TEXAS BNE POSITION STATEMENT 15:26 "Nurse Working Hours"

[fossil78]

mad as hell: nursing position statement: 15:26

on april 19-20th the future of nursing as we now know it may change forever because of a select few who sit on the texas board of nurse examiners. they will dictate to the nursing profession how many hours we can safely work in a day and stipulate how many days we can work consecutively, and weekly. the silent majority must raise their voices and be heard. in a time when the nursing shortage is widening (over a million vacancies expected by 2012), the average nurse is 50 years old and close to retirement. fewer young workers are entering the profession to fill their places. nursing schools can't get enough faculty to accommodate students. the u.s. bureau of labor statistics estimates that as a result of demand for nurses, nursing will be the fastest growing industry nationwide for the next five years. mandating working hours will put undue strain on our already overburdened health care system. we presently can't appropriately staff our facilities. forcing nurses to work less is putting patients at risk, the very opposite of what your proposition proposes with no solutions in sight. we need leadership with vision not knee jerk reactionist. i'm mad as hell and not going to take it anymore. i will be in austin april 18th at the public hearing to defend our right of self determination for our profession and future nurses.

fossil78

i need your support and guidance in this endeavor. a dedicated and proud texas rn.

[RGN1]

tired nurses are indeed impaired nurses

too many nurses do not realize their limits..i don't want legislation either but we need to insist that pay for nurse-educators be brought up to par or we will never catch up..if there were enough nurses out there to do their job the way it should be done the ot problem would fade away

do the nurses in other countries with free health care have the staffing problems that we do?? would like to hear their input

oh my - the nurses in countries with "free" healthcare are in a far worse state i'm sorry to say!!

i'm in the uk & our national health service is on it's knees & they're making the budget cuts by reducing nursing staff & closing beds. then they go & complain, in a recent governement survey, that nurses don't smile enough!!!!! let's see.......the pay is totally c***, the nurse patient ratio is off the scale now & just this week two hospitals (& they're not the first either) are forcing all their nurses to re-apply for their jobs. those who are "unsuccessful" at the interview will be offered jobs at a lower pay band than they are currently on - thereby giving them a demotion in effect!! their current pay will be honoured but could remain frozen for up to 5 years or until it matches where they've been demoted to!! would you be smiling??!!

the working week full time here is 37.5 hours full time but plenty of nurses moonlight with agencies just to make ends meet so it's hard to even find out what some are doing hour wise.

i don't live in texas so i suppose it's wrong to comment but i am going to be coming to the usa when retrogression is over (though to fl not tx) & i would like to think that i could be protected from being forced to do any ot i don't want to but i equally wouldn't want to be prevented from doing the odd extra shifts if i felt capable. however, i can see how it's more than a bit of a hot potato!!

as one post said though the hospitals will just sign some sort of waiver - as they have here against the european work hours directive - so the legislation will end up meaning squat no doubt!!

[crissrn27, RN]

Thanks you for giving us some insight, RGN1, into the working conditions in the UK. I feel very lucky to work where I do now! Even though I can't do more that 2 12 hour shifts in a row right now, I don't think we should legislate how many hours a nurse can work. I know lots of nurses that do fine working 4-5-or even 6 12's in a row, take a day off and do it again. People should know their own limits and set them. I know some don't, but why should they ruin it for the rest?

[Indy, LPN, LVN]

I think I would not be opposed to the BNE proposing to end the possibility of working more than 13 hours per 24 hour period. I say 13 because some of us get there early, and a lot of us leave late. That would help put a lid on mandatory overtime at the end of a shift, which is when it's most harmful. Just leave out the part about how many days in a row a person can work.

Also. If they'd include all medical professionals it would be nice. And make it a part of the state labor law instead of "nurses aren't allowed" to do something. Force the facility to be liable under the state law instead of making the language more punitive towards nurses for "working too much."

Personally I don't like to do more than 3 shifts of 12 hrs., without some time off. I've done 4 in a row and once 5. That was exhausting and I didn't think I was in good shape the last nights- everything that went wrong was funny to me and I didn't appreciate coping in that manner, because some things that really aren't funny were hilarious. But I do know people who can do more days in a row than me, and I don't want to butt into their business of making a living as long as they're able to do the work and be safe.

This would be a good area for nursing research, btw.

[ZASHAGALKA, RN]

As far as I can tell, the proposal 'encourages' employers to regulate the hours that their nurses work to correspond with the proposal limits.

The actual enforcement is not directed towards hospitals, but rather, towards nurses: IF you get reported to the board for ANY OTHER reason, and during the board's investigation it turns out that you violated this standard, THEN the board will add a charge of unprofessional conduct that places patient safety at risk.

All of you thinking this will end hospitals treating nurses this way or that: only nurses will be penalized under this proposal; not hospitals.

~faith,

Timothy.

[ZASHAGALKA, RN]

I'm glad this proposal is being considered far along in my custody arrangements where 'standing orders' are not strictly enforced by either me or my ex.

Under 'standard orders' for custody, given this directive, I would be forced to choose between supporting and/or actually seeing my kids or obeying the proposal. My kids would win and my professional nursing practice would always be in jeopardy.

It would no longer be a case of: THAT place puts my license at risk. No, instead, EVERYPLACE puts my license at risk.

Very Poor Form, BNE, to not consider child custody and child support in the tailoring of rules that are hostile to both.

~faith,

Timothy.

[ZASHAGALKA, RN]

Standard non-custodial orders in Texas allow for custody every other weekend, and on weds overnight if parents have joint custody and live within 100 miles of each other.

This means that, in any given 2 week pay period, I have a week with almost no access to kids (from thurs morning to the next wed after school) and a week with almost ALL of my access to the kids (Wed, Fri-Sun, Wed).

The best way to take advantage of this, especially if you work nights and want to sleep the night BEFORE custody so that you are actually awake when the kids are awake, --- the BEST way to take advantage of the way custody falls is to work the bulk of your 6 regular 12 hr shifts over that 2 week period during the non-custody week.

Many times during the early years of my divorce, I worked Thur/Fri/Sat/Sun/Mon/Tue to get my full time hours in before my 5/7 nights of custody began that wed after school. That doesn't include OT but what it DOES do is arrange my life and work schedule around my kids.

The result of the new regulations? 2 of those 6 regular shifts would NOW have to occur within my frame of custody. And that's not even including overtime (and anybody paying large amounts of child support should recognize the need for that overtime at times).

What a poor, anti-family proposal! Shame, SHAME on the BNE for not considering that placing nursing working families in dire straits will ALSO affect working environments.

Shame on you, BNE.

~faith,

Timothy.

[ZASHAGALKA, RN]

TEXAS BNE sends Nursing Work Hours Proposal "Back to Committee":

ftp://www.bne.state.tx.us/nwh-summary.pdf

"The Board delayed taking action on the proposed position statement . . . so that consideration of feedback from nurses and the public could be considered."

11,785 individual on-line responses, 95% of them negative towards the proposal.

More than 200 nurses appeared before the Board in person or by written comment, 167 of them negative of the proposal.

~faith,

Timothy.