We have two ways to clock in, timeclocks near the hospital entrance and in various other locations, or on the computer. If we clock in 6 minutes before the hour, that counts as on time, no OT is paid, and clocking out, it's the same way, 6 minutes early is OK.
Now the problem (or one of them). Management is upset with people clocking in 15 or more minutes early, because OT has to be paid. That makes sense to me, but because of this, some units are cracking down on clocking in even one minute early. You are supposed to be up on your unit ready to work, and now the nurses are huddled around the computer on the hour, waiting for the magic moment! If they clock in at any other time, they are written up! This is entirely ridiculous to me. Why bother having time clocks if we can't use them when we walk in the door? Staff are not happy about this situation, but feel that nothing can be done. If anyone makes a fuss about anything, they will get poor evals, and no raises. Morale on the unit is very low, and nurses are quitting.
How do other places clock in and out? The last place I worked, we had a time card and wrote in our hours, never had any problems.
Thanks for all your replies. It's good (well, maybe!) to know similar things happen everywhere. I agree that it's bad to clock in early, but the 7 minutes that the hospital allows is OK. Our only problem is the Head Nurses of the individual areas wanting it to be on the dot! Our boss hasn't come up with the same silly idea (yet).
LOL, tell her it takes longer than a minute to get all those people huddled around the clock at check in time through the line. Are they also going to chastise you for clocking in 2 minutes late because of the wait? LOL,, they dont have anything ELSE to worry about?
I was just 'counseled' for this by my supervisor. We can punch in 5 min. before and up to 2 min. after the start of shift. Nurses are to be punched out by 15-20 min. after end of shift. Apparently, I don't seem to be getting out on time-not that I have to wait for the next shift to come in and figure out who's is taking the keys, count the narcs, and be quiet long enough for me to give report on 40 residents. The are also things that need to be run past the unit manager, ie-dc'ing QID FBS's on resident who recieves no coverage, changing tube feed times, etc. Things that just can't go in the comm. book. Everything is last minute for my shift it seems, and I do tend to runout of time. Any time over the alotted 20 minutes has to be cleared threw the DON, I'm sure she would love a call at 5:30am, saying I need 5 more minutes to finish up, considering I don't know at 5:30 how far behind Im going to be at 7!! ('m usually done by 25 after.) This is all in a crack down on OT. Yes, there are ppl that can get it done in time, and there are also those that get done then stand around for 10 min, shooting the breeze.
DON wants count done, and minimal shift report.
The 'threat' is we wont be paid for anything after the 20 min. If I'm on the clock and working, I expect to be paid. I do believe there are labor laws about this issue.
I'm finding this thread very interesting. I can see all sides of this issue. I haven't ever been reprimanded for punching in early or late, but I know that on occasion I punch in early, but I go directly to the unit and begin working, answering phones or anything that will assist the previous shift in getting out on time... like that really ever happens. My shift is to end at 7am; I cannot recall the last time I punched out before 7:15am, but I'm waiting for the day shift to finish listening to report.
As I've been reading some of these threads, I have a picture in my mind of a group of nurses waiting for the magic moment to punch in and a code being called... if you were waiting in line would you attend the code or wait to punch in? (I work in a small community hospital that does not have a code team.)
Mimi2RN, ASN, RN
1,142 Posts
Thanks for all your replies. It's good (well, maybe!) to know similar things happen everywhere. I agree that it's bad to clock in early, but the 7 minutes that the hospital allows is OK. Our only problem is the Head Nurses of the individual areas wanting it to be on the dot! Our boss hasn't come up with the same silly idea (yet).