OOH night nurses

RE: OOH night nurses

nathalieford — Sat, 20 Aug 2022 06:34:11 GMT

I work in a first opinion small animal hospital that covers the OOH for 2 other practices, one of which has 4 branches and covers a large catchment area. There is 1 vet and 1 nurse overnight.

As nurses we work 5 on, 10 off. The shifts are 15hr. When the dedicated night service began (only a few months ago, previously the nurse was sole charge), the plan was to allow a 2-3 hr break for each during the night while the other person monitored the inpatients (workload dependent of course). The vets work 7 on, 14 off - 13hr shifts.
With inpatients/phones/consults/emergency surgeries or imaging this (for me, I can’t speak for the other VN’s that work nights) doesn’t happen, with at least 3/5 I end up working for the whole night.

So, my thoughts really are at what point do you get more staff in to help with the workload? Obviously recruitment is a major issue at the moment and we are short staffed during the day, meaning some work gets left for the night team which sets you on a back foot before you even begin.

RE: OOH night nurses

apache — Thu, 18 Aug 2022 23:29:34 GMT

Can you give us a little more information? Are we talking dedicated OOH and up all night, on call etc? How frequently called, how many nurses.

I think the starting point would be a 40 hour working week, on average. I know some people who do on call and work a full week of days and nights on a rota and are paid either a retainer or well if they attend, I think that's ok.

RE: OOH night nurses

rgreeny — Thu, 18 Aug 2022 22:55:24 GMT

I used to work in first opinion and I worked 7 nights on and 7 nights off, 12hr shifts. It was just me and one vet in an extremely busy hospital taking emergency calls/consults and surgeries, as well as looking after inpatients.

This shift pattern is not sustainable in the long-term. I did a year full time and then 8 months locuming and choosing my shift pattern. They had a very high staff turnover because of this.

I now work at a referral centre and work 4 nights on and 6 nights off, 13hr shifts. The night team is 2 RVNs, 3kennel assistants/auxiliaries and 1 vet intern. This is a lot more manageable and the shift pattern is one of the main reasons I chose this hospital.

Some places do 7nights on and 14nights off, some do 5 on 10 off. I would highly advise not putting your nurses on a rota of more than 5 nights in a row if you want to maintain happy and healthy staff. However, if the nights are ‘sleeping’ shifts then perhaps this doesn’t count, I have no experience of that luxury!!