Survey: Do you leave work at your scheduled time on a regular basis?

kevfl1977 · Mar 28, 2004

Leave work a bit early? That would be DARN nice!!! I never leave job early but we usually go to clock machine to clock out, standing there lining up starting 5-8 minute before it turns into 11pm. Everyone would try to clock themselves out at 11pm sharp and get in their car hurry to leave LOL

casper1 · Mar 28, 2004

One of my goal at the beginning of each shift is that I leave on time. But that goal is hard to attain. Some of the reasons, change of shift admissions, a new grad who rins into trouble and need an extra set of hands. A LPN who need you to draw blood from a central line, take a verbal order, medicate a patient or hang blood. I work very hard at the beginning of each shift to organize my time effectively, but on a busy acute hospital unit there are always variables. Last minute crisis is common the confused patient who decides to pull out his IV. The equipment that malfunctions, IT's always something. I rarely ask for overtime, I don;t like to leave loose ends.

debRN0417 · Mar 28, 2004

:rotfl:

No Way
I'm a DON in LTC :rotfl:
If I manage to leave reasonably it comes with me and meets me at home on the phone.

Hee....Hee...been in LTC myself a long, long time....will be the DON starting tomorrow....I have never left at my scheduled time, and now, I never will... :chuckle

PedsNurse1981 · Mar 28, 2004

I work on a 16 bed pediatric floor. The way we do report is so stupid, that it often takes 45 minutes for report to finish, so we get out on time about 10% of the time, and that is ALWAYS when we're only about half full. It's ridiculous! :angryfire

mrsloubelle · Mar 30, 2004

Leave on time 80% of the time, the times I don't is when i have been busiest and tend to have to stay on to complete documentation

gypsyangelrn · Mar 30, 2004

In my present job, our charge nurse gives report to the next shift while we answer lights, finish paperwork, etc. The problem we have, working nights, is that no matter how soon report is done, the day shift is slow coming out to relieve us. Our charge nurse will tell us to go ahead and leave, and when we go to our break room, also our report room, the day shift nurses are socializing, sharing pictures, etc. It really irks me because we come out of report right after we get report...so evening shift is sometimes leaving before time. Of course, there are times when it's so busy, that no one leaves early.

It's just a part of being a nurse on busy days.....patient care comes before paperwork!!

Nur_1996 · Mar 30, 2004

My full time job school nursing, i do leave on time about 90% of the time. Nice when those kids go home, occassional after achool fight or skinned knee holds things up a little. My PRN job at ALF about 90% of the time. I do feel the pain of the nurses working 12 hour shifts that turn into 14 in the hospitals, and other places. I did that in both hospitals peds/ and some LTC, I have taken a hugh pay cut to become a school nurse. I was tired to the long shifts, no breaks and the politics. I had to make a change for my sanity!

featherzRN, MSN · Apr 4, 2004

I work in a clinic. It's a nice system as ONE nurse is designated to be the 'late' nurse and she will stay until the patients are gone (could be no time, could be two hours). However, that duty rotates among the nursing staff and as a per diem I generally only do that once every few weeks.

If you're not the late nurse, you go home at 5PM on the dot or you'd actually be 'talked to!'. :)

I am loving not having a shift change report, narcotic count or charting that keeps most nurses overtime.

As for breaks, we used to combine breaks with lunch and take a one hour lunch every day, but we are not allowed to do that anymore. We ALWAYS get lunch, breaks 'usually'. If we are short and miss a 15 minute break, we were just notified we are paid 1 hour pay for each 15 minute break missed due to being short staffed, codes, etc. :) (of course you have to document the situation)..

Havin' A Party!, ASN, RN · Apr 4, 2004

Most of the time within five minutes after.

tiroka03, LPN · Apr 4, 2004

I usually leave on time, I don't go early, even when I could, as I respect the nurses following me. They are trying to set up and start, and I feel I need to stay just in case something wierd happens. Then at least there is another set of hands. I can also start their vitals and do their dressing changes as time permits. Time goes a lot faster when busy.

However, the pm nurses have no problems leaving early, not finishing their work and leaving it to me. :angryfire I feel if you are to leave early, finish your work, because there will be enough things happening I will have to attend to, without the audiasity of not even finishing your own work. This makes for a difficult beginning of the shift. I refuse to return this attitude to the next shift.

Breaks, well that depends. If I have unstable patients, I refuse to leave the floor to my aides, I ask for the supervisor to attend the floor. Since floor work is way beneath them, it rarely happens and then I don't get my breaks. I will always charge the facility for this, as I don't feel I deserve to work for free. I always demand my overtime and always will. It's only fair.

RN-PA, RN · Apr 4, 2004

My "official" shift is 1445-2315, but I rarely get out at 2315. I'm usually at least 15 minutes over, but depending on the night, 1/2 to one hour overtime is common. We went to computer charting in December 2003 and although we're used to it by now, it's still time-consuming, especially with admissions. We DO have an admissions nurse (for the entire hospital :rolleyes: ) who sometimes can help, but 3-11 gets a lot of admissions and post-ops, so the computer work can really add up.

Another reason I have trouble getting out on time-- besides the usual: high acuity, problems with my patients or the LPN's patients I'm covering, etc.-- When I work two evenings in a row, I frequently don't get the same patient assignment, usually because a 12-hour nurse will have taken my assignment at 0700. So I end up "starting over" and it's hard to get a pace and be as organized when you're learning a whole new group of patients each night and have no continuity.

I try to take 10-15 minutes to cram in food (I do NOT consider that a dinner break) and will put in for no dinner if I got no other break in my 8-plus hours, and of course if I don't get the chance to eat at all. Nurses who don't put in for not getting a meal break are not doing yourselves or your units any good by allowing management to not pay you for missed meals. It's illegal for them NOT to pay you and it ends up enabling administration to think that their nurses can handle poor staffing. Overtime pay seems to speak loudest to administration that there's a problem.

inna · Apr 4, 2004

I never left my unit on time. My shift ends at 19:30, I always finish my assignments on time but the thing that's holding us all to stay over past 8pm is the giving of report. Only the charge nurse will give report for the entire unit (24 beds) while all of us are waiting for her to finish... And we're never being paid for that.