Hello, I am a Nurse in the State of West Virginia.
We are currently in the wake of Winter Storm Jonas which has left our hospital in a bind with staffing. I am well aware of the mandation laws currently in action for the state of WV. I understand that a nurse can be mandated to work a 16 hour shift if staffing is needed for the safety of the patients, which I have no problem with and will gladly volunteer in this time of need. However, at our specific facility after a nurse has worked a 16 hour shift, management will not let us leave the building, even if we are not scheduled to work for several days, requiring us to sleep here.
They are at this point threatening us with discipline.
I have just worked a 12 hour shift and am not needed to work an additional 4 hours as my replacement has arrived, they have no use for me. They will not let me leave the hospital even though they have no need for me. They say, "they cannot guarantee that I will make it in for my shift tomorrow night and I am not allowed to leave due to this."
Although extreme, I feel that this is somewhat a hostage situation, lol. I live 5 minutes away from the hospital of which I work, I have even said that I can walk to work of for some reason my 4WD lifted truck cannot make the 2.2 mile trip.
This cannot be legal, refusing a nurse from going home if they are not mandated and are not needed. For instance, a nurse worked her scheduled shift this past Friday and was going to leave at 7pm. They told her she was not needed but she was not allowed to leave.
She isn't scheduled to work again until Monday morning and are forcing her to stay here throughout the weekend? I cannot see how this is legal in anyway, and then on top of forcing us to stay they are intimidating us by throwing termination in our face if we leave.
This is habeas corpus if I am correct. Illegal detention. All hospitals I have worked at have 3 voluntary teams in the sense that it is mandatory to volunteer which team you want to be on.
Team A works on preparing the hospital for the hurricane, Team B comes in right before the hurricane and rides out the hurrican and remains ready for prolonged stay. Team C comes in as soon as access is available to come in and Team B goes home.
This incident tells me two things about your hospital:
1. They do not have an emergency plan in place. If they had one, they would have it shared with you a long time ago. The plan would have kicked in according to level of threat.
2. In the absence of a plan, someone took a decision on the fly, as a stop gap measure and screwed the hospital. That is why planning is done ahead of time to prevent desperate actions to be taken with a brain in fight or flight mode.
All this should have been factored into an emergency plan and shared with the staff in advance so that they could prepare. Nobody can save patients knowing their own kids may be swimming in flood water.
That is terrible. I am sorry but I think I would just leave and risk termination. Losing a job or losing your life. The choice is clear. I would call all the media outlets in the area and let them know what happened. The public needs to know that this is how the people who care for them when they are sick are treated by their management. Terrible, terrible.
A snowstorm so bad that essential personnel are being asked to stay at work and work extra? Are you forgetting who you are and what you do? What if you went home and your relief refused to come in ? Or what if the hospital had no one to come in? Who would take of the patient. What if all essential personnel refused to work extra? Firemen, paramedics, doctors, police, electric utility men and snowplow drivers. A bad snowstorm could be considered an emergency. And this happens maybe once a year? There are labor laws about sleep but you need to get over it. Find another profession. If you worked at a retail store you could take several days off.
Our profession does not justify our abuse. No-one, ever has the right to detain me without compensation.
And me and my family come first, before the hospital or anyone in it.
A snowstorm so bad that essential personnel are being asked to stay at work and work extra? Are you forgetting who you are and what you do? What if you went home and your relief refused to come in ? Or what if the hospital had no one to come in? Who would take of the patient. What if all essential personnel refused to work extra? Firemen, paramedics, doctors, police, electric utility men and snowplow drivers. A bad snowstorm could be considered an emergency. And this happens maybe once a year? There are labor laws about sleep but you need to get over it. Find another profession. If you worked at a retail store you could take several days off.
I'm in south Louisiana and my hospital does this when we are "activated" for a hurricane. However, we do get paid the entire time even thought it's not as much. We also get meals and can bring family members and pets with us if needed. I think it's very fair.
However, I would have a problem with being forced to stay and not paid. That's wrong.
A little bit harsh and high-handed. Believe me, there are always people who will volunteer to stay and work the overtime. The question was whether nurses can be forced to stay at no pay for several days until their next shift a few days later. It was not whether they can be mandated to work the following shift to the one they are already working. It was whether they can be basically held against their will at the facility for a few days at no pay. Maybe you should read the post about the nurses who was not allowed to go home for his/her meds and had a heart attack halfway through his/her shift. Yes staff are required to stay until reinforcements arrive, but to force them to stay for a few days and to not allow them to get their cardiac meds is really asking for way too much. It is way too excessive. Maybe the facility should have a better plan than that. Maybe the nurse managers should stay for a few days and pitch in and do some of the work. I have worked through many a storm over the years and have yet to see any of the managers pitching in. They wi; work the employees to the point of exhaustion, stop them from getting their cardiac meds but pitch in and actually do some work, never.
Union hospital has specific contract langugage. It spells out what call pay is. It is 1/2 your hourly rate and if called in you receive 1 1/2 time. Language varies on whether or not you get shift diff when on call.
I know...I was referring to the poster who said the hospital could mandate them not only to stay but to come in when called. What I meant was that if they are told they have to come in, then they should be getting on-call pay for that time at home when they were "required" to be available, whatever that on-call pay is.
What I wondered about the DOL objecting to (and what I personally would object to), is being off when a storm hits with no prior commitment to the work schedule. Perhaps my husband is overseas for work (which he was--for 10 days--in December), and I've made no childcare arrangements because I am neither on the schedule nor have I agreed to be on call. Work then calls and says that I am being mandated to come in. If the nurse is being called and TOLD (not asked) to come in, then was that nurse off, or on call? Myself, I've never heard of a nurse being on call without prior knowledge, or being on call for free. And I'm in the upper Midwest, so no stranger to blizzards.
feelix, RN
393 Posts
This is habeas corpus if I am correct. Illegal detention. All hospitals I have worked at have 3 voluntary teams in the sense that it is mandatory to volunteer which team you want to be on.
Team A works on preparing the hospital for the hurricane, Team B comes in right before the hurricane and rides out the hurrican and remains ready for prolonged stay. Team C comes in as soon as access is available to come in and Team B goes home.
No hospital detains people forcibly.