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 am not able to get out in a storm, so they would have to come and get me. Not very likely. They can make all the inhumane, crazy policies they want, we are still people not robots.
If I'm mandated, sure I'll stay. But they can forget me ever working an extra shift, coming in early or agreeing to staying over late. Will never happen again I don't care what the circumstance is. Aware of each place of employment call in policy. If I'm mandated or made to work extra, I'll call in 2 for every 1 shift made to work. They stopped making me work over and don't harass me for extra time. Every place has a 'it's all about us' philosophy. Nope. Not in my book. It's just a job. There's more out there.
Yes there are concerns regarding staff who need their meds. I would be very uncomfortable being forced to stay without my meds and if I had a stroke because I did not get my hypertension meds I would be suing BIG TIME. I don't think they can imperil your health or who know, maybe they can and they just don't care. As one of my now retired friends once said management doesn't care about their staff. They don't even know your name, and if you dropped dead on the job, their response would be "Number One is dead. Get Number Two." The bottom line is all they care about.
Now that I live in Florida, I don't have to worry about the snow. I remember past blizzards and we pretty much prepared to stay. That being said, I think they could fire you, but will they? They would have to replace a whole bunch of staff, I am sure. Either way, I wouldn't want to work for someone that used strong arm tactics like that anyway. There is a lot of people out there that think that if an employer fires you, they also have a right to deny unemployment compensation. Not true. Willful misconduct is the one and only reason they can deny you unemployment compensation. Willful misconduct in this situation will be hard for them to prove unless you outright tell them to go screw themselves. If you went home, you went home. Your shift was done and your replacement was there. Remember, employers policies do not EVER override state law. The last thing that any entity wants is scrutiny from ANY state agency.
Can you request to see a copy of the hospital policies and procedures manual? As crazy as it seems to demand that nurses stay on location, make sure there's not a written policy that they can use against you. Seems odd that they would blatantly break the law and risk lawsuits from every nurse they force to stay.
I believe the term for what you are describing is "false imprisonment."
Didn't we fight a civil war over working conditions similar to this? I would definitely walk and if they decide to spank me later, I'd engage an attorney with a real pit bull attitude. I'd also contact the labor board, the board of nursing, and local media to spread some stink about the working conditions in that sweatshop. But that's just me...
You might remind them that if they have a staffing problem now, just think of what it'll be after they fire some nurses. If I were on the periphery, I'd start looking right then for other employment before they ever got a chance to get around to me.
I live in New Orleans and we have a system set up for this type of situation. All essential employees are required to sign up on one of two teams, activation team or recovery team. If a Code Grey is called (inclement weather) the activation team is given a certain amount of time to get essentials and report to the hospital. We work 12 hours shift but are paid the ENTIRE time we are on activation. An we must remain at the hospital the entire time. Sleeping quarters and food are provided by the hospital. When the Code Grey is cancelled the recovery team has a certain amount of time to report to the hospital to relieve the activation team.
So not legal or fair! Hospitals in many areas have gotten away with this for years. I faced the same situation in New Mexico when I worked in a ski resort town at the local hospital many years ago.
Get that in writing signed by some one in authority, DON, Nursing Service Director, etc. Give a complete report on your patients to on coming relief. Sign out after leaving a message to your manager that you have fulfilled your responsibilies for the shift you were assigned and being no further need, you have signed out. Make sure it is dated, timed and signed. make a copy and leave.
Unless they are paying you for all time you are required to stay, it could be considered kidnapping, holding a person against their will is a crime.
I work in Maryland and we were, in the nicest terms, "encouraged" to stay... And threatened that if we do not show up for any reason, we are terminating ourselves. Hence, most all the staff stayed for the entire weekend and then some due to blizzard Jonas. It also turned into a "code yellow" which meant it was a disaster, therefore we were mandated by the government to stay until code yellow was all clear. Yes, it sucked.... But at least we were all
ActualNurse
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I am not able to get out in a storm, so they would have to come and get me. Not very likely. They can make all the inhumane, crazy policies they want, we are still people not robots.