Happy Monday firstcall HEALTH team! We know it’s been way too long since our last post and the communication will be going back to once perhaps twice a week in most instances. We hope you are all safe and well!
WELCOME TO THE NEW STAFF
I would like to start off by welcoming all of our new recruits internally and bank staff. We couldn’t be doing what we are doing and achieving the quality service we are without each and every one of you. Whilst we can appreciate the times are different and challenging to say the least it is great that to some degree there is a level of normality back in our lives across both socially and professionally speaking.
AVAILABILITY UPDATES
We are very grateful that we are still super busy and have built such fabulous relationships with all of our clients so that means we are most definitely hitting all sorts of targets in terms of shifts being filled and recruited staff. That said there are still so many hours coming through that we are not able to fill across both hospitals and aged care. Can we please ask that you update your availability via the app the minute you are no longer available or your circumstances change.
PRE BOOKINGS
As you have all noticed, we have been very fortunate to be receiving a number of advanced bookings requests. This is to ensure that our clients are getting their shifts covered and you are being secured with a shift. If you are accepting a shift with the ward as TO BE ALLOCATED this is a CONFIRMED SHIFT. This does not mean should you not hear from us until 6am in the morning for your ward allocation on an AM shift that you have the choice to then decide I am no longer available. I am very concerned at the level of this happening at the moment. It is no different to the expectation being that if you are cancelled then you expect to receive a CXLTN fee if it is after 6am on an AM or under 2hrs on any other shift PM or ND. The clients are now charging us for staff withdrawing from shifts and we are fully supportive of this. An emergency situation is completely understandable however, needing to go see a friend or I have had a visitor pop in is far from an emergency situation. Should you require the definition of what constitutes an emergency our friendly allocators would be more than happy to assist with this.
We also ask that there is a level of pre booking etiquette followed as well. We understand if there is little flexibility that you have particularly if you are working around babysitters or partners, or simply other life commitments but can we ask that you make this very clear when accepting the shifts. For example, if you are accepting an 11pm start on a night shift they could potentially ask if you can start at 7pm, 9pm or 10pm, if you have no level of flexibility that is completely fine but please let us know this when accepting. The same applies when being booked for groups such as Barwon Health and Western Health. If you are unable to attend a specific site then please make that clear to the allocators at time of accepting the shifts so we can add a note to the shift request and when your allocation comes through it is a smoother process for both the client and the agency.
CONFIRMATION TEXTS VIA THE APP
We are also experiencing a number of staff being completely unaware of where they are going simply due to not reading their messages properly. You can be moved across wards within the same site once you have received a confirmation without a phone call from the allocations staff so please ensure you are checking your app at all times for the most recent confirmations. This is a management issue particularly for those working an 11pm or later start because you are coming through to an after hours number and they are not necessarily sitting in front of a computer so we do ask that you try to ensure you are communicating the most recent information when phoning advising I am unsure of where I am going. We will do our best to guide you at all times but we have found people getting quite frustrated with us on the phone particularly at that hour of the evening so to avoid this, please ensure the most accurate information is being communicated.
FILE UPDATES
Our database is currently undergoing an intense overhaul and we are doing our absolute best at working as a team to achieve the most efficient processes. This means you will be receiving much more frequent updates should there be something we are missing on file so please ensure you are attending to this as quickly as possible.
Our team has grown tremendously over the last twelve months and we are so grateful for the team we have working tirelessly to ensure you are all receiving your shift offers as frequently as possible. Should you have any level of concern about anything at all please feel free to speak to Rebecca or Angela, they are contactable at any time on email Rebecca – allocations2@firstcallhealth.com.au or Angela – angela@firstcallhealth.com.au
Have an amazing day and stay safe!
firstcall HEALTH team
