Overtime dependent nurses

[Emergent]

We have new edicts about overtime at our hospital that have some up in arms. Me, I do overtime about once a month, it's not really part of my budget though. I don't really like working more than full time, but if I do, I'm glad I get time and a half.

Some of my colleagues are utterly dependent on it. The top earners where I work are making $50 an hr. That means overtime adds up to $75 an hour. Then they are indignant that management wants to have more per diem nurses, wants to give extra shifts to newer nurses, wants people to clock out on time, not get double backs, etc and so forth.

Ironically, many of these nurses are free market advocates, outraged at liberal policies, irate when destitute people abuse the system. Yet they feel totally put out when hospital management is really making rational business decisions to avoid paying top earners big bucks. We are a union contract hospital where there is a step system that rewards longevity.

I'm grateful for it, personally. I'm fairly up there in earnings. But, on the other hand, I do understand that hospital administrations, as much as we loath their outrageous tactics, salaries, arrogance, do have a legitimate goal of reducing expenses.

What do you all think?

[ThePrincessBride, MSN, RN, NP]

It depends on where you live. The average American household combined income is about 50k a year and I've seen single mothers get by on less without relying on assistance to make ends meet. It is all about living within one's means, a foreign concept to most Americans.

I agree that it is very difficult to make ends meet on 20 an hour.

Anyway, I agree that depending on overtime is a gamble. In this present time, a second job might provide more stability.

[ThePrincessBride, MSN, RN, NP]

I also want to add that from my personal experience, the people who work the crazy hours are the same people who end up getting sicker quicker and eventually experience more health problems. I actually know a couple of aides who work tons of hours and then got sick and had frequent call-offs. One is at risk for getting fired for frequent call offs ( and I'm talking more than 10 in less than a year).

Rest is the best form of medicine there is for a tired body.

[MatrixRn]

I think it is about personal choices and age. I know when I first started nursing I was young and could tolerate extra hours and would say yes when I was asked to work because I thought that I needed to. Did I get used to the money? No. I never had the time to spend it. My husband and I thought working 48-55 hours a week was just how it was done in nursing. That this was the norm and the expectation.

I quit doing the OT after about a year, once I realized the OT on units was just bad management in most cases.

In any event, my point is I can see how new nurses or nurses who may have found some financial freedom could get stuck in the 48-55 hour 'norm.' Once they purchase the house and the cars.....well now they have bills to pay and cannot look back.

[wanderlust99]

When I was living in Los Angeles, a lot of the nurses depended on OT just due to the outrageously high cost of living. That was no way to live and I got out of there asap. Management always asking you to work extra, wondering in the back of your mind do they think I'm not a team player or helpful because I won't pick up these extra shifts? A lot of RNs working 4-5 12 hr shifts per week. All for the sake of what? Living in a tiny 1 bedroom apartment in a congested city? No thanks.

I don't do OT. The only time I have considered working extra is maybe finding a per diem job somewhere else. Honestly, seeing the same coworkers for that long of a time period and just all the nursing crap we deal with for more than the standard 36hr/week just isn't worth it to me. I'd rather be poor.

[caliotter3]

I once worked for an employer who allowed nurses to work a lot of OT and actually paid OT, when they were new in town and establishing their business base. Once things leveled out they adopted the stance of all employers, no more OT unless absolutely necessary. I went from gung ho bill paying and extended family supporting to barely scraping by, and eventually "have to move away due to no employment" versus ample OT. You notice these cycles and begin to wonder, at some point, why you are even in the rat race at all. Just yesterday, I saw some "live under the bridge" people from the freeway and thought, "how inviting". It is depressing to realize that one has a professional education, a professional license, yet they can not pay their obligations every month. Then you look at your living environment, what you drive, what you wear, and tell yourself, "why am I in nursing, the cashier at the chain grocery store, on part time wages with the union is driving a new car? I obviously did something wrong." I do not earn even $20 an hour at present, remember In N' Out Burger starts them at what? $12 an hour? My client the other day, had the audacity to mention $10 an hour for private duty. Oh, yes, I went to nursing school so you could think that you are doing me a favor by offering $10 an hour! Time to go to bed, so I can get fatigued again tomorrow.

[rumwynnieRN]

I know people who are overtime dependent as well those who play the system and exploit the PRN/in-house agency perks (as in they don't technically work a full-time job, but they work full-time hours). Those who are "overtime dependent" like my preceptor are well aware of the fact that if our hospital decided they wanted to do away with OT, they very well could (and we would have to search for a PRN position elsewhere). We had an LPN complain when our hospital was cutting the in-house agency hours from 3 days/week to 2 days/week. She was livid. My supervisor and I were a bit like, "Doh, if you're PRN, and they need to make some cuts, you're usually the first to go. It's a given, and if you volunteer for OT, you should be prepared for the possibility of being pulled." Or you could volunteer on days you know the unit is short.

[generalRN2008]

I think nursing school should require pre-reqs in financial management and life skills. These are subjects severely lacking in our educational system today.

That should be senior year high school classes and colleges intro follow up

[Nurse SMS, MSN, RN]

I don't drive new cars and I am real okay with that. I don't wear the latest fashions or have shoes that came off the runway. I am okay with that. I get told I look pretty just as often in my clearance rack shoes from Dillards. We eat out a couple of times a month, take a trip somewhere every couple of years, are able to provide a nice but certainly not over-the-top Christmas for our kids. My kids have to buy their own cars and pay their own insurance and participate in the cost of their college education and frankly it would be that way even if I won the lottery tomorrow. I don't do it because I don't make enough money; I do it because it teaches them about the value of money and their work efforts, which is a lesson I cannot buy for them.

If one needs new cars, fancy clothing, upscale food and lodging and trips every year, then one may find happiness eluding them no matter HOW much they make. I don't define myself by what I buy. I carry very little debt - pretty much only our mortgage. I entertain according to what I can afford to do. I think Dave Ramsey is a wizard when it comes to organizing finances, saving for the future and having a good quality of life. And I think it is nuts to think someone is happier than me because they have more "stuff".

I struggle with understanding those who come to rely on OT as a necessary wage and then cry foul when it goes away. I work OT and it gets socked away for those once every couple of years vacations or new carpet or new appliances etc. It is extra and awfully darn nice when I can link something tangible to the effort it took to earn it. If I wrapped it into my every day standard of living, it would depress the heck out of me.