Letter from a nurse. Let us call her Libby.
Libby is having a problem that seems to be not too uncommon amongst shift-working nurses:
I am a senior nurse who is currently rostered a lot of weekends. Having done this for 2 years and not complained I am now seeking to find my work/life balance.
When I raised this issue with my NUM I was told that we have to balance the needs of the ward with those with families, my concerns were heard but I don’t really feel I gained much benefit from talking to her.
I sought to get more control again by dropping my hours from full time to part time (3 days /week) but I am still seeing rosters where 3 of 4 weekends are worked… I have done some scouting around the WWW but not found anything useful… I am not naive and understand that nursing is 24/7 I AM happy to do my share of weekends/nights/lates but I would like to spend time with my partner who works mon-fri and have the opportunity to book a weekend away every now and again…
What is your own experience with working a balanced roster?
Having sat at a desk next to a unit manager that worked exceedingly hard to try to meet the roster requests of 140 plus nurses in our ED, I can definitely see the complex problems that managers face when it comes to rostering.
But as for giving some useful advice to Libby, I would like to throw that out to your vast collective experiences.
How balanced is your own roster….night shifts, weekends, requested days off…..are you happy with your units rostering system?
Do you think that there should be preferential rostering as a ‘reward’ for nurses who have worked in a unit for a longer time (or who work full time vs part time) or should it be a level playing field?
Do you feel your own unit manager is responsive to the needs of their staff?
But most importantly, do you have any words of advice for Libby?
Discuss your issues with the Roster person. We are told when we start in ED that we will have every 2nd weekend off. In my first few months I worked every weekend (8 in a row). I ended up going to the roster person and raised my concerns, she apologised and said that it sometimes happens when there is a lot of staff coming and going, and if it happens again I am to see her sooner. We work a 6 week rotating roster with 4 weeks of morning/afternoon and 2 weeks of nights. Over those 6 weeks we tend to have half weekends on and off. If you do have request rostering you need to take advantage of it, even for just a few months to highlight what you want in a roster.
On the other-side of the argument, I used to work on a ward which rostered the same nurses every weekend (they wanted the penalties) as a result no-one else got the weekend penalties even when requested. We got a new ACN who thought this was unfair and changed the system by rotating the weekend shifts. This only occurred because people brought this up with the NM/ACNs.
Master 12 hour shift roster which gives you every second weekend off. Two weeks noght/two weeks day. 0700-1900.
It involves :WORK Mon Tues,
OFF Wed Thurs,
WORK Fri, Sat, Sun,
OFF Mon Tues,
WORK Wed Thurs,
OFF Fri, Sat, Sun
…and it rotates on and on.
You can see where you have your second long weekend off years in advance
For the last 6 years we have had a fully rotating roster written a year in advance. It is 100% equitable. No favouritism for staff with school aged children that you often see. We are allowed to swap among team members and take leave dependent on service needs. Works well and with a roster written months in advance you can really plan stuff.
I like Marcia’s approach for the CPD points. As a new graduate nurse many years ago, this happened to myself and my peers. Interestingly when our annual leave was granted we always had weekends off in that!!!!
I have also written rosters and appreciate the time and effort that has to go in them to balance the requirements of the unit and the requirements of the staff. It gives a whole appreciation of just who will give and who will take when it comes to shift allocations. When I wrote rosters, we were usually able to keep most people happy most of the time. In that respect you will need a thick skin because people can be quite nasty and vicious to their peers about the roster YOU have given them.
Another approach may be to go back to your manager and be more specific about the number of weekends (or part weekends) you would like to not work. This was how the unit I used to work wound up self rostering as our manager got fed up with the flack he was being given over have to meet unreasonable roster demands by the staff and staff a unit safely. He was very supportive if you went to him with your issue and a potential solution.
Good luck, it is difficult……
After many years of Shift Work I have managed to find a Mon to Fri job,No shiftwork,and No Public Holidays with Xmas/New Year off !!!. My job is just as exciting as working in a Big City instution !! An idea would be to work Agency and you can dictate what shifts you will work and better Pay !!!
