Limiting Maximum Hours Worked

[elcue]

greetings, all.

our clinical practice council has received from administration a draft of a proposed policy which, in the interest of safety, will limit the number of hours worked in 24 hours, in 7 days, and in a 2-week pay period. "guidelines for reducing error-producing fatigue" it also establishes a minimum number of non-worked hours prior to beginning any shift.

this policy requires inclusion of hours worked at another facility in calculating an employee's placement within one of the three "safety zones".

worked call back hours are included in the totals.

personally, i think this is a long overdue safety measure and i am tickled that we are finally addressing this. i believe our proposed guidelines are still too liberal - the cautionary zone doesn't begin until 19 hours worked in 24, and doesn't prohibit continued work until 20 hours are reached in a 24 hour period. but it is a start, and this is still a draft.

so...do any of you have similar guidelines in your institutions?? i'd appreciate feedback. thanks. linda

[dsr1957]

In our facility you can work 16 hours in a row and must have 8 hours off between shifts...a nurse can work longer at their discretion but the facility cannot require them to do so.

[PMFB-RN, RN]

Hey if you want to reduce error causing fatigue one of the best things to do would be to ban new moms and dads from working. The most exhausted people I ever see at work are new parents.

PS It just occurred to me that not everyone will recognize my message as sarcasm. That's what it is but I don't like the proposal discussed in the OP.

[CIRQL8]

We have only basic guidelines in place. The institution cannot require us to work more that 16 hours straight, and requires 8 off between shifts. As posted above by another, if we are working on call, are here for egreather than 16 hours, we can choose not to call in relief, bet we must be provided relief ASAP once requested.

Our manager would like to employ safety checks and measures that prevent us from being on call for more than 12 to 16 hours at a time, but we are resisting this change, because it would decrease time between call. Right now, we are in call about 3 days out of every four weeks. It would jump to 6 if we cut the call from 15.5 hours of call on weekdays to 8. Also, we are on call about one weekend out of every 6, and this would jump to 2 to 3 weekends if we cut call from 48 hour weekends to two 12 hour weekend call shifts.

[Charity, RN, APRN]

Our OR staff can't work longer than 12 hours, and most do not like it. We had part-time nurses who used to work 16/hr weekends. (second job) No more. Now our regular staff has to work weekends also, and rotate nights. We don't do call (except back-up), as we are open 24/7. I don't know how often the weekend rotation or backup call is.