Would this be allowed?

[seemerun]

So I am interviewing on Friday for a home health agency that looks wonderful from the outside. They have several different types of positions open and there are 2 that I am interested in.

The first is an oncall only position. From what I understand it is M-F triaging patient calls and being on call during the overnight hours. Basically it averages out to something like 16K/year with full benefits assuming I never had to leave my house once. If I have to go out for any reason it is 70 dollars per visit.

Naturally 16K won't cut it financially. So I was thinking it would be good if I could work that plus work about 20 hrs/week as a regular HH nurse. For instance T/TH and every other Sat.

Would something like this be allowed? Or would it violate some sort of labor law to be on call and then go work a regular shift twice a week? Any thoughts?

[cookie102]

at the agency i work for , for awhile we had a nurse that worked days mon thru fri, and took call mon thru thurs,,,,agencies are alwys looking for an on call nurse....all us "regular" staff do not like on call

make sure if you take the call position you don't start to get "leftovers" from the day that people just didn't get to. i have seen that happen...will you be on call for hospice or just HH? that can make a difference...basically it comes down to what works for you in your life....good luck

[seemerun]

Well that is good to know! Hopefully it can work for me as well. Iti s just a home health agency and not affiliated with hospice (that I know of). I think the amount of call would be pretty minimal.

[renerian, BSN, RN]

I have seen people do both roles. Depending on how much you end up getting up at night, going out at night, how far you have to drive, the weather and most of all if you get "stuck" with admissions, recerts etc. I have seen agencies give the "on call person" a bunch of working visits. So for example, if your on call Friday-Monday AM, and there are 5 admissions and no one else to do that, the on call person gets stuck doing that AND taking calls/call visits. I have also seen huge coverage areas and in the dead of winter, that stinks.

I would also find out if you are responsible for staffing or calling staff to cover call offs. If an agency gives the on call nurse, the duty of staffing call offs, it can take alot of time. Also I would find out that if you cannot get someone to cover, ask i f you are required to do all the unstaffed,call off visits.

I hope this helps,

renerian