Oops of course I meant Libby.
I found in my new job that as a senior nurse I was being rostered on for 6 or 7 shifts in a row every fortnight. When discussing with the NUM was told that this was necessary in order to balance the roster and give me weekend work so I could reap the penalties. The only other way was to work Mon to Fri. As this suited my lifestyle I agreed and now quiet happily work a mix of early and lates Mon to Fri and 2 weeks nights every 6 weeks. Rest staff seem happy too as it gives them access to extra weekends which most seem to want. Perhaps a similar approach could work for Lisa.
Everywhere I’ve worked, it has been part of the hiring agreement that we work every x weekends. Current hospital is every third, previous jobs have been every other weekend or one/month. Then we self-schedule around the assigned weekends. Is that more of an American thing? Would it cause too much of a kerfluffle to suggest a change to something like that? It has always seemed fair to me, since everyone works the same amount of weekends (though I’ve never been on the staffing end of it-maybe it’s a terrible headache to implement?).
I have the opposite problem. I rarely get a weekend shift and find myself being the lowest paid on the ward. I am single, no family, need the penalties and would be happy for just my fair share.
I worked w/ends cos it suited me, so allowed those with family and the desire to socialise to have them off. Maybe to help the rosterer [is there a title] maybe a group of you of same seniority etc. could get to gether and work out a rotating roster that would suit. and then its work 4 days, 2 off that way you land up with one whole weekend off and 2 half ones..in 6wks. then if you do the night shift come off the rota, and another takes your place for that week.. so its actually an 8wk cycle, .. that is then fair for many, makes rostering easier. and if you desperately needed a certain day off you swap with one of the group that has that certain day.
another suggestions is
Maybe ask for a meeting and staff bring with them what they consider fair and balanced, that meets their needs, You and managers might be surprised that parttimers are wanting the weekends, allowing full timers to do the plod along shifts, so you only work one in four
No solutions here I’m afraid. I work 50 out of 52 weekends a year
At our place it balances out. There are heaps who want the penalties. We do self rostering and our roster guru is amazing. We give her a list of what we like / don’t like and amazingly it mostly works out. A bigger dept means more people to swap with. Of course full timers really will end up needing to do some weekends. Good luck.
Rosters are always the nightmare of any workplace, and like others, have been in the position of having to try and do rosters at different times. No matter whether it is a small or large workplace, when you have to cover 24/7 x 7 days a week, you can never make everyone happy 100 percent of the time.
It sounds like you work on a system that is request based with one person doing rosters around requests and skill mix. I guess the first question would be is there equity amongst the amount of weekends worked at your level, and if not, why. That would probably be something you could address with your union if equity isn’t able to be addressed with your NUM or whoever does your rosters. If everyone at the same level is working the same amount of weekends than that is more difficult to address.
Maybe you could suss out how others at your level feel about the rosters. Maybe as a team you could come up with a rotating roster that covers skill mix as well as give equity, and swap amongst yourselves for special occasions. The beauty of rotating rosters is that you could know in advance what you would be working.
Unfortunately most problems with rosters rely on teamwork and “give and take” to solve.
Lastly, I guess…make it a Quality Activity to try and solve the problem…some research into other workplaces of similar dimensions may give you some solutions as well as some good old CPD hours.
Good Luck
No simple solutions…….
Apart from working a set roster now, the best was self rostering in a place I worked a few years back. BUT…. even then there were nurses who weren’t happy or stil didnt get the shifts they wanted!
Having had a little go at rostering during a “phase” of my nursing life I understand how difficult it is.
Oh god how much do I need an answer to this. I am just a grad but I have had more than my fair share of Saturdays. You lose out on a social life, and I’ve found it pretty draining. I believe I worked Saturdays from Jan-March this year before I realised it had literally been three months since I’d been able to catch up with friends..not to mention the month of lates I got rostered on for my first month of nursing.