Salaried nurses, How much OT is acceptable? What to do?

[paradiseboundRN]

Here is my dilemma. I just started a job a 4 weeks ago as a Intake Nurse-RN with a very large home care company. I was one of 4 nurses that were hired. My letter of employment quoted an hourly pay rate. After 2 weeks, I found out that I am actually salary-no overtime. Before Jan 1st we spent the time in training or just standing around because they had no one to train us. Starting Dec 31st, we have been absolutely slammed with work. We are at least 1 1/2 days behind on work. It is obvious that they didn't hire enough people! My problem is that we have been working almost 2 hours overtime every night. On the first day of the job she gave a big speech about "teamwork" and everyone staying until the work is done. But it doesn't matter if we stayed to midnight, the work isn't going to be done. The first 2 days, I stayed because my coworkers stayed. Finally after about 2 hours my boss announced that we should leave. Officially, my boss hasn't even addressed the problem. She hids out between the hours of 4-6:30 pm so she doesn't have to deal with it. I am so tired of being taken advantage of in Nursing! I have decided that on Monday I'm going to tell her that I'm not going to be working late on a regular basis. I can't wait for my co-workers to step up because they're are all so passive, although they complain to me and each other. Remember, I am not getting paid OT. I don't think I should have to work 10 hrs a work for free. The work may slow down, but its obvious to me that this is going to be a constant problem. Any advice? How do you think I should handle this?

[paradiseboundRN]

Just thought I'd leave a follow-up to the story. HR didn't care that I signed an hourly contract, but told I was salary. I did get a doctors note but my boss didn't choose to honor it. The hours got worse, not better. My hours ended up being 10-6:30 with the thought that I wouldn't have to work more than 8 hours. Well, that didn't work either. By the time the clerk and I got all the referrals into the system, it was at least 7:00pm. I was eating dinner at 8:00! My hubby felt so bad that he cooked dinner every night and waited so he could eat with me.

This is how it added up: horrible hours/10 hr days + No OT+ bully boss and company who didn't care+ weekends+holidays = no thank you!

I resigned and I am now taking time off to do the RN-BSN with Western Governors University (WGU). I going to work at it full-time so I hope to finish in 6 months.

Moral of the story: Be careful accepting an Intake job in home care. With some companies, Intake can be nearly a 24/7 operation. The company I worked for is a very large HC company in SE MI affiliated with 5 hospital systems. If you want more info, contact me. Thanks to all who replied and tried to help.