I work in a small community hospital with an equally small surgical survives department. Because of lack of trained staff, I am expected to be on call 7 days straight, 24 hours a day, every other week and even then constantly get pulled to stay late or get called in for cases when I’m not on the schedule. When we get called in late, we do not even get a respite shift, forced to work our regular time, even if means minimal hours of sleep. I can barely have a life outside of work, constantly having to miss family events, because I am always on call. Due to low outpatient census, the hospital refuses to hire Per diem members to take call or train others to preform certain procedures so we can have more time away from the hospital. I am sick and tired of having to beg and plead for coverage with the only other RN who can take call. There should be laws about the amount of call time a person can take in a row. It is not safe to force people to work 5 8s and then be ready to come in whenever there is an emergency, which can be any time of day, and then expect them to work the next day.
