Lone working out of hours

Re: Lone working out of hours

Juliet Drummond DAVN (med) RVN D32/33 — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 11:04:01 GMT

thank you all for your replies, i have lots to think about

Re: Lone working out of hours

SmegSlayer — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:44:27 GMT

the hospital i worked at as a svn had nurses on site 24/7, usually students. the late nurses left at 8:30pm and the night nurse started at 5pm until 9:30am. early nurses were in at 8am. i would be on my own in the practice from 8:30pm onwards looking after inpatients, doing laundry and answering the phones, helping the vet if called in. if you didn't have a critical animal in you could sleep usually at about midnight, with a check in the middle then restart about 5:30-6am with cleaning out etc. we weren't paid except for bank holidays and had the rest of the day off.

where i am now is not a hospital. we do our own on-call (shared with another local practice- they do monday and tuesday, we do wednesday and thursday and then we alternate weekends). during the week, the vets usually come in to give analgesia if it's after 10pm- our ortho vet likes to check on her cases otherwise she can't sleep :)

on the weekends we are not on call we try to not have any inpatients in but if there are there is a designated nurse who comes in at least 3x a day to clean out, feed, walk, give tx etc. we have an inpatient nursing charge- 1 per animal per weekend. if we are on call during the week we only get paid for being called out. on a call weekend we get paid for being called out and there is also a standby pay for having to sit by the phone. if there are inpatients on a call weekend the vet on call and the nurse on call usually divide the inpatient care up between them, although the vet will do the inpatients if they are called in around the time the nurse is supposed to come in and then we get a nice phone call to say we don't need to bother coming in.

we get the following friday off in lieu for being on call at the weekend, as we are not allowed to be paid overtime

Re: Lone working out of hours

Phrin Vernon RVN — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 22:34:51 GMT

I used to work at a practice that did on call for about 10 local practices. The overnight nurse worked 10pm till 10am and took all the phone calls, and tended to all the inpatients overnight, including administering meds - s/c, i/m i/v if cath placed and per os. There was a vet on site all night who would be there at the drop of a hat, (sleeping otherwise), and the takeover from evening to night staff didn't happen until 10pm - we had a 1 hr takeover period as the other nurse finished at 11pm

We got paid time and a half for this as well as extra time off, and SVN's once deemed competent by HVN & partners joined in the rota.

Where I am now the nurses finish at approx 7pm, and the vet on call is responsible for inpatients after that. We have an answering service who page the vet on call. If a nurse gets called out to assist we get £25 but this also gets billed to the client as ' OOH nurse assist - or similar!'

No one nurse is one call during the week, but the unspoken rule is that it is the late shirt nurse. On the weekend you work 8.30-12.30 sat, and a few hours sunday, are on call 24/7 and get a £50 retainer for the weekend, plus a lieu day and the same £25 for a call out. SVNs also take part in this rota

Re: Lone working out of hours

Jenny Cook RVN — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 21:53:26 GMT

[quote user="Juliet Drummond DAVN (med) RVN"]

great thanks

are any of you student nurses, or do you know of students that do lone work at night??

[/quote]

I am just going into 2nd year training. My practice is the base for the emergency service for practices in my area. I have done emergency service shifts for last 2 years. Been in practice almost 4 years. Its optional to put your name down for a shift, so therefore dont get the next day off, even if been called out early hours...

The shift starts at 7pm when the phones of the practices we cover switch over... There is the nurse and a vet present at the practice to do inpatient duties, etc. The nurse takes the phonecalls and does any emergency surgery with the vet that is needed. The nurse leaves at midnight to go home and is on-call till 8am while the vet stays overnight and sleeps from midnight and gets up when necc for patients.

Re: Lone working out of hours

zalenski81 — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 08:55:52 GMT

[quote user="Juliet Drummond DAVN (med) RVN"]

great thanks

are any of you student nurses, or do you know of students that do lone work at night??

[/quote]

At my last practice, we were alone on site from 7pm until 8am after having started work at 11am and students were on this rota as well (myself included). We took the phones and had to phone the vet who would (or wouldn't) come in as nec.

Re: Lone working out of hours

nicola rossi — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 08:48:26 GMT

at our hospital there is a nurse on call all night (but can sleep if quiet). she deals with the phones, inpatients and any emergencys, phoning the vet on duty to come in when needed. after initial training, both qualified and student nurses cover this shift

Re: Lone working out of hours

Juliet Drummond DAVN (med) RVN D32/33 — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 22:02:45 GMT

great thanks

are any of you student nurses, or do you know of students that do lone work at night??

Re: Lone working out of hours

Nick Shackleton — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 20:09:39 GMT

Where I work currently there is a vet on site 24/7 althou they normally head to bed around 12pm ish. Usually 2-3 nurses until 12am/3am then one nurse.

Re: Lone working out of hours

Sandra Taylor RVN, MBVNA — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 20:05:20 GMT

We do our own on call

Nurse is alone in the building, and they see to and take care of the inpatients...vet has the phones

it is a sleeping shift if its not too busy, we can grab a few hours

we get paid an hourly rate for overnight from 10pm until 8.30 am and we have the next day off.

Re: Lone working out of hours

Cat Woman — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 20:02:31 GMT

Our emergency calls go to an answer service, who then page the on-call vet who is able to stay at home unless needed & the nurse that is on call is also able to stay at home. We just have to be available to be contacted by telephone should the vet need help. In-patients are checked by nurses late at night & early in the morning - with any extra visits needed for analgesia etc. Our clients are aware we are not a hospital & sign to say that they understand that there is not someone with their animal for the whole night. We get paid overtime (doubletime) for any call outs or for tending to in-patients. We can claim a small amount towards fuel too.

Re: Lone working out of hours

Nick Shackleton — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 19:44:53 GMT

Where I used to work we as nurses only did on call.

We used to have an intern (junior vet) in the practice overnight to care for in patients. A nurse used to stay at work till 9pm (overtime as required).

We were paid for petrol if called out and overtime started from the time we left home until the time we got home!

Re: Lone working out of hours

Emma Purnell — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 19:40:00 GMT

We are not a hospital practice but this is what we do for our on calls - the vet will be on call for client calls and come in to sort in-patients if needed (and to check on them a few times in the night) and the nurse in called out as needed. We do this on a rota basis.

For being on call we get nothing, if we get called out we get £30 for the first 2 hours and overtime rate after this.

Student nurses are put onto the on call rota when they are competent and we are happy they are, but they do know that if they are unhappy any of the senior nurses would be happy to come out with them - e.g. for a caesarean.

Hope this is helpful!