Re: Is your facility warning staff for overtime, for missing lunch breaks or other?
The only time they get onto people is when it's being abused. VERY rarely do we have people staying late to chart or people missing lunches/breaks.
Of course there are exceptions and sometimes you have to stay late and chart. But in the year and a half that I've been there, I can count on one hand the number of times I've stayed late, and when I say late I mean like 30 minutes over. Also, in the year and a half I've been there I've never missed a lunch break. Again, I can count on one hand the number of times I've had to cut my lunch short, but I've always been able to go get something to eat, go to the bathroom, and take a little break. Even on the busiest-run-your-butt-off-constantly-all-night types of nights.
We help each other out. We make sure everyone can get a lunch break. We make sure everyone can get out in time.
Maybe I'm just a naive new nurse, but I honestly can't imagine putting up with working at a place in which the norm is to not get a lunch and to get out late.
We as nurses work hard. We not only deserve our lunch breaks, but we should REQUIRE that we get them.
So in a roundabout way, the answer is no, we don't really have a problem with this. Sure there are some people that take advantage and try to milk the clock by saving some charting for later, that way they can get the overtime. And those people are the ones that get warned. Otherwise, it's not a big issue.
Re: Is your facility warning staff for overtime, for missing lunch breaks or other?
Nursing News