I dont know if I can be a nurse anymore please advise

onetiredmomma · Jul 21, 2011

check with your state labor board. In Colo if your check is wrong (missing) your employer is required to get you a check within a set # of days ( I think it is 3 but not sure). If the error is the employee's fault they can wait until the next payday to fix it. If your manager won't help you, go on up the ladder until someone does! Why didn't the home care company pay you? Make some noise for yourself! Good luck!

brandy1017, ASN, RN · Jul 21, 2011

I've heard horizon home health has frozen wages and is no longer providing PTO to employees. In fact if they take vacation they cannot use their existing PTO either. This was second hand info, but if any of you are dealing with this, I don't believe a company can refuse to pay out PTO. They legally must pay you the PTO you have and then if they decide to stop offering it they can do that.

When our hospital went from sick and vacation to PTO I spoke with the state labor dept and they said sick pay can be stopped but vacation pay must be paid out.

Also I think they are stopping pension or 401K plans at home health agencies. The home health care system is struggling because of the cutbacks in medicare and medicaid.

Remember when the supreme court ruled that home health aids didn't qualify for overtime back in 2007 I believe. Costs are such an issue and since the govt pays for home care thru medicare and medicaid they are willing to mistreat those employees to save money.

It sounds like the companies you work for are either struggling to stay in business or are pulling these things to save money for the owner or to make you wait for your paycheck. I wouldn't stay with those companies.

nola1202 · Jul 21, 2011

I have been having a heck of a year trying to change my career path out of staff to perhaps management but still willing to be a staff nurse. In the last 6 months I have been not paid on time at a state department of corrections job, not hired due to my credit after getting a job offer and now in the last two jobs I have had one didnt pay me for training or the shifts I worked ( it was homecare ) and yesterday the assisted living facility that had hired me for weekends at LPN wages and I took the job didnt pay me for my first pay period.
I turned in all pay edit slips because the payroll/ receptionist didnt get me in the computer for clocking in and out yet I have been there almost a week and a half and this young female looks at me and says I will just put your wages on your next check meanwhile I am driving 60 miles round trip to work for this place and due to moving and all that entails I need that small paycheck to tide me over until I get a more regular paycheck the next pay period. I didnt say anything and I also didnt go into work today and let a voicemail to the DNS that I can't come and work at a place for less than I am worth for one thing and also to not be paid. When I was there trying to get my first pay there were other employees stating their checks weren't right as well. I just turned around and walked out the door.
I am an RN I am to the point of wanting to quit trying to work as a nurse or anything. I am not burned out on patient care , I am burned out on how management thinks they can treat those they hire to care for those patients they are being reimbursed for from insurance and Medicare and Medicaid. Please fellow nurses and LTC nurses guide me in helping me see if it is my career field or just me. I just want to almost give up but cant seem to quit wanting to be a nurse . I just want to work somewhere where I am at least paid. Is this the West Coast that is just like this ? I am from the Midwest and I didnt make the wages there I do here but I was never cheated out of pay. Please advise I need your help as fellow nurses . I am mad and sad and enraged all at the same time. Thank you all for any advice you can give me.

I'm sorry. I've never not gotten paid but I have had it delayed until the next paycheck while I'm barely scraping by. It's crazy to have to decide if you need gas or food more. I chose gas cause I had to get to work. I'm beginning to feel as if it is more common to treat us badly. I'm relocated from the south to the West (colorado) I get paid less than I did, and hospitals pay really badly.

I think if we can stick this out a few years, the promised baby boomers will need health care and we will be valuable again. Meanwhile, if you can find something else, and get a grant to change or add on to your degree, go for it. Nursing certainly isn't the be all, end all. Neither is healthcare. Good luck, if you decide to try moving back to the midwest consider Denver, poor job market but a really pretty place and nice people.

caliotter3 · Jul 21, 2011

File a claim for wages owed with the Labor Board. That is why it exists.

esrunjan · Jul 21, 2011

Wow. That is ridiculous. Accredited health care facilities do pay nurses - timely and well. I work for money.

lansgrl123 · Jul 22, 2011

One of my favorite students could only find employment as an RN at a LTC facility and she is hating life. The stories she tells me about management (nurses) are horrible. She is packing her bags, going to design school and will become a "refrigerator nurse" soon. Why are nursing faculty paid 1/2 less than business professors (typical). We are strong in numbers but too busy to stand together. I'm grateful that I will retire in a few years. If I had it to do over, I would never become a nurse. Best to you.

carolmaccas66, BSN, RN · Jul 22, 2011

You are being too soft. Why on earth are you dealing with a secretary re your pay? Go to the manager and COMPLAIN FORCEFULLY.

I told one employment agency, when they mucked up my pay (before New Years Eve as well!), that if they didn't pay me THAT WEEK I refused to go back to work. I said if I don't get paid, I don't work. Guess what? My pay was in the bank the next day, so it can be done, though they just don't want to pay someone overtime to sort it out. I told them frankly that isn't my problem.

Go to your pay office and manager and tell them this is not good enough. Tell them is it isn't sorted out in the next working day, you can report them to your industrial relations commision (or ur equivalent over there). By law if u have worked, you must be paid within 48 working day hours in Oz at least, so they don't have an excuse. You are just lying down and taking it that is why they are mucking you about - stand up to them and they will change their tune quickly.

Psychtrish39, BSN, RN · Jul 22, 2011

Thank you all and I did call them and told them I cant come to work until I get a paycheck my DNS there put me on hold and never came back . I did call the L and I board and filled out paperwork and I am calling places tomorrow. I am an RN and I didnt go to school to get treated like crap... Thank you Carol I needed that and I will not take it lying down. I fought to get through nursing school and you are right nice gets you nowhere.. Thank you ladies .. I feel better getting feedback and I just have to keep looking until I find a good place . I have worked good places over the years I can find one again... up at 7 am in the morning and going after it.. I just needed a kick in the pants .. :nurse:

carolmaccas66, BSN, RN · Jul 22, 2011

Thank you all and I did call them and told them I cant come to work until I get a paycheck my DNS there put me on hold and never came back . I did call the L and I board and filled out paperwork and I am calling places tomorrow. I am an RN and I didnt go to school to get treated like crap... Thank you Carol I needed that and I will not take it lying down. I fought to get through nursing school and you are right nice gets you nowhere.. Thank you ladies .. I feel better getting feedback and I just have to keep looking until I find a good place . I have worked good places over the years I can find one again... up at 7 am in the morning and going after it.. I just needed a kick in the pants ..

Good! Positive action is what you needed to do I think. Just make sure you keep calling them and complaining if you still don't get paid, and report them. And look at going thru other agencies (I think u said it was a nursing agency didn't you?) if this one is no good.

In the bad old days, I let EVERYONE and anyone walk over me and I don't mind telling you - it got me absolutely nowhere. I always tried to be the best daughter, gf/fianceee, best sister, best friend and I got nothing for it in the end. Now, I look after number one and when I'm unhappy with the way I've been treated, I let people know ASAP. It saves a lot of heartache in the end I believe. Nice gets you nowhere - unless you REALLY want someone to do something for you, like a doctor (or a carer), and then I crawl a little bit!

Let us know how you get on anyway.