Legal issues

[Deb5yBCsurvivorRN]

Recently our hospital hired a new CEO. He has put some policies into place that are very questionable and would appreciate any advice or guidance you can give.

The first policy is the nurses have to clock out for lunch. Now, for the ER that is fine because there are 2 nurses. However, there is only one nurse on the floor with no one to cover the floor to even take a lunch. If there is an emergency on the floor we are not allowed to clock back in but go to the floor and care for the patient and once we fill out a form and submit it for approval for payment, the nurse manager will go into the system and clock us back in. So here is my question, if I am off the clock can I legally give patient care and if I am off the clock, can I leave the facility? As one nurse on the floor we have had up to 9 patients but have been averaging 7. We have no med nurse except maybe once a week. No secretary so we do everything. Our hospital also has two clinics and have had days where we are getting admissions from clinic and ER, patients on medications that should only be given in an ICU setting or ER and the stress level is through the roof. The CEO simply tells staff to "suck it up" when asked about policies. He has also put a no smoking policy in place. Now at other hospitals I worked at, staff who smoked could go to their car. He is stated we are not allowed to do this nor are we allowed to stand on a public sidewalk, which in my opinion would be better than sitting in a closed vehicle. Lets just say it is a mess at this hospital. I love caring for people and that is why I became a nurse. Any advice would be greatly appreciated as well as what the rules are regarding off the clock breaks and patient care. Deb

[Nurse SMS, MSN, RN]

The no smoking anywhere on campus policy is pretty much standard where I live and in many other places. You probably need to get used to that one.

As far as clocking in and out for lunch and then having to provide care for your patient - you would have to either way, since you have not handed off care to another nurse. The legal issue here is that you are required to without consideration of whether or not you are clocked in. The way they will deal with it seems reasonable to me.

[JKL33]

However, there is only one nurse on the floor with no one to cover the floor to even take a lunch. If there is an emergency on the floor we are not allowed to clock back in but go to the floor and care for the patient and once we fill out a form and submit it for approval for payment, the nurse manager will go into the system and clock us back in.

No way.

I would never leave it up to someone else to decide whether they want to punch me in or not (retrospectively/retroactively) after I had already provided the care.

How can you punch out, anyway, without someone (patient/family, for instance) being able to reasonably make abandonment charges? You aren't giving report to anyone.

Don't do work off the clock, and if there's no one to relieve you I wouldn't punch out.

They have chosen possibly the most stupid way ever, to deal with this. In reality they need a supervisor or someone who can come and provide the mandated lunch break. There's no getting around it especially in this situation. Incredibly dumb. What does this genius expect to say when asked who was covering the patients between 12:30 and 1300 on X/X/2018, when he can't show that anyone was clocked into that unit during that time frame?

[Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN]

For an unpaid meal break, the nurse must FULLY be relieved of duties. If we are interrupted for so much as a 60 second phone call, that entire 30 minutes is to be paid. That is per the DOL, which overrides the CEO... if you can't even leave the floor DO NOT CLOCK OUT. The new CEO **really** doesn't want to encourage illegal labor practices.

No-smoking policies are legal and common