NEW & IMPROVED APP
We are thrilled with the roll out of our new app. By now everybody should have this working as many of you are updating and amending your own availability and can see your confirmed or cancelled shift requests. If you are still having any issues with accessing the app please ensure you are emailing admin@firstcallhealth.com.au ASAP as you could be missing out on being offered shifts. With the exception of some weekends and after hours, most shift requests will come through via the app so it is imperative that you ensure your notifications are switched on. We have instructions on how to do this so please contact the office and the staff can arrange to have these sent to you.
WORK VOLUME & PRE BOOKINGS
A very big thank you to all of the staff that are doing the right thing at the moment with picking up shifts when you are down as available or amending your availability as you need to. This was one of the main motivators for us to have an app where you can access and see exactly what we see. It is still quite busy and hasn’t followed usual patterns of it slowing down at this stage/time of the year, we are equally not covering some requests due to staff shortages and a number of other reasons at the moment so I can’t see it getting all that much slower work pace wise any time soon which is a great issue to be facing.
Unfortunately we are having an increased number of staff pulling out of shifts (pre-booked shifts as far as weeks in advance), turning up to shifts late and not contacting us to allow us to advise the clients on your behalf and some staff even rearranging shift finish times without asking the agency first.
Can we please emphasise and ensure there is an understanding that being pre-booked is a privilege, not a right. A casual on call agency which is what ALL agencies are regardless of what else you are being told, are more often than not used ad hoc and as a last minute resort due to staffing shortages at a particular facility/hospital. Contracts and ongoing work arrangements through schools or clinical education etc: are treating very differently but we are very fortunate that clients have faith in our agency and want to give our staff the ability to work out their weeks and pick up what they can. This is rare and usually only occurs when the volume is too high to leave it to on the day and it means we have established a good working relationship with our clients and they trust us enough to allow us to work in this way on their requests. There is no guarantee of this level of pre-booking to continue or cease at any time so we ask that you do take this seriously.
I have been picking up some weekend shifts myself answering calls and am very shocked at the amount of calls/texts received of staff withdrawing from shifts. As we have said before, if your personal life is unpredictable then do not accept pre-bookings. We understand that this may even be why you have chosen to work agency and are very sympathetic to peoples situations and circumstances, but all we do ask is that you do your best not to accept shifts and withdraw for reasons which most certainly don’t come under the emergency reasons. It is at your own detriment as clients will not want to pre-book you in future if they are seeing the same names being cancelled week in week out so we just ask that you try to understand it from the other point of view.
We understand the unpredictable times we have been in over the last 2 years but fortunately we have been able to continue operating to offer you the best possible shifts available. All we ask is that you treat this quite seriously as we have needed to have several discussions with our clients explaining why we have had close to 8-10 cancellations over one day across the last 3 weekends.
If there is something you wish to discuss that occurs on shift then please feel free to contact us anytime to discuss. We equally want to be providing feedback to clients if something is occurring on shift they may not be aware of or that shouldn’t be occuring. It is very important that we treat any incident as urgent and with the seriousness it requires to ensure we are able to provide each and every one of you with the safest working environment possible.
It would be useful to also mention that some clients such as Barwon Health, Monash Health, Western Health and Eastern Health are allocating for several sites and their allocations areas are usually located at one of their sites. So if there is an issue when you arrive to a shift and the nurse in charge is giving you a different scenario regarding your shift details to what we have given you please give us a quick call or send a note via your app to advise us of this change and we can update it to reflect the most accurate information on your app details. Most of the time the hospital just simply hasn’t communicated with the allocations area and therefore we are passing on the wrong information to you but we would like to ensure we have the most accurate information at all times.
Have a wonderful week everyone, if you have any concerns please feel to contact us anytime.
Angela Zulumovski – Director
firstcall HEALTH
