Worktime issues in the US

[SpidersWeb, BSN]

Besides accounts of not having enough time to pee or eat, I'm appalled by stories from American nurses being shamed and blackmailed to come in early (30 min before official shift start) and staying late (1-2 hours after or even for another 12-hour shift) and not getting paid for any of these extra minutes or hours.

Is this generally true or more marginal? Can the employer legally threaten a nurse with loss of job or loss of license when it's the employer who's responsible for adequate staffing?

My understanding is that nursing unions aren't too strong in the US to protect the rights of employees, so how should a nurse deal with these kinds of situations?

[MunoRN, RN]

It varies from state to state, whether you work under a union contract, etc. Although whether or not you get paid for time worked, that's a common legal requirement to all situations in the US (unless you're salaried).

There are states that have laws that prohibit mandatory overtime, which I would argue is more effective than even safe staffing laws, these laws prohibit employers from requiring employees to work beyond their scheduled FTE, even if they are paid. This means whatever you get done is what you get done, regardless of an excessive workload imposed by the employer.

[NICU Guy, BSN, RN]

Is this generally true or more marginal? Can the employer legally threaten a nurse with loss of job or loss of license when it's the employer who's responsible for adequate staffing?

As a whole, the issue is not rampant in the US. The members that are having an issue with this are more vocal. The rest of us on here are not posting "I clocked in on time" and "I clocked out on time and didn't need to stay over off the clock".

We have had nurses that have arrived early for work and have been asked to clock in early due to the unit being busy. They got paid for clocking in early and this situation happens very rarely. There also been times that a admission (from an outside hospital) comes at shift change and the day shift nurse will stay over to help the night shift nurse admit the patient. They would remain on the clock while they are working. The only exception was one particular nurse that had a very bad habit of not charting until the end of shift. She would spend several hours after her shift getting her charting done. It became chronic and management told her that she needed to clock out at the end of her shift and finish charting. I never worked with her, so I never observed what she did all shift that prevented her from being able to chart.

[vanilla bean]

I always arrived to work about 30 minutes before the start of my shift (for my own peace of mind) and was very infrequently asked to start working when I arrived (perhaps 3 times over the course of 3 years). I was always paid overtime for clocking in early. I occasionally stayed late due to things like a change of shift admission or to help cover a staffing shortage on the next shift and, again, I was always paid overtime for that time worked. I was never "shamed" or "blackmailed" to work beyond my scheduled hours and I *never* worked for free.

[Cat365]

I don't work for free. I actually reported a previous employer (non-nursing) job to the Department of Labor for requiring that.

I rarely get a lunch. Maybe one out of twenty shifts and I always clock out as no lunch. I understand day shift is the opposite of those odds, but they are better staffed.

In a year I've been mandated to work over once. I normally leave on time, but maybe 10% of the time I stay up to 30 minutes late because of incomplete charting or the fact that we had a hell night and my patients are a mess when my relief gets there. I work ER and it's considered bad form to leave without calling report to the floor, discharging patients that are ready, or leaving tons of undone tasks (a few are ok).

I don't know what is accepted elsewhere, but that's how we roll.