[NRSKarenRN]

Found at PA's Physician's News Digest :

PENNSYLVANIA NURSES ARE AGAIN PUSHING FOR A BAN ON FORCED OVERTIME

Bolstered by the support of health care unions like
Service Employees International Union District 1199P
and the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and
Allied Professionals, nurses maintain that forced
overtime could lead to medical errors and force nurses
out of the profession, and they urged legislators to
support a bill by state Sen. Christine Tartaglione (D-
Philadelphia) that would ban medical facilities from
directing nurses to work a second eight-hour shift
immediately after one such shift, except for natural
disasters or other dire situations, like a terrorist
attack, airliner crash or when the governor declares an
emergency, reported the Post-Gazette. The bill would
allow nurses and nursing assistants to work overtime on
a voluntary basis, but they couldn't be forced to stay
on for a second shift if they wanted to go home, while
Tartaglione said a similar bill she sponsored last year
did win approval of the Senate Judiciary Committee, but
never came up for a vote in the full House or Senate,
the Post-Gazette added.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 11, 2005
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05131/502276.stm


Senate Bill not yet assigned; House Bill similar is:

HB 1081: Health Care Worker and Patient Protection Act
http://www.legis.state.pa.us/2005%5F0/hb1081p1239.htm

[Judee Smudee]

I like that article from Pittsburgh. At the end it says sometimes hospitals and LTC facilities fall to plan to staff properly. They then use mandatory overtime to cover the shortages. I will tell you some of the reasons they fail to plan to staff properly. Number one that I object to is deliberate understaffing as a cost savings. If they let a position unfilled the save a bundle on benefits. Also, I suspect my manager would short the floor deliberately as the end of the budget period approached. This way a budget overrun was avoided. This I think is quite reprehensible.

[michelle126]

How do CNAs fit in to this legislation? They are certified. In LTC

[Jessy_RN]

If After Completing An 8 Hour Shift Someone Wants To Go Home And Refuses To Stay It Should Not Be A Problem At All And No Obligations Period

[NRSKarenRN]

Originally Posted by michelle126

How do CNAs fit in to this legislation?

House bill language includes "nurses and other direct patient care clinical service workers"

Senate languqge is nurses only to my knowledge