Do you think it's right for nurses that are going to school do their homework at work

Nurses General Nursing

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there is nothing wrong in educating yourself. however , there are several nurses on my unit that are going to school and working. they bring their work assignment to work. type of their reports at work,do homework at work during working hours. not on their breaks. what do you think about this.?

Specializes in ICU, ER.

I agree with many of the other posts. As long as the patients are not suffering and all other duties are completed I see no problem with this. Personally, I think education is a better use of time than sitting around gossiping or reading magazines or watching TV.

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Specializes in ICU, ER.
What kind of job allows this?

At almost all of the LTC homes I worked at as an aide, the RN on nights generally goes and sleeps as long as they have a walkie-talkie/phone. Now that I'm a RN I work nights at a LTC home occasionally and don't sleep because I can't fall asleep at work. But during that time that other people sleep, I often have a hard time finding things to do (and I do go around tidying, emptying garbages, etc).

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If all work is done, I don't think it should be an issue.

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if their work is caught up, and the pts are receiving all the care that they need, especially on night shift, there is no problem.

quite frankly, i think that it is more appropriate than texting friends, playing games and facebook...what i see people doing at times, when caught up. at least one can see a benefit to the unit from the education.

...

:D:d:d:d i'm glad to read somebody else saying that.

what is the name of this facility? if they still staff that generously, i really might like to apply there.

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Specializes in FNP.
I have no problem with doing homework at work. However, to play devils advocate, there are ALWAYS things to do at work, when your work is done.

Stock linen

Empty trash

Clean and straighten pt rooms

Stock carts

Sit with confused pts

Help a co-worker

Most of the above are not in my job description, but the hospital pays me to work while I'm at work.

I have seen co-workers doing their homework when the trash can beside them is overflowing in the floor. Is that their job? Nope. Housekeeping. But if I were the boss I might not like the visual.

I see your point, but speaking as a nurse who completed almost ALL of her MSN at work, my response would be I could not possibly care less what my (former) manager might have thought of the visual. My patients were well cared for, their needs met in every way (within my ability). None of the things you listed were my responsibility and I really do not care if the trash got emptied promptly or not. I worked alone and didn't have coworkers, so that was a non-issue. Any manger that told me to stop writing my thesis to empty the trash would have been gifted with a ribboned copy of my job description.

The OP sounds like sour grapes. Go to school yourself and stop begrudging others.

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I see your point, but speaking as a nurse who completed almost ALL of her MSN at work, my response would be I could not possibly care less what my (former) manager might have thought of the visual. My patients were well cared for, their needs met in every way (within my ability). None of the things you listed were my responsibility and I really do not care if the trash got emptied promptly or not. I worked alone and didn't have coworkers, so that was a non-issue. Any manger that told me to stop writing my thesis to empty the trash would have been gifted with a ribboned copy of my job description.

The OP sounds like sour grapes. Go to school yourself and stop begrudging others.

Lol, for someone that uses the nickname "Linearthinker" you sure have a twisted way of looking at this issue. Unless it is in your job description to sit on your butt and do personal work (yes HW is personal work) while getting a paycheck, you are out of line. Again, I am OK with this sort of behavior if the employee has clearly finished all possible work to do AND is cleared to do so by their supervisor. But my guess is that in 90% of the cases, there is still some work that could be done AND this kind of behavior is not tacitly approved by upper management/DON. The reality is that you SHOULD feel guilty if you are doing classwork outside of your alloted break/meal times. Because someone is paying you to do a job, and they are not paying you to do your homework.

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Specializes in Ortho, Neuro, Detox, Tele.

there are many different factors at work here. If the homework person is in a charge/leadership position, and everyone around is drowning in work, then perhaps the homework should be put on hold until things have calmed down. Additionally, it should be noted that if a call bell is going off, all aides are busy, then I would be PEEVED if a nurse was doing a paper while not addressing pt care.

However, if they were caught up and nothing was going on at the moment, sure. It's no different than just trying to pass the hours anyway you can.

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Lol, for someone that uses the nickname "Linearthinker" you sure have a twisted way of looking at this issue. Unless it is in your job description to sit on your butt and do personal work (yes HW is personal work) while getting a paycheck, you are out of line. Again, I am OK with this sort of behavior if the employee has clearly finished all possible work to do AND is cleared to do so by their supervisor. But my guess is that in 90% of the cases, there is still some work that could be done AND this kind of behavior is not tacitly approved by upper management/DON. The reality is that you SHOULD feel guilty if you are doing classwork outside of your alloted break/meal times. Because someone is paying you to do a job, and they are not paying you to do your homework.

If the unit expectation is for the RN to do all the work on the unit usually covered by other positions, merely to keep busy...then I'd agree with you.

However, if that isn't the expectation on the unit and RN's normally flip through a magazine if it's slow...then why shouldn't someone be able to do their homework? It seems to me that an RN is getting paid for patient care....not to find ways to be "busy."

The job I did homework at (I was a caregiver, not an RN) my supervisor not only knew, but encouraged me to do homework once my responsibilities were complete....their perspective was that at least I was awake (overnight position at an adult foster home).

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Specializes in ICU.

I'm a manager and I honestly wouldn't care if all their patients were not being neglegted. I can see someone actually having the time on nights, but not during the day.

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What kind of job allows this?

I worked night shift in a long term care facility where one of the LVNs slept from six to seven hours out of every shift. The CNAs would come to me or other nurses on duty if there were problems with her patients. Don't you think I found it rather strange that when the facility had to lay off two nurses, she was not one of them? The managers missed a perfect opportunity to get rid of dead weight, but they kept her around.

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And is this common?

I once worked at another LTC facility where almost everyone slept at night, not just one or two poor workers. One of the troublemaker CNAs said that the DON said it was ok because the CNAs found it necessary to work two jobs. I have also encountered a lot of night shift sleepers in home health care. When this subject comes up with my clients, I let them know that legally I can not sleep on duty without certain circumstances in place. I let them know that I do not necessarily follow what the rest of the herd may, or may not, do.

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Specializes in Med Surge, Tele, Oncology, Wound Care.

I have a MAJOR problem with this (I work in an acute care hospital)-

I think it is crap to come in at 7am and find patients with crusted on feces-dirty linens (pt said they were calling and they were told they can get a shower in the daytime and we will change their linens then), IV's infiltrated (pt's on more than one occasion stating "its been hurting all night and the night nurse said it was okay"), the break room with crusted dishes-dirty tables, expired IV tubing hanging, patients with abnormal vitals, and labs from 0500 (night shift saying they didnt want to bother the MD- so they wait for me to do it) and so on...(usually the same nurses)

I love my night shift for the most part, but if I am putting out several "fires" left from night shift, having our computers say they are "crash dumping" because of viruses from internet chat sites so that I cannot do my job, then I think school work should be done at some other time. Not to mention finding empty rooms with unmade beds from naps by staff, search engines (when I type in a search they come up) with e-bay, ioffer and sites of that nature, is really unprofessional.

I do low census sometimes and there is a ton of non-patient care things for me to do- make copies of handouts, clean charts (I have done this and they are filthy!), do chart audits, break down discharged charts, stock the carts- and many more jobs!

IF your job is done, a big IF, then do homework.....but I really find that hard to believe.

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