Is your facility warning staff for overtime, for missing lunch breaks or other?

I posted on here once about the staffing on my old unit and the poor management. The VP of nursing at my last facility thought it would be great to print it off and pass it around to the managers.

Hey RainDreamer,

I don't want you to think that I believe everything is bad here. So many others employed throughout this hospital are absolutely some of the best people I have had the honor of working with. I have had wonderful relationships and experiences with those in administration. I have invited several of them, many times to sign on to this forum. I think this would be an eye opening experience for them, not that they need this personally, but only to see how things are in the nursing world as a whole.

Everything seems to be happening locally..that is, within our division and/or our ICU. Changes such I have described are happening elsewhere as well but I have not heard any complaints or concerns from others in our facility regarding these changes. Perhaps because the approach is different in those areas. We have never had this happen like this before, it began approximately 2 + years ago and has slowly evolved into its current form. What it is exactly I can't say. Just that not all change is good, especially when it is perceived as being dismissive, disrespectful, judgmental and dictatorial.

Those who may have read other postings I've written know how respectfully I write about our ICU and our "family". We are a great group of people who are simply tired of the latest fads in nursing.

I must state again that I would not be who I am (this is a good thing) without having had the good fortune of beginning my professional nursing career in this facility. I have outlasted many administrations..they come and go...move on...what ever. Many of us remain and just do what we do best.

Yes I am dreading going to work tomorrow. I wish that I didn't feel this way. Feeling this way is alien to me. I'm going to try my best to actually be on time, without shaking as I swipe in. I am going to hide (in a professional manner that is).

This too will pass, I hope.

If not, there is still the rebar in the truck idea. (Chill guys, just a comment).

I am so exhausted!!!
Maybe if I could get my circadian rythym back in sync with my working life I would be in a better mind set to keep all of these "changes" in proper perspective, ignore idiotic directlves, and give other "suggestions" a fair hearing.

Just trying hard!!!!!!!!Look, its 0035hrs. I think I'll actually be in bed before 0130. Good luck to all of you who are going through all of these changes and the challenges these changes bring to all of us.

Perhaps this is the End, perhaps not. I'll see how things go then decide.

Good luck to you all, and
Good night.

Update..Geez, this particular issue has totally captivated me as it marches right along with what we are experiencing. This has me fired up!!!
Not all change is good. The only good thing about bad change is that hopefully you can learn from it and move on.

Managed to clock in two minutes before 0700.

Several meetings today..I found other things to do, kept busy.

O.K, here is the outcome of these unplanned staff meetings..05/13...ready for this? If a physician or other health care professional brings a patient's chart/MAR, whatever into a patient's room, is observed doing so or somehow forgets to take it out again, and this is observed by management, the NURSE assigned to that patient will get a memo since we are the ones who are required to educate all staff about this policy and to police others who may violate this policy. Nurse Storm Troopers. always wanted to be one of those.

O.K. what about this one. wash your hands with soap and water for 20 seconds, dry your hands..or use purell to cleanse hands, shake until dry, then proceed to either perform patient care or leave the room.

as soon as you enter the next room, right after this hand washing/cleansing routine, you must repeat the entire hand washing/cleansing you just completed 10 seconds earlier..

or you get a memo if observed not complying with this..

Another one...if a patient arrives from the OR, Trauma Resus, Recovery, ER...from another facility...what ever..after 1800 hrs..no matter what is happening, you must admit this patient, perform all necessary assessments, vital signs, maybe even transport patient to another area of the hospital for surgery, tests, procedures after intubating and placing invasive lines...complete computer generated forms for admission assessments, Braden or Morse scales, may both..can't remember which one, communicate with the family and of course meet all of their needs, including social work evaluation, counseling for those who are overwrought with the situation...name it..winning lottery numbers, we have to do this..and complete everything before 1923 hrs.
We do have a very supportive group of colleagues. We help each other all of the time, but even with this level of assistance, some of these requirements are unrealistic and simply insane. Patients first..the rest can wait.

Or you could get a memo.

I get all of the issues and agree whole heartedly with observing and following policy and procedures, chains of command such as administration of medications, right patient, consents, proxy, right procedure, right time, right body part, right Karma, before any and all procedures. This is a safety issue for all patients. Big Duh..
But this too has become another thing to threaten the staff with...

You'll get a memo..Ooooooooo:bang head:

I am a firm believer in following policy and procedures. I am a strong advocate of patient and family rights.

Signatures need to be fully legible..NO PROBLEM like that one.

F/U with results of pain medication, document fully before and after response to medication and patient's impression of effectiveness of medication..This is absolutely necessary and again, no problem for nursing.

ETC............................................... .................

GOT THIS AND AGREE 100%

Many of these requirements, issues, directives are logical and necessary to promote safety, quality of care to our clients.
On board with that and teach it myself to the new staff.

But..then we get to how it is presented...

three or four memos, your screwed , record of counseling, get another group of memos..remember someone left a chart in your room and you were not present 'cause you were actually working with another patient or transporting another patient off the floor...
BOOM.. memo #1.
Record of counseling, I think three total..on top of the memos.
Unpaid three day suspension with this all on your permanent record.
Actually I'm not sure at what stage of these disciplinary measures we get fired.

AND WE HAVE A UNION.

Morale now sucks rotten eggs in our unit. We were talking amongst ourselves and pretty much came to the same conclusion..
Someone or group of someones have lost their minds.

