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.
I live in Florida too and though we don't have snow storms we do have Hurricaines and we had similar policies here if there "might be" a Hurricaine. They really don't care what your responsibilities at home are. At my hospital, however, they allowed the whole family of the employee to come into the hospital making it nearly impossible for staff to get rest when they weren't working due to so many young children and loud televisions!
Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.
Oh, our hospital made you bring your own three days of food and water! For the employee and all of their family.
Kalle, in the bottom right corner of each post is a quote button. It would be quite helpful if you would utilize this when responding to a post so that readers know to which post you're responding. AN doesn't post replies directly following a post but rather at the end of the thread. Without the quote, your posts make no sense as part of a conversation.
We've had several severe hurricanes i.e. Katrina, Gustav... And the hospital never required anyone to stay. They give you a strong warning that if you don't show up for your shift you WILL be fired, and the hospital provides places to sleep. If you think the storm will hinder you at all you are encouraged to stay.
If they are requiring you to stay, then they should be paying you overtime for it.
Vavolady
9 Posts
the unit managers are nurses? they should be coming in, right?