I have a question about on call pay .I have been working in a hospital owned, primary care pediatric practice for 6 years. Two years ago I and my colleague where asked to start taking call (phone only ) one night per week. At the time we were offered the going rate of 2 dollars per hr. This seemed ridiculously low to us considering the knowledge, decision making and responsibility required. After much discussion and gnashing of teeth, the rate was raised to 4 dollars per hr. This still seemed low, but we felt the hospital had made some concession so we agreed.

We are now being asked to take call one weekend a month  in addition to the weekday call. This call would be from 6am. Sat. to 6am. Mon. This additional call would be a temporary arrangement until we are able to hire a new pediatrician to the group. We are being offered the same pay arrangement of 4 dollars per hr. We are told there will be no weekend differential. As a professional, I balk at the idea of being paid less then a fast food worker is to mann the drive-thru window. I and my coworker are being asked to use our education,clinical judgment, and experience to assess and advise our patients and family.

Are we off base on this? What are other peoples experience?

Thank you,

Ashley Daughenbaugh FNP-CRNP-C 

I know as an OR staff nurse, we got pain $3.65 an hour to carry the pager, which involved having to go in for cases. As a NP, when we take call in our private practice there is no compensation, it is just to cover our own patinets within the practice.

I also take call for a local Orthopedic practice. This involves both phone calls from patinets and nurses on the floors of the hospitals, as well as ER call which does sometimes require us to go into the ER and / or OR. The surgeons get paid ~ $2500 to cover the ERs. As the NP or PA, we get about $265 for the night. Given the headache and limited sleep on these night, I still feel this is grossly underpaid, since we don't call the surgeon unless we need them.

I'm not sure if this is any help to you, but it's what we do.

 Tom