Are you on pay when giving or recieving report?

[oldhag]

Where I am employed at present we are expected to report for work 15 minutes before our shift starts to recieve report. It is considered part of our "profesional responsiblity". We are told through the eons that is the way everyone does it. However I don't think that we should be expected to get report for free.

Please answer the following questions for me so I can gather information on whether or not our staff should push management into changing this policy.

1. Are you paid for the time spent recieving report?

2. Are you paid for the time spent while oncoming shift is recieving report?

3. If the answer is no to either question does management consider this part of you "profesional responsiblity"?

4. Are you expected to stay while report is given or can you leave once oncoming shift is recieving report?

We have a clause that states we cannot put in for overtime until we have worked more than 15 minutes, however you now cannot leave during that 15 minutes even though you are no longer on pay. Any solutions comment or help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Donna

[GAgirl]

Sounds odd.

We get paid for time in report, coming and going. We have to stay until everyone in report is done and ready to care for the pts.

[dosamigos76, RN]

We get paid and can't leave until full report is done and the drug count is done. We just started a nurse-to-nurse report and even though our shift starts at 0700 or 1900, we're expected to be there at 0600 or 1800-and we're paid for it as well.

[LydiaNN]

You don't need our answers to know whether you "should" be paid for receiving report. Of course you should! If you are an hourly employee, and you are at work, doing work, then the law says your employer has to pay you. If the nurses who worked "through the eons" before you neglected to insist that they be paid for their time, that is their problem, not your's.

[zacarias, ASN, RN]

What does the Ontario Canada nursing board say about this? I would contact them and find out about employee law and if this hospital is not abiding by it.

[SmilingBluEyes]

if I am there, working in any way, I am b eing paid, you best believe that.

[Blackcat99]

:chuckle Yes I am always on the clock when giving or receiving report. I wouldn't have it any other way. I have been an LPN for 30 years and I have always gotten paid when giving or receiving report.

[Silverhawk]

I work supposedly an 8 hour shift. I am expected to receive and give report, as well as count meds coming on and going off shift. This takes 30 minutes total out of my 8 hours. Of course I rarely am done with all my work in the alloted 8 hours. When you subtract another 30 minutes for lunch, and another 20 minutes in breaks HA HA that would only leave me 6 hours and 40 minutes to do all my work, which is almost impossible. (I have a very few times, but working everyday at 100% plus takes its toll on my body and brain.) Therefore I never take my breaks, and at most a 10 minute lunch break. HMM, I wonder why there is a nursing shortage?

[RNKPCE]

We are paid while getting report, we do written report and when the oncoming shift if getting their report we are still taking care of patients. Our shifts overlap 1/2 hour. If the night shift gets out of report at 11:15p, we still stay until 11:30p.

Another thing to think about in regards to this and/or any other overtime is: if you omit something important in report and a patient is harmed or dies, will your hospitals malpractice cover it. This holds true for working any overtime. If you sign out at 11:30pm but give a med at 11:40p and the patient has an adverse reaction, or you make a mistake, the hospital might say you weren't on the clock.

Nursing in my career, I expect to be paid. I volunteer at my kids school, I don't expect to be paid.

[fergus51]

We did not get paid for it when I was in Ontario, but we did take extra break time of 15 minutes to make up for it. Really, report was an issue because some people would show up 15 minutes early and some wouldn't. Plus, sometimes report would take about a minute and other times you'd be there for 25 minutes giving report. It is true you don't get paid OT for less than 15 minutes according to ONA's contract.

[Agnus]

I do not know how things are done in Canada nor anything about your laws. In the U.S. if you are required to be anyplace, at any time, for any reason by your employer, they MUST pay you by law.

A very long time ago in the U. S. some hospitals did what you describe. It has been eons since the laws changed forbidding this practice by employers.

Just because "we have always done it this way" is a valid reason for nothing.

Nurses once stood an gave up thier chair to physicians and carried charts around for the physician. They did this for eons too. But I doubt that you still are expected to do that today in Canada and for certian not the U. S.

It is another way the employer keeps you in your place. It tells you your professional duty but ignores it's own professional duty to treat you with the respect and compensation that you deserve.

Not paying you is saying that your time is not valuable. If it is not valuable then they don't really need you to give report at all. Either it is important enough for them to pay for it or it is not important at all.

What if there is a Code or other emergency while you are in report are you expected to respond without pay?

[Jamesdotter]

We are not paid for our meal times (30 minutes), and are expected to get through report in the 30 min overlap. This has been true in every hospital where I've worked. Our breaks are on company time, mandated by state law.