do this? Well it seems they cant figure out how to staff correctly. Or there is always someone calling in sick or something. And I made myself more valuable, by doing things others wont do, such as being in charge, etc. So I get the overtime pay and the charge pay. If you want to get overtime, make yourself more valuable to the unit by learning to do things that others dont want to do, like ACLS. Or taking charge, etc. I have a co-worker that works fulltime and does at least 1-2 extra shifts per week at OT. Thats because she makes herself available. There are some people that wont work any extra shifts, but when they know you like the OT money, they call you first because they know you will show up and be happy to do it. And I have fulltime benefits also. And when I work the OT I accumulate the extra PTO(vacation time). Now the good thing for me about working parttime is I get to be off more days when I WANT to be off. I can take almost 2 weeks off without hardly using any of my PTO. If it's slow, well then I don't get the OT, but usually I manage to pull a day extra if I want to. I just study the schedule and when I see it looks light, I make myself available. So that's the trick, be good at what you do, do things others wont do, and make yourself available. And believe me, I have very decent paychecks.
wooh, BSN, RN
1 Article; 4,383 Posts
Depends on the facility. The downside is that you aren't GUARANTEED the hours, so if you need a minimum number of hours that's more than part-time, you can't complain if you aren't getting them. (It really irks me when our float pool that makes way more per hour than the rest of us complain that they aren't getting "their hours." You want a guarantee, you have to give up the cash you get in exchange for not having a guarantee.)