Starting Sept. 27, UK Hospital is implementing changes to its Baylor Plan, which gives weekend nurses incentive pay.

Under the current plan, which started 26 years ago, nurses work two 12-hour shifts on the weekends: either Friday and Saturday night or Saturday day and Sunday day.

As incentives for working on the weekends, day shift weekend nurses receive 12 additional hours of pay and night shift weekend nurses receive 16 additional hours of pay each weekend, said Kathleen Kopser, senior nurse administrator at the hospital, in a statement through UK spokesman Jimmy Stanton.

These additional hours are a premium and nurses are not working during this time, Kopser said.

In addition to incentive pay, nurses are eligible for health, dental and retirement benefits from the university, and they get four paid weekends off yearly, Kopser said.

Nurses can use one of these four weekends each year as an “emergency” weekend because they are not given “sick time,” according to the statement.

“To stay in closer range to weekend incentive plans that exist in the marketplace currently, we have decided to make adjustments to our program.  We will continue to offer incentive hours, but they will be reduced,” Kopser said.

Day shift weekend nurses will receive eight additional hours of incentive pay instead of the current 12 hours, and night shift weekend nurses will receive 12 additional hours of incentive pay instead of the current 16 hours.

Amanda Nelson, news bureau deputy director, said the cuts will only affect the weekend program nurses.