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Discussion

Has this ever happened to you??

I work at a crisis stablization unit. One nurse per unit. We do 8 hour shifts at this facility. I work full time nights (midnight to 8:30am) five days a week. I come onto my shift tonight (my third shift) and the evening nurse (we get along well) tells me that a nurse is not scheduled for the morning shift (8am to 4:30pm). She said if no one comes then I have to stay and work that shift. I was looking at her like :eek: - I do know that I cannot just leave my clients without replacement but I am not going to stay and work another 8 hour shift after working nights (then come back at midnight to work my scheduled shift). I will call the supervisor, his boss and his boss if I have to get a replacement. We do use agency nurses frequently. I also am making this thread because I sent an email to the scheduler last week regarding my schedule. She asked me if I could work over time and train on other units. I responded and told her I have no interest working over time or on other units due to being in school full time. She emailed me back and thanked me for letting her know (so she can stop calling me at 3pm when I'm dead asleep). I don't know if the previous sentences matter in this situation except that they know I am not available to work extra. At this facility overtime is not mandatory.

Shrug. What do you guys think of this?

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    • Featured Replies

    I think you work in healthcare and this is going to happen from time to time. We've all had to work a double because of a no show or because someone called in sick, even when I was in school.

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    Feeling grateful that I work for a union and they cannot mandate overtime for the nurses in my hospital!

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    • Author
    We've all had to work a double

    I worked in the hospital on Med-Surg most of my 3 years of experience. I've never seen a nurse (or aid) do a double there. No one can work 24 hours... that is laughable. :roflmao: I've been at this place for four months and it is common to see the mental health techs do doubles (16 hours) but not the nurses.

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    • Experts

    Talk to your BON if it's an ongoing problem. I worked in a facility years ago (non-union, in the South) where people (RNs) would occasionally just not show up for work and the RN on duty would get told we had to stay the entire (additional) shift, with the ol' veiled threat about being charged with abandonment. We got tired of this and contacted the BON, and they were happy to explain that, in that particular state, their position was that, if an RN failed to show up for work and you were the only RN on the unit, you were obligated to stay for "a reasonable amount of time" (which they had decided was 2 hours) in order to give administration time to find someone else to replace you, but you could leave after the two hours (after reporting off to the house supervisor) without being at risk of the BON finding you guilty of abandonment. Now, of course, you could pretty much expect to get fired by that employer, but your license wouldn't be at risk.

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    • Experts

    I agree with Elkpark: find out your BON's position on forced overtime. In the last state I worked in, the BON's position was that it was not patient abandonment if after my shift, I refused to work a second shift just as long as I appropriately notified the supervisor and gave report to another provider. Whenever a supervisor tried forcing a double on me by using the "Abandonment" card, I would show them the regulation (I usually kept a copy in my bag), reminded them that it wasn't abandonment, and told them that if they didn't find a replacement that THEY would be getting report since they were a RN and capable of providing patient care.

    This rarely failed to get a replacement in. I may have left a little later than usual though.

    However, like elkpark says, this only protects your license; your job isn't protected by this regulation. BONs choose to stay out of employment issues. So you do flirt with being fired by taking this course of action. I'm surprised I never was.

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    I was stuck on several occasions. I worked swings on an adult/CD unit and there were at least two occasions when the night RN was a no call/no show, some when there were call-offs with no available replacement, and one occasion when the night nurse was arrested on the way to work (another story for another time). It's unfortunate, but it happens.

    I see no point in going to your state nursing board about this. As long as the hospital is not forcing you to exceed the maximum allowable number of work hours in a day - and from the sound of it, they aren't - the BON will see this as an internal hospital issue. This should be addressed with your nurse manager if it is a frequent occurrence.

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    • Experts
    I see no point in going to your state nursing board about this. As long as the hospital is not forcing you to exceed the maximum allowable number of work hours in a day - and from the sound of it, they aren't - the BON will see this as an internal hospital issue. This should be addressed with your nurse manager if it is a frequent occurrence.

    Just to clarify -- I wasn't talking about contacting the BON in terms of reporting the hospital for something, just for informational purposes of identifying how the BON defines "abandonment" in the state (knowledge is power! :))

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    Glad my employer does have the house supervisor replace us or offer to buy us dinner ( on them ) if we do get stuck working a double. We also get extra 3.00 an hour in that situation. But it still stinks if you have to go to class or my next job.

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    • Author
    I was stuck on several occasions. I worked swings on an adult/CD unit and there were at least two occasions when the night RN was a no call/no show, some when there were call-offs with no available replacement, and one occasion when the night nurse was arrested on the way to work (another story for another time). It's unfortunate, but it happens.

    I see no point in going to your state nursing board about this. As long as the hospital is not forcing you to exceed the maximum allowable number of work hours in a day - and from the sound of it, they aren't - the BON will see this as an internal hospital issue. This should be addressed with your nurse manager if it is a frequent occurrence.

    I do not work at a hospital and there is no nurse manager or director of nursing at this present moment.

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    It's legal to make you do that at my hospital, and they have a policy that no one can work more than 2 double shifts in a row. It stinks.

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    I do not work at a hospital and there is no nurse manager or director of nursing at this present moment.

    There has to be someone who you report to.

    I looked at my state's Nurse Practice Act, which says the following about patient abandonment:

    6.  An act of patient abandonment occurs if: (a) A licensee or holder of a certificate has been assigned and accepted a duty of care to a patient;

    (b) The licensee or holder of a certificate departed from the site of the assignment without ensuring that the patient was adequately cared for; and

    © As a result of the departure, the patient was in potential harm or actually harmed.

    I did not find anything that specifically addresses maximum work hours in a 24-hour period or mandatory overtime. Your Nurse Practice Act is probably similar.

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    I am also a Night nurse at a 24 hour psychiatric locked facility. Thank goodness I have a manager that will always work when others call out sick, she's the best! However, one sunday morning, she was out of town and my morning nurse relief-coworker called in sick at 4am...It's almost impossible to cover Sunday morning shifts within 3 hours notice....and I had obligations/was unable to stay past 8am.

    Unfortunately, this is the business we have chosen, and it is ultimately our responsibility not to walk out the door without relief to care for the patients. No, you should not be made to work overtime hours when you do not want to....however, you will soon see, that many employees do double shifts in 8-hour-shift facilities...yes, it's tiring, especially when you're not prepared and it comes up last minute, but it is not as outrageous an idea as one may think. {great $ too.}

    I am aware that the possibility may arise that staff doesn't come in, and I will have to stay for a double shift...that's just the biz. However, I would no want to work somewhere that admin/supervisors were not willing to step up and help you out when this situation arises and you cannot stay.

    If this is a persistent preoblem for you, perhaps working as a nurse in a doctors office, where the facility is only open 8-12 hours a day is better for you....more stable. I am considering that option too, simply because a 24-hours facility may not be the best fit at this time for my schedule {and life.} :whistling:

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