Do nurses have to work from home?

[lilythorburn]

When a registered nurse finishes his or her shift and go home, do they still have to work from home (check emails, do paperwork etc)? Or do they only ever work in the hospital and once they go home that's it and they can relax and have no work responsibilities until their next shift?

[Newbie_RN17]

I work while I'm on the clock and that's it. I'll occasionally check my email but I never do any work from home.

[NurseCard, ADN]

Yes, when you work in a hospital, you are done when you clock

out. That doesn't mean that if something happened during your

shift that your manager or someone else has a question about,

that they won't call you at home to ask about it.

Home health is way different. You do tend to have a ton

of charting at home.

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

My facility doesn't even allow employees to check email from home because it's considered working and thus requires being paid. Have I occasionally had to call the nurse I relieved when they're already home? Yes, in fact I just did it yesterday when our surgical count was off. But that's an exception, not the norm.

The one housewide wide exception to that would be a position that requires on call- then I have to answer my phone and likely head in to work. But even then, I'm getting a minimal hourly rate to carry my pager and answer the phone. More if they call me in to work.

[xoemmylouox, ASN, RN]

It honestly just depends on the type of nursing and your employer. Some people work from home, others take call, others do charting at home, etc. Many nurses are involved in activities though like advancing their education, committee work, etc.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

A typical, run-of-the-mill floor nurse who punches a time clock at a hospital or nursing home does not take his/her work home. Once the shift ends, the work stops.

Floor nursing is not like other professions (e.g. teaching, law, etc.) where papers are graded on the kitchen table or legal briefs are prepared in the home office.

[Extra Pickles]

When a registered nurse finishes his or her shift and go home, do they still have to work from home (check emails, do paperwork etc)? Or do they only ever work in the hospital and once they go home that's it and they can relax and have no work responsibilities until their next shift?

If you're talking about hospital nursing, floor nursing, then you would be expected to stay at work to complete any paperwork not finished during your shift. You can't take patients' personal/medical information home on paperwork, all documentation should be right there on the unit for anyone's asking. The answer can never be Nurse Betty took home pages from the chart! Electronic charting obviously has to be done while on the premises too, so the simple answer is NO, you cannot take your work home with you.

That doesn't mean that you won't be occasionally scheduled for Training days, annual Competency evaluations, like that. But you are scheduled for and paid for those, they aren't done at home.

If you do home health you can expect to do the roughly half-ton of daily paperwork at home lol, but that's the arrangement up front.

[Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN]

I've never done case management or home care nursing -- only hospitals and once in subacute rehab.

I sometimes don't get all of my charting done during my shift; I finish it at work after reporting to the next nurse. While STILL ON the clock.

Occaaionally we have online learning stuff to do. Ideally I do it during my downtime while at work. If I can't though and it's a matter of due before my next shift, and I can't work without it being completed I do it from home. I note how long it takes me, and I'll add it to my online timesheet as "education hourly." I also add a comment that it was required online training done at home -- that way nobody says, "What? Here.I.Stand wasn't in class that day."

But 99.99% of the time, when I go home I'm done.

[RNperdiem, RN]

Does continuing education count? We need a certain amount every year to keep the license. I do check email, but there isn't much to check, and it nice to get advance warning of campus events that might impact our commute to work. Sometimes I will consult my nursing texts on a day off if I am curious about something like an unusual patient diagnosis. A lot of continuing education is informal.

ACLS certification expects you to have studied the materials before class and bring in a pre test.

Compared to my teacher neighbours who always seem to be grading papers, nursing responsibility is very light outside work.

[HeySis, BSN, RN]

When I worked home health and hospice working from home was the norm. I had a work issued computer that had the proper securities and I could get online at home and finish paperwork, review and change schedules and everything else. No-one else at home was allowed to use my work computer, it was pass word protected and giving out the password would ave been a HIPAA violation.

I'm working at the hospital now. I finish all my work on the clock, punch out and don't have to think about work again until the next shift. (so very sweet!!) I do take call at least once a week. I get paid to have my phone on me and if I get called I go in and punch in. The on-call pay is higher and there is a guaranteed minimum of hours once I punch in.

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

When a registered nurse finishes his or her shift and go home, do they still have to work from home (check emails, do paperwork etc)? Or do they only ever work in the hospital and once they go home that's it and they can relax and have no work responsibilities until their next shift?

A staff nurse in a hospital doesn't work from home. That does not mean, however, that your work won't call you on the regular on your days off asking you to come in because they had a sick call. But charting at home? Definitely not. I have never known any hospital to give staff nurses remote access to their EMRs. That kind of thing is reserved for people like nurse educators, case managers, nurse informatics specialists, etc. Those people CAN work from home. I worked from home yesterday because we had a blizzard in the Northeast. The staff nurses were expected to get themselves to work one way or another. Remember when you're a staff nurse, you're handing off your assignment at the end of your shift. There is no more work for you to do because the patient has a new nurse on a new shift now. If you have charting left to do, the expectation is that you stay to finish it.

[kaylee.]

If you count going home and ruminating about the hell that was your last shift to be work, then yes! JK