Questions regarding mandated overtime and being "called off"

lots of questions there!

In the US, at least in the places where I've worked, a person can be "called off" if there aren't enough patients, and anyone can be called off. We called it being "low-census-ed". The management tries to make it fair so everyone takes a turn, and no one suffers too much pay loss.

On paper nurses get breaks, but that doesn't mean there is actually always time to take them. Sometimes a nurse doesn't even have time for lunch. It's said it is up to the nurse to find the time in her day....

As for being mandated, if someone who is working the next shift can't come in and no one volunteers to stay, a nurse can be mandated to stay. That means the nurse HAS to stay. The nurse can't say no or risks "counseling" at the least and loss of job at the most. If the nurse is told to stay and doesn't, it's considered patient abandonment. A friend of mine was fired when she refused to stay (with good reason) but there was no one to take her place.

A very good question...it might be the case that you would be called off before the regular staff, since the hospital pays oodles more per hour for you than it does for their regular staff. It's definitely something to ask the recruiter. Where I've worked the agency nurses were the first to be called off.

This is interesting. I am more familiar with the case that that travelers are never called off, because their contract says they get paid period, as long as they are willing and able to come in on their scheduled shift. As far as taking a lunch or a break, no-one will stop you (at least what I'm familiar with), but no-one is ever available to cover either, so the work just piles up and it's not worth it, in my opinion (I know others will disagree, and that's ok).

I've worked travel assignments before. Most companies will guarantee you 36 hours per week. So, even if you get cancelled to work when the census is low, you still get $$. There are some facilities here that have unions, but not all do. Mostly, even when the hospital is union, the traveller is not covered in the union agreement.

Be sure to read and understand your travel contract before you agree to take an assignment. Ask your recruiter lots of questions, but also ask your friends/coworkers about the company you plan on working with. Best to you!

With regard to MOT, it depends on what state you work in as some states have laws banning or at least limiting the practice. Some unionized employers have restrictions on the use of MOT but this varies by contract as there is no national or even state wide contracts that covers all RNs.
Calling off varies also by individual employers. Some do it routinely and others not at all. Again if the facility is unionized you may find restrictions on call off or out right banning of call offs.

The truth is, as I understand it, refusing to work overtime is not abandonment. But you need to thoroughly this for yourself by checking what the state board of Nursing says about it. Whatever state here you are planning to work in is the state you should check with, such as Connecticut, Montana, wherever. The law in Oregon might be different than the law in Alabama. See? So that's why you must know the law where you will be working. No matter what the law actually says, the employer will probably still beg, plead, or try to bully and intimidate you, threaten you with termination and with reporting you to the state Board of Nursing. The only acceptable reasons for not agreeing to work forced overtime where I work are that you are sick or that it is on your day off. Other than that, the boss doesn't care about your obligations to your children or anyone else who depends upon you for their care and safety, they don't care about your sleep or your appointments that you might have made, or anything else but getting that floor staffed. It's very hard. Fortunately, the issue doesn't come up too often where I am but it might for other nurses. Usually, I make a deal with the boss. I agree to stay the 2 or 3 hours that she really needs covered and then get to leave. Or I work the whole shift but get the next shift off - to recuperate.

As for being called off, low censused, canceled, whatever it's called, I don't think travelers are really subject to that BUT you must check with your own travel agency and know your contract. If I hired a traveler to work at my hospital and had to pay a tremendous amount of money for that traveler, I think I would not like to cancel her shift yet still have to pay her (because I'm paying her so much more than I'm paying my regular staff and her contract might call for her to be paid regardless of how many hours she works, unless SHE is the one calling off, such as for sickness). But your contract will spell that out, I hope, so there will be no question left unanswered about it.

As a traveler, you can have it specified into your contract the circumstances under which you will be/can be "called off" and how you will be (or if you will be) compensated for that time.

Many US nurses DO work under union contracts; unfortunately not all.

[/quote]Another thread I was reading commented that while CNAs get breaks one cannot expect the same as an RN, do you really not have breaks as part of your contract?[/quote]

Even if we DO have breaks as part of our contract, that doesn't mean we actually get to TAKE them. A lot of that depends upon your patient load and the unit culture (how willing someone else is to watch your patients while you take a break.) As a professional, of course you wouldn't leave your patients "uncovered" and if someone isn't willing or able to cover them, you don't take a break.

[/quote]Mandated overtime, can someone explain that to me please. When can you be mandated, what are your abilities to refuse/decline OT.

Thanks[/quote]

Once again, something that would be specified in your contract. Also varies with the institutional policies and the culture of your unit.

For instance, I worked in one unit where staffing was tight and if you were called for overtime, you were expected to make every effort to show up. As charge nurses, we kept lists of who we called for OT and the response we got (yes/no or "left a message"). If you refused OT three times, you were counseled. (I learned very quickly to let the answering machine take the message and then claim I never got the message until after the shift started!) In another unit, OT was mandated during a period of especially heavy turnover. You had to sign up for two shifts of OT a month and be ready to show up for work within 30 minutes if you were called. That same unit had a lot of variability in census, so if census was low we were offered time off -- either "LWOP" -- leave without pay -- or a chance to apply our benefit time toward that shift. Usually there were more takers than we had shifts to offer off. If we had a prolonged period of low census and no one wanted to take off, we floated. (Or called in sick, even if we weren't.)

Your milage may vary.