forced overtime??

Specifically, my question is, do you work 42 or 44, but only put in for the 40?

I'm salary so I often work more hours than I get paid for!

"Extended care," meaning you are with one patient for a shift?

I guess I am looking for feedback from VNA RNs who are seeing multiple patients in a day, and then documenting OASIS forms, etc.

Thanks. Keep the faith.

Thanks for the reply. I'm more interested in hourly situations, let's say a 7.5 day with a productivity expectation.

Oh boy! the agency I work for is implimenting a "no overtime pay" , pay per visit policy at months end. The expected visits per day is 6. Its not qualified as SOC, ROC or routine.. just number of visits. I am in a rural area, first pt of the day is 35 miles/40 min drive on dry roads. I avg 120 miles/dly. Policy is that no consideration of the time required from one pt to another will be given. The company has either driven away or laid off the majority of the staff.

Currently there are 2 fulltime RNs, 1 parttime RN, and a LPN. trying to meet the needs of a current census of 90, and we're becoming the dumping ground for all the other agencies who cherry pick they're pts.

I am in serious thoughts to turning in my resignation. I've been homecare for 7 yrs, I've never seen it this bad. Its my weekend off... and I looking at finishing my charts tomorrow....just so I don'6 get the lecture about why I didn't get it finished all on New Years eve. I put in 12 hrs that day, was in bed at 8 pm..... just how much should one give to a non for profit company?

I have consistently refused to do this. I am salaried but have a quota of 5 visit points per day. I refuse to do documentation, copmuter-based training programs, or anything else that is "work-related" when I am not "on the clock." My salary covers my hours from 8-5, I don't take an actual lunch break, so they're already getting a minimum of 45 hours a week from me, they don't need to get more. I do my darndest to finish documentation in the home, which is why my visits appear to be longer than anyone else's. My regular visits are right at an hour each, sometimes more or less, depending on what all I have to do--and document--during the visit. SOCs take at least 2 1/2 hours in the pt's home with the rest finished at the office.

When the OASIS-C training programs rolled out, I was always on the "bad girl" list because I didn't get them done in a timely manner. I was working 10 hour days at that point, driving 100+ miles/day and refused to do them at home. I told the powers-that-be that if they wanted me to do the training, they needed to provide the time for me to do them. I have a family at home that deserves my time as well. I know that most everyone else in my office just sucks it up and does stuff at home but I will not do it and they know they can't tell me to because of labor laws, so we have a nice little Mexican standoff and every couple of weeks, I find time to complete a computer module or two.

We have two new nurses in our office now and I have gently discouraged them from getting on the "I'll do it at home" track. I refuse to have "welcome, wipe feet here" tatooed on my forehead.

Karen RN I really need to take a chapter from your book. I am doing hours and hours of paperwork at home and I want to stop. Its going to be real hard to recondition my employer that I am tired of being taken advantage of but I am going to try. thanks for the encouragement. I am going to find out the labor laws in my state but being that Fl is a right to work state I doubt there is very much protection. How I yearn for a union. We havent even been trained for the new Oasis yet or given the new forms. I see trouble brewing.

Kate and Indiana...

I suspect that as we hear more on this that we will notice that this is a pervasive condition. At least this is my suspicion.

I think we all need to stand firm and not give our profession away.

Indiana, your perspective is interesting, in that you are doing all the work in the patient's home and still are pinched. I personally prefer to keep the laptop away as much as possible and have more face-to-face time with the patient. I suspect this may be a function of facility with the computer however.

I think as long as some of us are working and not putting in for the time we will continue to be taken advantage of by employers who do not understand the time it takes to complete the duties asked of us.

Yes, do find out about Labor Laws and use that to your advantage. We, as Homecare nurses are in an amorphous work place. We are not in an institution, rather we move about and then go home, where perhaps we feel that we are not really "working" but just completing our assignment in the kitchen. I don't see it that way

I had this conversation the other day with a colleague. I do not work for free, so when I have overtime I make sure I call it in. On the other hand, the colleague told me that several nurses including herself are working off the clock. I'm sure the employer loves the fact that they are not having to pay for those hours, but it undermines the nurse who continues such practice. It also has a negative effect on those nurses that do put down their overtime. The employer then wonders why one nurse can complete a heavy assignment in 8 hours and another nurse cannot.

Labor laws do cover the hourly nurse who has overtime. We just don't push the issue. In the past, I worked for an agency that scheduled assignments that didn't allow for breaks or lunch. Fortunately, someone reported the agency to the labor board. The labor board did an investigation and not only fined them, but made them pay us all back time for lunches missed. After that, the agency made sure we all had time for our breaks and lunches and would counsel you if you forgot to put them on your timesheet.