Out of hours weekend nursing wages

Re: Out of hours weekend nursing wages

Caro Laithwaite VN — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 12:12:40 GMT

Hi yup was going to stay zipped as l did not want to rock any boats. I charge locum rates for weekends which l do not suppose would apply here. However l would agree that it seems basically a cr*p wage for what you have to do.

Having said that it depends what the normal work load is for a weekend. If you see about 10 patients all weekend and have maybe 3 or 4 inpatients in and a few phone calls. Then it is not so bad. If you have a huge caseload, then it is laughable.

As Miss Vetnurse says emergency work has no relationship to day work. Even day emergency work is totally different to life at nights in a full emergency clinic. But then you do not state what sort of practice it is.

Am not sure where the work time directives come into play on this lot. Work breaks etc. And even if you are sleeping you are still technically on duty although people try to say but you are sleeping. It actually doesn't count.

At the end of the day you need to balance. What the normal work load is x the wages x the time locked in and see if you feel it is worth it. And take into account that if you have a partner their normal routine is probably weekdays and spend weekends with you and you would be working every weekend. It is not just that side but friends as well you need to think about. I do not have a social life... no cancel that l have no life but when l was doing just nights we got one full weekend roughly every 6 weeks and it was stressful. And that is someone with no life like me.

Re: Out of hours weekend nursing wages

Claire Cameron — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 07:48:14 GMT

[quote user="Shane"]

hmmmm...

well £300 for 44 hours work is approx £6.82/hour. I know you have said you are allowed to sleep, etc if not busy...but what happens if you remain busy all weekend? Trust me, it can happen, and has happened to me in the past. Is this for every weekend? If so...£300 x 4 weekends = £1200/month = £14400/year

Not trying to put you off, could be an easy job, but might also be extremely tiring.

[/quote]

I agree with Shane, I've worked nights before and although you do get some nights where you can relax, take all the time in the world with your inpatients, there are others where you don't stop and this is extremely tiring and draining.

I loved nights, I loved the emergency and critical care nursing however in my opinion it is nothing like nursing during the day, nothing can prepare you totally for night work, it is of its own. I'm sure Caro would be able to advise you

Good luck x

Re: Out of hours weekend nursing wages

Shane — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 07:15:11 GMT

hmmmm...

Not trying to put you off, could be an easy job, but might also be extremely tiring.

Re: Out of hours weekend nursing wages

rhiangr1 — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 16:27:22 GMT

I am allowed to sleep and relax during patient checks and if there is no operations going on what do you think of this pay?

Re: Out of hours weekend nursing wages

Mrs Dot Dot — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 20:35:22 GMT

Hi... So you will be doing a 44 hour shift with no sleep/ rest time.... sounds like a full weeks work to me....?