Much of this is not at the immediate supervisory level, but is directed from above..

I spoke with some of "MY PEOPLE" I do have some of those..I explained my fear of alienation between physicians and nursing staff as a result of nursing being asked to police physician behavior and report it if necessary. I spoke with a few docs today and to a good friend, an ARNP for one of our teams, what the problem is, what we need to do to avoid conflict, being turned against each other, simply by not bringing the stupid chart into the patient's room. Take off lab coats, don't touch the patient until dressed up like a giant yellow condom with gloves (I triple glove).

I AGREE WITH ALL OF THIS, JUST DON'T THREATEN US. WE'RE HAPPY TO COMPLY ALL BY OURSELVES, REALLY

Not being a "Gusano" and having had a mother raised in Nazi Germany with her own stories to frighten me with, I simply will not cooperate with reporting others, my Docs, my colleagues to those who could care less who gets hurt or how the discipline of the miscreants will affect the morale of the rest of the staff.

I think this is all that organizations fault..not to diminish the importance of this regulatory organization, we need oversight!! we need objective input !!!so we can continue to strive to be the best that we can be..but whats their name again?? I can never remember their initals. You know who I'm talking about. And they are very powerful and scary...

You don't encourage loyalty through fear and resentment.

Difficult day again today, one more day then I am free until Tuesday next. I sat after clocking out at the station in the back of the unit..once seen by one of my associate nurse managers, I was told to go home, why was I still here..said very friendly of course. He really is a cool dude but he must follow the party line. I replied that I had nothing waiting for me at home, I was lonely, have little human contact outside the hospital and at least I had someone to talk to here. Most of this is true so it sounds good.

Fell asleep driving home again tonight. Stopped and parked near a favorite Cuban restaurant, apparently fell asleep woke up approximately twenty minutes later clutching my keys and purse, ready to get out of the car. Took me a minute to figure out where I was. Good place as any to pick up a home cooked meal and hang out with my friends at this
restaurant. A large Cuban coffee and dinner, I was awake and I'm still awake and writing this at home.

I hope things get better.

Bye, soon it will End. We'll see where things go from here.

contact wage and hour, u can file a complaint, u must be paid if not given an uninterrupted lunch break

Overtime at my hospital is discouraged. However, I do believe that OT is looked at on an individual basis. And if the same person is having OT on a routine basis, they are called into the office, or receive an email and asked to pay more attention to their clock out times.

I like how management turns it around and puts the blame on us. They give us all this bullcrap paperwork to fill out and ridiculous nurse to patient ratios and then expect us to get it all done in 8-12 hours depending on your shift. Then if you stay over, its because you have bad time management skills when you really don't.

i found the fastest way to stop the Memo's is to act like they do not bother you. My Don asked me last week if i was sick of being constantly written up for my excessive over time, i answered not really, i have a foot of bath room wall open and i'm using them to wall paper it. it was a master charge moment it was priceless. Then she came up to me at 4:25 to have me research some missing paperwork for pneumovac inoculations that are missing from some patients, {i work in ltc} from 2005 and 2004, they are not in the computer{ funny they were on computer generated sheets in the charts if you looked}. i told her i would gladly do it, and i did i punched out at 5:15 when she called me on the ot i reminded her that i was looking up the missing inoculations and inputting them in the computer just like she asked me to do as she was leaving for the day. Now i work from 8am until 4;30 i have a handicapped son who i have to get to school and i was hired this way, on weekends i now have to come in at 7 am and leave at 330 i do not have a problem with this but when i did this earlier i was told not to because it was too hard for payroll.{schizophrenic moment} i often do not go for lunch because the lunch room is near the boiler room and smells like fuel oil and makes me ill it also has mold issues. and my asthma hates it so it's lunch in the car or on the benches outside in nice weather but you may end up sharing it with a dementia patient. so i sometimes stay on the unit to eat. or will read in my med room, it is my lunch, and some days there is no time to eat unless you catch food as you run from event to event When will management understand we are not gymnasts we can only bend so far and do so much at one time .

Oh and ps my excessive over time is anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes it is on occasion an hour but usually includes verbal orders from doctor's who are passing through and gave them to you because They doesn't like the evening "girl" so you just write them up for me ok susie. or a fall or other emergency that does need 2 nurses to get the paperwork done to to get the pt out 911.

Yes they the DON at the nursing home I work at as a CNA has started saying we have to go on break and they no longer will pay for a missed lunch breaks even if we are EXTREMELY SHORT STAFFED!!!

Federal Law, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), trumps state law.

Some of the ways that health care facilities (especially skilled nursing ones) cheat workers
out of their overtime is:

1) Tell you to arrive early for report and THEN clock in.
2) Interrupt your lunch hour - even for a minute - then you are entitled to be paid for the hour
3) Make you attend meetings off the clock
4) Tell you to clock out and finish your charting or other work
5) Tell you to clock out and do the narcotics count
6) Tell you to clock out and wait for your relief.

They always threaten you with the loss of your license if you don't stay.

A group of Texas nurses has filed under the Fair Labor Standards Act to collect their overtime.
Although it talks about LVN's, documentation suggests that Med Aides, CNA's, housekeeping,
and food service will join in to collect their back money

It looks like the suit is expanding nation wide to many skilled nursing facilities.

Read about it here:

www.lvnclaim.com