Frequency of Mandating

Nurses General Nursing

Published

I work in a nursing home. We are very short-staffed. There are serious holes in the schedule. Mandating has become the norm, not the exception.

For example, when it is my weekend to work, I know I will wind up working a double on Saturday (7A-11P), then turning around and returning Sunday morning at 7A to work a full shift. One of my colleagues who works the same weekends faces the same deal. Another knows that if it is Sunday, she will be staying until at least 7P.

Last weekend I worked my double Saturday, then regular shift Sunday. I worked a full shift Monday. I wasn't scheduled to work again until Friday. On Friday I got mandated to stay until 7P.

At what point do you say enough is enough? There are times some of us part-timers wouldn't mind coming in an extra day, but we are afraid of getting stuck. How often do you get mandated?

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I won't work at a facility that requires mandatory overtime.

Period.

I'd been a nurse for 12 years the first time I ever heard of "mandatory overtime" - and that was the day they told me I'd have to stay until 11:30pm after working my usual day shift. My 8 year old son was home alone which was bad enough for a few hours after school, but until after midnight?!!! Fortunately, someone volunteered to stay, so I didn't have to, but I turned in my resignation the next day.

Though I no longer have personal reasons to oppose mandatory overtime, I do so as a matter of principle. Fortunately, several states are in the process of legislating this practice into oblivion where it belongs.

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I would only allow mandated OT in dire emergencies, plane crash, hurricanes, terrorist acts ect. If I were mandated to stay OT because of poor management I would leave skid marks on the floor on the way out the door with zero notice....

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What is wrong with an administrative nurse who refuses to relieve you if they are on call!

If they can't do it then they need to find someone who will!

On more than one occasion have I seen nurses have to work a double because their relief didn't come in and the oncall nurse refused to.

Poor management and an oncall nurse who wants the title & pay but not the responsibility of the job is what it comes down to... If the director of nurses can't do the job then maybe administration needs to find someone who can!

What do the rest of you think?

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Specializes in Geriatrics/Oncology/Psych/College Health.

I was unable to determine what the law was in our state. I am with Nell and Furball, however. The day our house supervisor mandated me for something other than an actual disaster would be the last day I worked. I have a fairly busy life outside of work, and won't have it left up to management whether I can go home at a particular hour or not.

Nursegoodguy - we don't have oncall nurses on our unit unless we just had too many staff for the patient census and nurses were put oncall for a particular shift pending admissions. I know that OB, surgery, Hospice etc., have "call" schedules. We don't. Can't tell you how many times I have been requested to work a double (typically 2-3 times per week.) I don't think it's safe to have someone working that length of time and I DEFINITELY know *I* don't have the patience. ;)

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I agree with the above posts, usually requested to stay 2 times a week. Now that I am agency I doubled my pay, work when I want to and don't have the hassles. Life is good again!!!

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I used to work doubles frequently when I was in ICU because there would be no staff available if someone was sick or we filled up. Because we used to run at an average of 3pts (although we had 7 beds) and being a relatively small unit, they would only staff us for 4pts. That's fine, if you only have 4pts but people will crash their cars, try to top themselves or have aneurysms. That's just life but because the mathematical boffins go by statistics when assessing staffing needs, those extra couple of patients just didn't factor into the equation. So 'out of the goodness of our hearts' we would stay back for doubles, sometimes even longer. It wasn't mandatory but you were made feel bad if you couldn't do it because of prior commitments. I didn't mind so much...at the time I had a lot of bills and the money was a big incentive to do them, plus I had no family commitments either. I remember one day from hell where I worked 7am-3am because they couldn't get any staff. I was dog tired at 11pm and I agreed to stay till 2am on the proviso that they got someone to come in and take over from me. Then they couldn't get anyone and management actually asked me if I'd be prepared to stay in till 7am since I didn't have to work for two days!!! I ended up telling the ditz that the extra $200 was not worth me losing my license and that I would be walking out right that second and that finding someone to take my load was their problem. Then the *&%$# had the nerve to threaten to report me to the board for patient neglect and abandonment. At that stage I was so tired and feeling rather bulletproof that I called the DON at home and told her all about this *&%$# of a manager and that if she didn't rectify the situation, I would be handing in my resignation. The DON ended up coming in to relieve me herself.

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Orthonutter, that would have ended up being a 24hr shift. Which from what I have been told is ILLEGAL. The nerve of that manager. Good for you for standing up for yourself.

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Specializes in ER.

No way to mandated extra time...I would offer to stay for double/triple pay- and if they need me bad enough they will pay it. Or maybe I would just say "no" and remind myself that finding adequate staffing is the responsibility of the person who just mandated me, and is SHE planning on putting in some overtime with me???

Of course if they threaten your license you could always say- "well I offered to stay for triple pay, but the need wasn't bad enough so I figured it wasn't bad enough for me to miss spending time with my child." In my state the board will not discipline someone who will not stay beyond their scheduled shift. If they heard that the boss wasn't staying, OR willing to pay extra- well, no sympathy there.

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

NO interest in ANY one trying to mandate overtime for me...make it worth my while...pay me WELL and appreciate it, and i *might* be persuaded to help out a few hour extra while you find somone to cover it. but NO, don't try to FORCE me to do it. or else sayonara...

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I must confess I have been roped into semio-mandatory OT because I coudn't bear to see my coworkers working dangerously short staffed. We do this for each other....I know my coworkers will reciprocate one day.:)

I agree that chronic short staffing and use of mandatory OT is a sign of piss poor management and it's time the public knows this.

Remember....you can always say you are too exhausted/ill to give safe care....and get out of it that way. I also know nurses who are very clear UP FRONT: I can ONLY do 8 hours today, I CANNOT stay longer...and they even make the supe write this in ink on the schedule...LOL!:roll

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