Do you get paid to stay late and chart?

Nurses General Nursing

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I'm just really curious to know if you get OT pay to stay longer to chart and/or do assessments on patients and give report? If not, how do you feel when you have to stay an extra hour or more after your shift end when you are not getting paid for it?

I currently work a minimum wage job and if you stay even 2 minutes late you are not getting paid for it. So if I have a customer who just showed up with no else to help him/her my manager still expect me to help the customer for free. This makes me feel like a slave of course, but I'm not sure if I would feel the same if I was a nurse to stay and help a patient for free and it's why I'm asking the Allnurss members on the topic.

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Specializes in Critical care.

I get paid until I clock out. If I stay 30-60 minutes late to help with pt care and/or finish up charting I get paid for that. I don't get OT pay until I've worked >40 hrs in a week. If I stay late to chart, etc. and I don't go over 40 hrs for the week I get my regular pay for that time. Emergencies don't just crop up in the middle of the shift, if I have a patient who is rapidly declining and needs transferred or is having another type of issue I'm not passing that on to the next nurse who has no background on what's been going on. I've stayed late to chart, to stabilize a pt who started bleeding from a femoral cath site 1.5 hrs before change of shift, to transfer pt's to ICU, etc.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Emergency.

I refuse to clock out if I am still working. For one thing it is not legal to work off the clock and for another, if I am putting in time for the company they are absolutely going to pay me. Don't let them get away with not paying you for time worked.

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I get paid until I clock out. If I stay 30-60 minutes late to help with pt care and/or finish up charting I get paid for that. I don't get OT pay until I've worked >40 hrs in a week. If I stay late to chart etc. and I don't go over 40 hrs for the week I get my regular pay for that time. Emergencies don't just crop up in the middle of the shift, if I have a patient who is rapidly declining and needs transferred or is having another type of issue I'm not passing that on to the next nurse who has no background on what's been going on. I've stayed late to chart, to stabilize a pt who started bleeding from a femoral cath site 1.5 hrs before change of shift, to transfer pt's to ICU, etc.[/quote']

Thank you for responding. Also is the pay rate lower for OT pay than your regular earnings?

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I refuse to clock out if I am still working. For one thing it is not legal to work off the clock and for another, if I am putting in time for the company they are absolutely going to pay me. Don't let them get away with not paying you for time worked.

That is good to know that I won't be rushing myself to clock out when I know I still have a patient to care for.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Emergency.
That is good to know that I won't be rushing myself to clock out when I know I still have a patient to care for.

You shouldn't be clocking out at any job before your duties are complete. If your employer is telling you to do that, you should talk to your state's Labor Board because it is illegal 100% of the time. You deserve pay for the work that you do. Think of it as practice with being assertive for when you're a nurse :) Good luck!

Also-about OT pay- it is ALWAYS 1.5 times your base rate. So if you are currently making 8/hr, your OT pay (after 40 hours worked) would be 12/hr.

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Specializes in Critical care.
Thank you for responding. Also is the pay rate lower for OT pay than your regular earnings?

OT pay is 1.5 times my base rate, so if I work enough hours to be over 40 hours for the week then I make a good bit more than I normally do. So if the base rate is $30/hr, the OT pay is $45/hr. This is why most places don't like paying OT rates.

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Specializes in ICU.

It's illegal to work off the clock. Also, your employer should not want you to as it is a huge liability for them should you get injured. If you get injured while working off the clock, workmans comp does not pay for your medical treatment. Technically you could then sue and they would have to foot the bills. It's why they are required to clock in to work. Only salaried employees are exempt from this.

The overtime you are referring to is called a flucuating work week. This is for salaried employees. A company would have to figure up your hourly wage based on your work week hours. You can be salaried at say 45 hours. The company would calculate your hourly rate based on that number and then cut it in half to pay you anything over 45. This does not apply to the hourly employee. If you are hourly, you get 1.5 times your hourly rate at 40 hours a week.

I was salaried at one of my retail manager positions. I made $50k for 45 hours a week. That put me at around $24/hr. So, for every minute over 45, I made $12/HR. I often worked 60-70 hours a week, so it wasn't bad.

As an hourly employee now, for every minute over 40, I make 1.5 times my hourly salary. Now, I can be offered more than that. But that is the min I must be paid. I hope that makes sense.

Dont ever work off the clock. Your employee should never ask you to. If they do, refer them to the dept of labor website.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

Sure, of course we're compensated for overtime (time and a half as an hourly employee). It doesn't happen much, but if I have to stay on the clock to finish up, so be it - simply put, I don't nurse for free :cat:

But staying an *hour or more* after a shift for charting/assessment/patient care?? That definitely shouldn't be the case unless there are extremely extenuating circumstances along the lines of someone coding. If someone on my unit was having to stay over for any amount of time on a regular basis they would quickly earn a meeting with the director to discuss getting their time management under control.

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Specializes in ICU.
Sure, of course we're compensated for overtime (time and a half as an hourly employee). It doesn't happen much, but if I have to stay on the clock to finish up, so be it - simply put, I don't nurse for free :cat:

But staying an *hour or more* after a shift for charting/assessment/patient care?? That definitely isn't (and shouldn't be!) the case unless there are extremely extenuating circumstances. If someone on my unit was having to stay over for any amount of time on a regular basis they would quickly earn a meeting with the director to discuss getting their time management under control.

I guess I would suck on your unit. I'm still new, but I often have to stay over to chart. My day is just to darn busy and stuff happens. I've never had a talking to with management.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

Heh, my floor director runs a tight ship

But honestly I get where they're coming from with the overtime thing. I work tele/stepdown so we can only take up to three patients, and all of the new grads/new hires start out on nights - given those circumstances I could see how it would be concerning if someone routinely wasn't able to chart on three patients over the span of twelve hours. Besides, they're running a business first and foremost so it makes sense that having someone continually accruing overtime would be a big ol' red flag.

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I have never stayed late to chart off the clock, I get OT for anything over 8 hrs at 1.5x base. But I also work 5 8 hour shifts so I will always be over 40 if I stay late. I have had to work 12+ hours and after 12 I am paid double time, also paid penalty pay if I don't get to take lunch within a certain time frame.

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