Hi. I have worked at my job for 2 years. I will try to keep this short. I am a nurse at a large hospital. the hospital has VERY RECENTLY come up with new "peer commitees" to make changes to practices throughout the hospital based on input from the department nurses. I am a weekender in a specific department. The commitee for my dept is made of other full time employees; NOT WEEKENDERS like me. I believe it was created with the intention of changing TASK related protocols and deciding which PRODUCTS work best for our field. The commitee for my dept. decided that weekender nurses in our department (weekender is a seperate job title and description) should start taking night call on the weekends. Their decision does NOT apply to other weekenders in the hospital.

This presents a HUGE problem for me and other weekend staff. We are required to work 24 hours (2-12 hour shifts) each weekend. That is ALL we were hired to do. We get premium pay for working EVERY weekend so that the regular staff can work less hours/have off on the weekend.

I work Friday and Saturday 7a-7p. Other weekenders work Sat. Sun 7a-7p. Our dept is "closed" at night unless there is an emergency..that is when call comes into effect. Call nurses often spend their entire call time actually working. To the point that most nurses in my dept that take call have worked over 24 hours straight...illegal, I know.

Being on call from 7p-7a, after working 7a-7p could potentially FORCE us to work 24 hours straight. Not to mention interfere with other activities that we are obligated to. One weekender works Sat/Sun and then Mon-Fri in another department. Her call is required to be Sunday night so she can still work Sat/Sun days. She has already said point blank that she won't take the call on Sunday nights because of her other job.

The other staff who make up the "commitee" think that she should just reschedule her other job so she can take the call. :confused: Because it has to be ALL or NONE. They know they can't require some weekenders to take call, but not others. Especially when NONE of us were hired to take night call.

I don't understand how co-workers can decide to change our job requirements like this. My manager says it's up to the peer commitee; because that is what it was created for by the hospital. But I don't believe that the peer commitees were set up by the hospital to implement changes like this. Heck, doesn't this mean that they could decide to change my schedule completely if it would make THEIR workload less?

That is essentially why they are making us take call...so they can take LESS call.

Is there any law to help us with this change in job description or should we just look for new jobs?

Jennifer

If the employer has given the peer committee the authority to make these decisions, then there's nothing in the law that says they can't. It's entirely up to the employer who makes these decisions.

If the employer is content with these changes, your option is to find another job. No law requires that they take second jobs into consideration when scheduling.

That's just it. The hospital implemented the commitee for other reasons. It is okay for them to make changes to the way we practice, but I think my manager is misinterpreting their duties and upholding their decisions because she thinks she has to, not because they are actually allowed to make such decisions as this one. Mostly I think my manager is trying to be a people pleaser so more staff members don't quit and weekend nurses are the minority in my departement.

I just don't know what to do!
Thanks for you insight though,
Jennifer