In an attempt to babysit our new SHOs and to thus keep the Colleges happy
one of our Staff Grades kindly agreed to work night shifts from the first
Wednesday until the Monday morning. Whilst we are (currently) of a size
where the night shift should be manageable by a single doctor the Staff
Grade was pleasantly surprised to find that she felt that, in addition to
holding the SHO's hand, that there was a positive effect on patient care
for all the usual reasons of senior presence - sorting out spats between
specialties, ensuring appropriate referrals etc. etc. Further the (at
times) quietness was useful for getting on with admin work.
So I'm talking job planning with the Staff Grades - if they want to benefit
the Department by working more out-of-hours - and particularly nights, they
already cover evenings but that needs sorting recompense-wise - they can
work fewer shifts. The resources aren't there for financial reward -
although that's for future Business Planning.
My question, after all that pre-amble, is 'What is a fair reward?' In
other words I want to find a currency whereby an evening is worth (say) 1.5
shifts, a night 2 shifts (these figures are pure examples, plucked out of
the air, couldn't think how to illustrate the point differently - don't make
an issue over the fact that you disagree with them!). The idea would be to
have a unified currency for all my Staff Grades but to thereafter do the
out-of-hours thing on a voluntary basis - some might appreciate working
nights with appropriate time off, others wouldn't. I recall recent
postings regarding the Consultant Contract where similar points were raised
- are there firm recommendations out there? - do they apply to Consultants
and Staff Grades? Does anyone else have experience in this that they can
share?
Thoughts appreciated.
Nick Jenkins
A&E Consultant
Abergavenny
http://www.ae-nevillhall.org.uk
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