The Life of a PRN Social Worker

Hospital social work includes so many different aspects. Generally, there is a social worker for every floor/department. Depending on the hospital, you may have two social workers for a department. Here's the thing... hospitals don't close. You never get to say "Sorry, we're closed, please come back in the morning", and people never have their emergencies at reasonable hours! So hospital coverage out here in terms of social work looks something like this: full time social workers work Monday-Friday from 9am-430pm. Yes, they are working 7.5 hours including lunch. That's pretty swell. But that's definitely not a normal schedule for them to get off at 430 because, like I said, people don't plan their emegencies ... and doctors love to discharge patients as soon as you're wrapping up your day. Now, the hospital has to be covered 24/365. So what happens during those other times. Enter the PRN social worker. The hospitals are then covered by either oncall shifts (every night and, for some hospitals, weekend days) or onsite coverage (busier hospitals on the weekends). And if any of the full time social workers call in sick or goes on vacation, PRN social workers will cover their department. We're like substitute social workers.

I love being on call but I also miss having a regular schedule. I love working in the ED (emergency department) and seeing the psych crises that come through and being able to help the patients. What I don't like is the uncertainty of my future. We schedule one month in advance and never know what the following month will bring. In December, I had four days and four nights. That's it. While I enjoy free time, I still need to be able to pay my bills. It's always a feast or famine approach. I can't deal with that. I need hours. Some of the other PRN social workers are married and have another income or they have a full time job. I'm trying to get a full time job with this hospital network so it doesn't make sense for me to get another job to just quit in a couple months. I tend to sign up for all the shifts I can just in case the next month is a repeat of December. So far I've been lucky. The only downside is that it takes up ALL my time. Currently, I'm involved in a pilot program at a newer hospital trying to determine if there is enough need to warrant the hiring of a full time social worker for the ED and perinatal services (babies!). This means that I'm getting to work full time ... however, my future is not guaranteed. They could say that there isn't enough work and then I'm back to square one.

In order to compensate for the uncertainty, I've been signing up for on call shifts just to give me a little cash cushion ... and I'm losing sleep and free time. I was on call last night and spent the majority of the night in the ED. I'm glad I was there and was able to help those patients but I'm now operating on three hours of sleep.... and working all day. Normally, I could probably deal with this but ....... I'm on call again tonight and working all day tomorrow. Yay? I'll survive, I know that much. I'll definitely sleep great tomorrow night though! What I've noticed lately is that it affects my social life and reinforces my hermit lifestyle. In anticipation of being called in, I go to bed ridiculously early. For example, tonight I will wash my hair as soon as I get home and probably be in bed by 5pm. Doesn't really leave a lot of room for social gatherings.

And it's these social gatherings that are so important to combat job fatigue and the risks of burnout. I moved out here to Podunkville on a whim and am slowly making friends which has been good. One friend that I have been hanging out a lot with is a night shift nurse. This has a tendency to affect when we can hang out. They only work, on average, three nights a week. But if I've picked up on call shifts, it limits the overlapping free time. I've started to notice how important hanging out with friends can be. I think it's taken for granted a lot of times but it's so vital for ones health. The question comes down to where is one willing to make adjustments in their life for the sake of their health? Is this why social work burnout is so high? We pour ourselves into work without taking the time to focus on ourselves? Our work can directly impact people's lives, more attention needs to be paid to our health so that we can provide the best for our clients. I'm starting to feel like something's got to give ....