On-Call in Theatre Roles: What to Tell Candidates Before They Ask
In our experience, the theatre on-call roster is one of the details experienced theatre nurses ask about most, and it is often missing from the advert.
Why on-call matters to candidates
On-call shapes a theatre nurse's week: when they can make plans, how often they sleep near the phone, and what happens to the next shift after a late recall.
It cuts both ways. Some nurses want the emergency experience and the extra pay. Others are looking for a weekday roster with no call. Either is a fair choice, and a candidate can only make it with the detail in front of them.
What the award sets as a baseline
Many private hospital theatre nurses are employed under an enterprise agreement rather than the award. As a baseline, the Nurses Award 2020 provides:
An on-call allowance where the employer requires an employee to be on-call (clause 17.2)
A minimum of 3 hours at the overtime rate for a recall to the workplace (clause 19.6(a))
A minimum of 1 hour at the overtime rate for a recall by telephone or electronically (clause 19.6(b))
10 consecutive hours off duty between the work of successive days after overtime, without loss of pay (clause 19.4)
This is general information only, not industrial or legal advice. Your own enterprise agreement and your HR or industrial relations team will confirm what applies.
Six details worth putting in the brief
Whether the role carries on-call at all, and if not, a plain statement that it does not
How often, in a typical month, including weekends and public holidays
The expected response time, and any travel distance limit
How the allowance and recall are paid under your agreement
How the next shift is handled after a late recall
Whether on-call is shared across the whole team, including part-time staff
None of this needs to be in a headline. A single line in the advert, with the detail in the position description, gives a candidate what they need to decide whether to apply.
What a clear answer changes
A clear answer early saves a conversation late. When on-call is known at application stage, the people who apply have already weighed it, and the question does not surface for the first time at offer.
It also matters for the staff you already have. Our September survey of theatre staff, covered in why theatre nurses leave, and why pay is not the whole story, looked at what drives people out of a theatre. For more on keeping the team you have, see how private hospitals retain perioperative staff.
If you are weighing on-call cover against agency shifts, what agency theatre nurses actually cost Australian private hospitals sets out the numbers.
Talk to us
Carejobz places permanent theatre and perioperative staff across Australia and New Zealand, and works with hospitals on why those staff stay. If you would like help putting together a theatre role brief that answers candidates' questions before they ask, get in touch.
If your theatre is losing staff faster than you can replace them, or you would like a confidential conversation about your own next move, contact Paul on 04 355 83849 or email paul@carejobz.com
