Midwives - on call after 13hrs

[rainydogday]

Any midwives out there? We do 'long days' which are 13 hours, with two 30 min breaks. We consistently don't get the second one if these. We also do on calls. We have now been told we need to do them after a 13 hour shift. So could also end up working most of the night I know we can say we don't feel we are safe to practice if excessively tired but I am shocked this is now even an option. Don't think I could cope. Do any other midwives routinely do this? I know we've all worked ridiculous hours at some point but to have this planned is worrying. The RCM don't seem to cover this.

We were only ever rota'd to do two long days max and they were 12hr shifts not 13.5. If you are contracted to work 37.5hrs a week how do they work out 3 x 13.5hrs with breaks. Do you have to opt out of WTD or sign that you are happy to work more hours? Terrible that you had to stay until 02.00, couldn't they have got a nurse from another ward or a night manager to cover your whole shift. How can anyone be expected to be the only nurse on for any shift, it happens so often, they wonder why we leave.

I'm not a midwife but I work within another profession within the NHS. At my old job we used to work 9-5 then be on-call for the night until 8am the next day. I was moved to another hospital and that meant 2 hours driving each time I was called out. I was also expected to be at work the next morning and only got the day off if my total call out time was over 7.5 hrs.
Where I work now we do nightshifts 1945-0815 and we really don't seem to get enough time off in between them. We can work 8-9 days in a row and have 3 nights at the end. We are all permanently exhausted and many staff have left recently. One of my colleagues was involved in a car crash last year on her 3rd nightshift as she lives over an hour away (another victim of her job being relocated due to cost savings). We have staff on long term sick as we are also expected to work many weekends (almost all).
Honestly, this is dangerous. Someone needs to sue the NHS for working conditions like this.
I am leaving in the spring after 21 years in the NHS. Had enough. It isn't safe and I can't go on being tired etc.

It's so sad, this isn't why we joined up is it, employers rely so much on goodwill and feelings of guilt. I don't expect it's any different in the community, private, carehome, school sector either. We spend so much time looking after our patients but so little time looking after ourselves and our own lives/families. What upsets me more is that the nurse managers (in all departments) were once nurses themselves and let their employers get away with this stuff.

When I joined the NHS in the late 90's it was mainly 9-5 shifts with one SAT?SUN morning every 6 weeks with one session of on-call every week. If we were called out after midnight we got the next day off (given to us, and we didn't have to make it up). Now, we are working crazy hours and staff are just dropping.
Something needs to be done.

We spend so much time looking after our patients but so little time looking after ourselves and our own lives/families. What upsets me more is that the nurse managers (in all departments) were once nurses themselves and let their employers get away with this stuff

EXACTLY!

Why are nurses exempt from the WTD? They are looking after patients and mistakes can happen! Crazy.

I am 37.5hrs in my contract and rarely work that. I often put down for 5 x 7.5 shifts plus 2x13 hr shifts in 7 days. As days off come after nights you use the first day to go to bed then the next day you are jet lagged then go back to work to do it all again! And management can't understand why people (especially parents) are leaving!

On calls are a fact of life in many professions, not just nursing and I don't think they are unreasonable in and of themselves. It is not unusual for emergency surgery to be carried out by surgeons who've been on call for 24 hours,
and not just in the UK.

What I do think needs safeguarding is time off following them. Where I work currently then if I'm on call past midnight then I automatically get a day off afterwards (paid). Consequently nobody really minds doing them and you don't get burnout. I think if you focus on this rather than the idea of being on call per se you may get a more reasonable and realistic outcome.

* Terrible that you had to stay until 02.00, couldn't they have got a nurse from another ward or a night manager to cover your whole shift*.

No. I was the band 6 on duty and working in a 4 walled holiday home we only have 1 nurse and 1 HCA on duty overnight for the entire estate. I didn’t have anyone to give the drug keys to and I was the on call manager so would only have been ringing myself 😉

* Why are nurses exempt from the WTD? They are looking after patients and mistakes can happen! Crazy*

We are categorised as “essential shift workers” so employers do not have to comply with WTD as long as we are given ‘compensatory rest’. in practice we never get the time back!

* We were only ever rota'd to do two long days max and they were 12hr shifts not 13.5. If you are contracted to work 37.5hrs a week how do they work out 3 x 13.5hrs with breaks. Do you have to opt out of WTD or sign that you are happy to work more hours?*

In theory I get 1 hour break and 30 minute break per shift so my working pattern is 3 shifts a week, with 1 6 hour shift every 4th week to make 37.5 hours.

This is disgusting I really feel sorry for anyone working for NHS like midwifes nurses doctors you all get treated like crap worked into the ground get little thanks off your employer and patients and worse of all your the ones that have the responsibility to care for vulnerable people and yet if your exhausted how can you make the right call it’s awful and sadly something needs to be done too many good nurses doctors midwifes end up leaving because of stress

Just because surgeons agree to being on call for a 24 hour period doesn't make this right. The whole rota system needs looking at which is a massive task but everyone loses out if you have exhausted staff, except those balancing the books. Doctors got their horrendous on call weekend hours reduced so it can be done. I wouldn't want a lifesaving op done in the middle of the night by some knackered poor doctor and anaesthetist thank you.

And no pay rise for 7 years...

The Junior Doctors are now protected quite well with their shift patterns, but their professional bodies (well mostly their deanery) ensure the Hospitals have to play ball. Consultants are a different story however, my DH has just finished a 12 day stretch which included 3 consecutive nights on call.

It’s time Nurses and Midwives were better protected by their professional bodies.

Agreed re professional bodies. However I think we are guilty of putting up with it as well, not standing up for ourselves and not raising concerns often enough. I think this is partly why the trusts/managers keep getting away with it.

I stopped doing on call at my old trust after ending up working a 24 hour shift, whilst pregnant, the last 9 hours of which I was effectively on my own dealing with seriously ill patients and unable to take a break. I had to file a serious incident report and was finally taken off the rota. They said they would review the policy after that but guess what, nothing changed.

,"make sure you put in an incident form" _ what, like I have done before! Does anyone else remember when er closed beds due to lack of staff.