Do nurses have to work from home?

allnurses Guide · Mar 16, 2017

In general floor nursing doesn't occupy formal work time outside of work hours. Other types of nursing do. It just depends on the role, the institution, the project being worked on etc

allnurses Guide · Mar 16, 2017

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?

In my current job I don't work off the clock if that's what you mean. I do have a couple of side projects going that might make me rich someday but at 54 it better hurry up and happen.

In a previous job I was an RN consultant for a company that owned multiple group homes. In that job I was on-call pretty much 24/7.

Hppy

adventure_rn, MSN, NP · Mar 16, 2017

You may or may not be expected to check your email daily while at home. That said, the emails you receive are almost always updates and FYIs on the unit/hospital (i.e. new products in/out of stock, changes to policy, etc.). Unlike a traditional job, you definitely won't get any emails on your days off saying, 'lilythorburn, complete this project' (unless you join a voluntary committee, in which case you're supposed to get paid for all time working on projects).

One of the awesome benefits of shift work is that you effectively have built-in work life balance.

mcas · Mar 16, 2017

I guess it would depend on where you work, I don't chart at home but my unit is very busy, I never have time to do my mandatory modules while at work, we do get paid for a number of hours they figure out it should take you to complete all the modules, when they are all completed you get your 6 hours??? of pay (varies per unit). we are expected to check email from home, that's the only way my manager and other staff communicates with you unless you exchange personal contact information, when the unit is short if you're interested you get a blast text with the needs and you can go into our self scheduling system and request the shift. I work mostly on the weekend, Saturday and Sunday. So If there is information that will effect my job performance, I'm obligated to check out the information, as I'm responsible for that information. That's the culture at the hospital where I work. I'm not sure that it's a policy.

KimmiejsRN · Mar 26, 2017

At my hospital we are constantly having required continuing education called HealthStream added to our already busy work schedule. Instead of having scheduled time to complete these courses we are being forced to come in on our days off to complete these courses. Many of us are already working four 12 hour shifts per week due to lack of staff. These extra hours we are having to complete these mandatory HealthStream courses have really affected morale at my hospital.

mcas · Mar 26, 2017

I just thought I would share this year's ANA theme for nurses' week. It would be interesting to see how hospitals respond to it, when so many practices like coming in on your day off to complete Health Stream modules among other topics explored in this forum doesn't align with a healthy mind, body and spirit. It's something to strive for I guess.

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Apr 1, 2017

Checking work email from home has been a thorny issue on my unit. In theory, we're not expected to check it when we're not working. But since about 97% of the communication between bedside and admin is via email, there's an assumption that people do it. For example, our management team emails out schedule changes. So if they've changed my schedule while I'm on vacation or off sick, and I don't read my email at home, I'm not going to know and could potentially be a no-show. They also send out desperation pleas about weekend staffing being dangerously short, usually at 1530 on Friday afternoon as they're getting ready to leave for the weekend. Although lately our Facebook social group has become increasingly the method of pleading with people to come in to work. And when a significant number of our staff were exposed to an airborne, reportable illness, we were emailed with instructions to be screened by workplace health and safety. (I attended the follow-up appointment on a day off and will not be paid for it.) There are some things that really do deserve a phone call.

We are expected to do any prep work for our annual competency evaluations, advanced life support certifications and such on our own time because there's just no way to shoe-horn it into a work day, but that's not the norm.