Monday, April 7, 1986
Nation/World
University Daily Kansan
7
Night-shift nurses earn their extra pay
By Lynn Maree Ross
*
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The fifth floor nurses' station was a white wash of uniforms as doctors and nurses reviewed patients' charts. Only the steady beeping of a patient's call buzzer and the ring of the telephone broke the murmur of voices.
Janet Van Cleave, an evening-shift registered nurse, sat recently in the midst of the hustle making notes
It was 3 p.m. — time for shift
at the University of Kansas
Medical Center.
about the six patients she would care for during the next eight hours. A nurse from the day shift told Van Cleave about each patient's day, what they had eaten, what medicine they needed and when.
"It's a real hectic time." Van Cleave said.
She turned back to her notes and began organizing her schedule for the week.
"That's a big thing in nursing," she
said, "Organization." She started
by saying, "I'll do it."
"Hi, I'm Janet. I'll be your nurse until 11 this evening," she said.
Although nurses such as Van Cleave who work evening or night shifts look the same as day-shift nurses who work from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., the hospital administrators see something others may not.
The Med Center gives evening- and night-shift nurses a 10-percent differential on their base pay, which is added to the nurses' monthly paycheck because of the hours they work.
Geraldine Davis, associate director of nursing at the Med Center, said the differential was a necessity because the hospital had problems enticing people to work those shifts.
Some nurses at the Med Center said working the evening and night shifts was difficult because the odd hours could disrupt families, social lives and sleeping patterns. Also, during those shifts, fewer people and services, such as a pharmacy, are
available to back them up
Lorna Hansen, an evening-shift nurse at the Med Center, said many nurses, especially younger ones, wanted to spend time in the evening with their families.
"Family life is important for them," she said.
Socializing also is important to the younger nurses, she said, and working odd hours destroys most chances for a social life.
In another part of the hospital.
Donna Bost, a licensed practical nurse, snatched supplies from a cart as she described working the night shift. She works the evening shift now, but for three years she worked the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift.
What was irritating, Bost said,
were telephone calls that woke her up
up during the day, and strange looks
from visitors to her home when she
answered the door in her bathrobe.
"It was terrible." she said.
nurses deserved a shift differential because the shifts were understaffed and because services such as the pharmacy weren't available then.
"That's why they need to make it sweeter," she said, referring to the potato chip.
She said evening- and night-shift
Bea Rush and Beth Morse, two evening-shift supervisors, understand the problems that come with working odd hours, but they see the situation from a different point of view. They are responsible for juggling staff assignments.
That night, juggling the staff for the evening and night shifts was like a bad dream. Only two beds in the 650-bed hospital were empty, and some of the people scheduled to work were ill.
Rush and Morse glanced at their staffing cards and began to choreograph a late-shift shuffle. Like politicians, they began calling in
"Would you be willing to stay? Please. Rush asked one nurse.
Later, on rounds through the hospital, the supervisors checked to see how the staff on each floor was handling the situation.
"If we could get an aide just to answer all these lights, that would be wonderful," said Beth Sjoblom, a nurse on the orthopedic floor.
Rush said she usually waited until the last minute to set up changes for the night shift because sometimes someone would call in, disrupting the whole plan.
"Then what have you gained?" she said.
Morse said hiring more nurses really wouldn't solve the problem. Besides, the human Legislature at the hospital is a certain number of staff positions.
But regardless of what shift the Med Center nurses work or want to work, many of them said they wouldn't quit if the shift differential were taken away. Some nurses even they preferred working the later shift.
The added differential is nice, said Deb Beyer, a part-time nurse, but the differential is not the most important part of the job. Beyer chose to work the evening shift because her husband could care for their children in the evenings.
na Dawson, a head nurse at the Med Center, said.
"You have some very dedicated,
very p-nur-sing people here," Don
While this arrangement works for Beyer, other nurses who are single parents and choose a late shift must find another solution.
Dawson said she preferred to work the evening shift because she was used to the schedule. The differential handy when paying a babysitter.
Like some nurses, some baby sitters who work in the evening ask for more money than those who work during the day, Dawson said.
However, Dawson said if the differential were taken away the nurses might ask, "What goes next?"
Loss of the differential, she said, probably would make the Med Center the only hospital in Kansas City without a differential, which might cause some of the nurses — those with more skills and experience — to go to other hospitals.
The Med Center pays evening- and night-shift nurses an hourly wage of $9.68 to $14.29. Those wages are comparable to wages at other area hospitals.
Mary Anne Eisenbise, director of nursing services, said the 10-percent differential meant an additional 86 nurses being on call to the evening, and night-shift nurses.
Many of the other hospitals in Kansas City also offer a similar differential to entice nurses to work late.
And a few such as Truman Medical Center in Kansas City, Moe, give bonuses to evening. and night-shift nurses
Differential or not, Van Cleave would still prefer to work a day shift. But she's glad to have the extra money while she works.
"I'm kind of counting on it," she said. "It's a nice reward."
Bills give go-ahead to Regents
By Lynn Maree Ross Staff writer
The Kansas Board of Regents plans to issue $7.7 million in revenue bonds for a new multi-level parking garage and a new animal care unit at the University of Kansas Medical Center.
The Senate Ways and Means Committee passed two bills Friday that would authorize the Regents to issue the bonds.
The projects will cost $8.7 million, Marlin Rein, associate hospital administrator, said yesterday. Refinancing of some existing revenue bonds provide $1 million, and $7.7 million will come from new revenue bonds.
The garage will cost from $3.2 to $3.5 million, he said, and the animal care unit will cost $5.2 million.
Parking revenues will pay for the annual debt on the revenue bonds for the parking garage and its upkeep, Rein said. The Med Center asked the Legislature to help pay for the annual debt for the animal care unit out of the sponsored research overhead fund.
Rein said the fund had no extra money, however the Legislature could shift projects from that fund to the state's general funds.
Shortage of parking space forces some employees to park a long distance away from the hospital and a growing number of outpatients is decreasing the available parking spaces, Rein said.
He said the new garage would increase parking by about 700 spaces. Employees will use the new garage, and visitors and outpatients will use the existing garage.
A consultant will determine where the garage would best be located he said.
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