I'm a Home Health Nurse. I just got an email from the office saying I often come in too early (10 minutes) and leave too late (10 minutes). They cited an instance when I left 20 minutes late.
Is the following response to their email too snarky?
"I will make more of an effort to not arrive early to my shift and to not stay late. I will also call the office the next time me leaving at the scheduled time results in the vent-dependent, pediatric patient being left alone."
Too passive-aggressive?
I swear this company I work for is a joke. I don't think anyone in the office knows how anything works in the home.
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
I was also wondering how you are to give report?
I think they are nitpicking and if they did their scheduling correctly 10 min before or after shouldn't be a big deal.
In nursing, extra time needs to be built into the schedule. Heck, even in retail I did it, as associates were often stuck late helping customers or doing whatever. I always scheduled my full timers 38 hours to help take care of incidental minutes and make sure we didn't hit OT.
This is a management scheduling issue. Not the OPs issue. I'm surprised many of you don't see that. It's not like she's staying an hour over. It's 10 minutes. Obviously, whomever is scheduling has worked in an office their entire life and has no real world experience. That needs to be fixed.
I see fine. This is not the OPs problem, true. But the management WILL NOT respond to an email the way she wants. I have actually had management go nuts over arriving as little as 5 min early and staying over 5 min late. And we can't fix who schedules people. If it's that big an issue and patient care compromised, then if it can't be changed, maybe it's time to move on.
In private duty home health I tend to stick with the same patient for awhile - I have been a PRN nurse for my current patient for a few years now - report does not take long unless there is a new to the patient nurse relieving me. The nurse that relieves me now has also been with the patient for about 6 months - not much to communicate back an forth unless something unusual has happened - we are done within 5 minutes.
I think they are nitpicking and if they did their scheduling correctly 10 min before or after shouldn't be a big deal.
In nursing, extra time needs to be built into the schedule. Heck, even in retail I did it, as associates were often stuck late helping customers or doing whatever. I always scheduled my full timers 38 hours to help take care of incidental minutes and make sure we didn't hit OT.
This is a management scheduling issue. Not the OPs issue. I'm surprised many of you don't see that. It's not like she's staying an hour over. It's 10 minutes. Obviously, whomever is scheduling has worked in an office their entire life and has no real world experience. That needs to be fixed.[/quote
There is no need to " give report" in the home care setting. I'm surprised YOU don't see that.
Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
I always scheduled my full timers 38 hours to help take care of incidental minutes and make sure we didn't hit OT..
In most states, anything over 12 hours IS overtime (or in my state, over 8 hours if the nurse is hired for an 8-hour shift). So the law requires paying overtime, regardless of what you've scheduled for your 0.9 FTEs.
And no, clocking in 10 minutes early is not necessary. Clocking out 20 minutes late is also not necessary unless the nurse who is relieving her was late, in which case, THAT Is what needs to be addressed. But as BTDT also mentioned, with a PDN case, shift handoff should not take more than 5 minutes.
If my staff goes into overtime, guess who gets in trouble? *I* do. So I'm darn well not going to NOT address a nurse clocking in 10 minutes early, when there is absolutely no need for it to happen (for one-time occurrences, I let it go - it gets addressed when it's a regular pattern).
FWIW, all agencies I have worked for required that a relieving nurse arrive ten minutes prior to start of shift in order to receive report and for the offgoing nurse to leave on time, so telling you not to come ten minutes prior to the start of the shift is contradictory to standard practice. Leaving late, same thing as what others said. When your relief does not come on time, (i.e. ten minutes prior to the shift start), there is no way you can leave on time. You are required to give report. You are also accounting for the time taken to count and sign for controlled substances. You should be getting paid for anything past the start of the new shift. That is the way it is done with organized agencies.
Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
FWIW, all agencies I have worked for required that a relieving nurse arrive ten minutes prior to start of shift in order to receive report and for the offgoing nurse to leave on time.
I don't work home health, but in the hospital, the incoming nurse is expected to punch in at her start time and be ready for report at that time, and the offgoing nurse is the one who overlaps and leaves 20-30 minutes "late" (which is factored into her hours, it becomes a 12.5 hour shift, 12 of which is paid).
So it's really just a matter of the facility expectations - is the report supposed to begin 10 minutes before the hour, or on the hour and going to 10 minutes after the hour.
"Thank you for letting me know. I will arrive and leave as scheduled from now on."
The end.
Management doesn't want to hear your rationale, especially in an email. If you have an issue, ask for a meeting. If you do need to stay late for some reason, document it and inform your manager.
I'm a Home Health Nurse. I just got an email from the office saying I often come in too early (10 minutes) and leave too late (10 minutes). They cited an instance when I left 20 minutes late.
Is the following response to their email too snarky?
"I will make more of an effort to not arrive early to my shift and to not stay late. I will also call the office the next time me leaving at the scheduled time results in the vent-dependent, pediatric patient being left alone."
Too passive-aggressive?
I swear this company I work for is a joke. I don't think anyone in the office knows how anything works in the home.
how is signing in and out done in homecare, these days? how do they know you are early? why claim those 3 minutes on a written time slip? the late out is a whole 'nother issue.
Be very careful about naming your agency. We all know of at least one company that is trying to force Allnurses to give up the names of some of our friends here ...
My email response would more likely be to clarify what they would like me to do when my shift is up but there is no one there to care for the patient if I leave? Put the ball in their court.
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SmilingBluEyes
20,964 Posts
I see fine. This is not the OPs problem, true. But the management WILL NOT respond to an email the way she wants. I have actually had management go nuts over arriving as little as 5 min early and staying over 5 min late. And we can't fix who schedules people. If it's that big an issue and patient care compromised, then if it can't be changed, maybe it's time to move on.