Taking Lunches, Not Clocking Out

I would like to see these professionals observe the complete and total letter of "the rule".

That means that they have a full, undisturbed lunch break that the clock out for. That means that no matter what is going on, they will leave at a proscribed time....no exceptions. That means their manager arranges for a licensed nurse to take report, give meds and do all treatments and assume all responsibility for the "clocked out" staffer. That clocked out staffer should not have to answer any patient care questions, take any pt related phone calls, do any tasks that will take "just a minute". If a patient codes, that nurse is off the clock and not their "responsibility". S/he will also get a full report on return from lunch.

In addition, these professionals will leave on time and do no work "off the clock". When patients ask Mary or John if they can just do one more thing, John or Mary will patiently explain (with a smile on their faces) that due to the professional regulations established by the facility, they are required to leave on time....and that is set by the management of the facility. Otherwise, they will be violating the rules set by their employer. Also, staffers should be sure to adhere very carefully to "the rules" when a relative of the CEO/CFO is a patient.....after all they especially need to see how well that "the rules" work.

After a few weeks of "following the rules", I have a feeling that "the rules" would change.......
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95% of the nurses I have met in my life - they don't get their breaks. If they do, they get interrupted every 5 minutes. No one covers them. They work off the clock and do not go through the trial of getting an exception sheet done. They get those lovely notices about how they cannot clock in early and get penalized if their work runs over 6 minutes beyond the hour. They get tagged with the "You need to manage your time better" on their evals when they stay after to take that shift change admission, or while staffing pulls and reassigns staff, after shift change, when someone does not show up, or emergencies occur during report...............

And someone is annoyed with adjusting time sheets.....................
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And they wonder why there is a shortfall of people staying in this profession.

I have been asked by my employer to clock out for a meal break but I am the only licensed personnel on the clock from 10pm until 6am. I don't think this is legal. Does anyone know how I could find out.

Chantel, it depends on your state. I was doing this in California, clocking out even though I could not leave the floor being the only licensed person. After I left that position, I found out people were getting paid for lunches due to state laws. I missed out on pay of a 1/2 hour of OT 5 days a week for 4 months...ugh

We don't clock out for breaks or lunch. Lunch is automatically deducted from the timecard.

I always clock in early because we use another department's time clock. I was told it's not a problem, but I guess I'll find out with my first paycheck