How many of you are forced to clock out to stay back and chart?

Specialties Geriatric

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I don't understand this SNF world... I'm usually forced to clock out on time unless i got a fall or an admission that day. I usually cant finish 2 medpasses & treatments in an 8-hr time frame. I would have to stay 4-5 hrs back everyday to do paperwork: Medicare charting, skin assessments, care plans etc. Or finish the treatments I didn't get to do. This is so illegal, yet nobody at my workplace is saying a thing since they're all immigrant nurses and need their job! I'm an American citizen! I know my rights and this is so unfair!!!! I don't know what to do. I feel like I'm the only one speaking up to management and all I've gotten back are: 'other facilities r like this & actually worse.', 'ur learning... Sooner or later you'll get out on time.'

This totally violates the labor law! Sometimes I have to work through my lunch to get things done! That's 8 hrs running around w no water or food!! The other day i clocked out already and still had to do PICC line dressing change. Not to mention one port was clogged up bc no other nurses flush the port except me! What is this? 3rd world nursing? Is this even America !? This is injustice! I wanna Boycott this place but id be the only one! So is this reality of LTCs/SNFs??? Is there a union for this type of nursing????

If something happens to you, you will not be covered under workman's comp. May want to check in with local labor board about working conditions. Attempt to find greener pastures if possible.

Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.

I work for the same system that calgarynurse403 does. I work in critical care. We don't clock in, swipe in or employ any other blue-collar method of recording our time on the unit. The charge nurse knows who is present for report and who isn't. If we miss a break or stay late to chart there is a multi-copy carbonless form we fill out for the OT which includes the reason for the extra time. The charge nurse has to verify that we actually stayed/missed a break/whatever. Our patient care manager can deny the OT if it's not truly justified, such as those people with chronic time management problems or the ones who like to refuse to go for a break even though someone else has offered to cover their patient(s) so they can go. If we have an admission arrive in the last hour of our shift, we don't perform or chart an assessment. We just document what actually has happened since the patient arrived, which may be a LOT! For example, if a patient rolls through the door and arrests 10 minutes later, the charting will be the code sheet and a list of events - ie: pt arrived @, pt became bradycardic, see code sheet, Dr X paged, Dr X Arrived @, i unit PRBC transfused under pressure......... No one will walk away from a situation like that and no one will be denied OT for that. But if someone has left all of their charting to the end of the shift and then has a patient who doesn't cooperate with the plan, guess what! NO OT.

If your workload is so high that you can't complete even basic documentation during your scheduled shift, that is a problem. A review of local labour laws and documentation of violations should be done so that the labour relations board can become involved. No one should be working for free!

Specializes in Peds Medical Floor.

I work at a hospital with a union and there are nurses who CHOOSE to clock out to finish charting. They "feel bad" because they are costing the hospital extra. I think they are crazy. I don't work for free. I consider myself too valuable. Plus if you get hurt you aren't covered by the hospital since you aren't on the clock.

The nursing, "martyr mary", mentality still prevails in too many nurses. It had been our downfall since the beginning of time.

JMHO and my NY $0.02.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN

Somewhere in the PACNW

I don't start nursing school until next month, but I'm a CNA and the LTC facility I used to work at had this problem. In 2011 all employees who worked from 2006-2009 received a letter and it stated that a former nurse from my old facility was suing them. In the letter it asked us if we ever worked off the clock, hadn't been given breaks or lunches and had to work them and questions like that. If it applied to us we had to mark x, sign that letter and send it back before the court date. Well, a few months later everyone received a check to compensate for us working off the clock. I received $4000 and the amount varied for everyone. It goes to show that companies shouldn't be allowed to take advantage of their employees. I'm glad someone spoke up and I'm happy to say that I now work in a facility that treats it's employees well and encourages us to go to nursing school.

If I am off the clock, I am leaving the building. I mean unless there is some extreme emergency, which has happened before. Even then I always fill out a "time sheet correction" which has to be signed by the charge nurse...which is me. I don't feel bad if I stay over on the clock. I'm working, not sitting there chatting it up.

Specializes in ICU.
Nurses are encouraged to take their breaks.

"Breaks"??? What are those?

I've seen/heard of fellow nurses leaving the floor to go smoke, but have NEVER seen/heard anybody leaving to go on any sort of regularly scheduled "break" (other than lunch).

Specializes in Pedi.

This is 100% illegal and no one should be working off the clock. In the US, Federal Labor laws state that employees must be compensated for all hours "suffered or permitted to work". It doesn't matter that management didn't approve the overtime, if they have any reason to believe that employees are working past their shift, they are required by law to compensate them. If it puts that employee over 40 hrs/week, that employee must be compensated at 1.5x their rate for any hours worked in excess of 40. Of course, this only applies if you are a non-exempt employee.

When I was a hospital nurse, I worked MANY unpaid hours. This was also at a world renowned "magnet" hospital. Nurses were considered "salaried" so they didn't get overtime. If you had a 36 hr position and worked 48 hrs in a week, no overtime.

Specializes in Med/Surg, Neuro, ICU, travel RN, Psych.

Have you contacted the labor board? I would start there, and then start looking for another job.

I work at a LTC facility in Illinois. The DON and the Administrator will personally walk any of the nurses or CNA's that are there past their shift working. It's so wrong that we can not finish the work we have to do. I personally have 53 patients per night that I have to medicate and do treatments on! The majority of the time I can NOT finish my charting which is unsafe and I don't want to be held liable. This is just the sign of the times. Nurses are being asked to do the job of 2 nurses, not getting their lunches or breaks that they aren't getting paid for, and we are not able to give the kind of care that is right.

Specializes in Pediatrics.

I would not stand for that. I don't work for free. Charting is required, therefore, I will get paid for it.

Nurses allow this kind of abuse because we have refused to do the only thing that will help us- UNIONZE!!!

Spare me the martyr mary comments, about how being unionizes is not "professional".

It is not professional to be treated like we are in the above thread, and certainly not professional to not be allowed to finish our charting that provides a LEGAL record of our work, and PROTECTION OF OUR LICENSE.

I would contact an attorney. Start keeping track of what you are not able to finish, try to keep a record of your work, (treatments, meds- number /patient), phone calls to families, doctors, etc. Keep a record of what breaks, lunch, etc, you werer unable to take, as a record.

Start looking for another job! Call the labor board as well. If you can use your cell phone to record what is being said by the DON when they escort you out, and/or be able to take a picture, it will go along way in your defense. A picture is worth a thousand words!

It might also be worth it to contact the Nursing Home abuse hot line, to report being unable to finish your work due to the impossible work load, and how the patients are being harmed.

Keep track of your assignments (number of patients to care for), to back up your story.

If you stay at the same facility, contact the NNOC, to start a union drive.

JMHO and my NY $0.02.

Lindarn, RN ,BSN, CCRN

Somewhere in the PACNW

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