How many of you are forced to clock out to stay back and chart?

frankie,RN · Jul 11, 2012

i was told one time that i had to clock out and do something at a ltc facility. mostly immigrant nurses were employed at this facility. even the DON was an immigrant. so was the ADON. I was only pool there and was already fed up with the place because I felt it was a craphole. My response to the DON. "back in the 1800's the president of the united states, abraham lincoln, issued something called the emancipation proclamation. it ended slavery. black people no longer work for free. we have rights now."

You can probably figure out what happened after that...

BrandonLPN, LPN · Jul 11, 2012

I know this practice is common in some private sector nursing homes. I've never heard of a DON having the balls to actually tell staff to punch out then continue working. If only you had had a tape recorder and had her butt thrown in jail!

I said it before, and I'll say it again, I'm glad I'm a government employee and in a union!

calgarynurse403 · Jul 11, 2012

It is like that in Canada also at nursing homes, including the ones which are publicly-funded. Some places are better than others though...They don't actually tell you to clock out, then complete your work, but if you clock out late &/or write on the Flow Sheet your hours &/or request overtime by writing a note/email to explain why, you will almost almost be "refused", and/or interrogated in regard to "why you stayed late", or "why you didn't get out on time", blah, blah, etc.

The managers openly discourage requesting pay for overtime, making persecutory and unsympathetic-type statements, which include the following: "you're responsible for organizing your own time", "you should have organized your time better", "requests for 'unauthorized' overtime will be refused", "it's not in the budget"...blah, blah, etc.

It's no wonder some nurses (and nurse's aides) are frequently found to be delivering poor levels of care in many areas of nursing service, including assessments, maintenance of patient records, care organization, med administration.., etc. Although many of the nurses want to provide quality care and advocate for patients (this is what they were taught!), they are still workers who deserve to be paid and get out on time & tend to their own personal lives...

Everyone should have a right to get out on time or depend on the fact that they will be paid for overtime...Or that the tasks will still get done if they have to be left for the next nurse...Also, to make the situation even worse, it's no coincidence that these places are also intentionally under-staffed or 'minimally staffed' to save the owners and/or governments money. Let's hope that most of them end up in these places, so that they can experience first-hand the quality provided and the effect of their ignorance and selfishness. God help their selfish, heartless and greedy souls...

Genista, BSN, RN · Jul 11, 2012

It's not just the SNF world. I worked in a place like that as a new grad in acute care on med/tele. Those kind of working conditions are the reason why nurses form nursing unions! When I worked in a similar culture, I started to look for greener pastures. I was tired of not taking breaks and working for free every night. The problem of understaffing is prevalent in healthcare, but at least you should work where the "goal" is to have adequate staff, who can take breaks, get work done on the clock, and be paid for what they do. I would say it's time to look for a better job! I jumped ship from a non union hospital to a union one, and though it wasn't perfect after the jump, I had a lot more support (in taking breaks, getting paid for my work etc). Good luck to you!!! Sounds miserable and unsafe. :-(

sistasoul · Jul 11, 2012

Even at hospitals one must play beat the clock. All of the care has gone out of nursing.

CapeCodMermaid, RN · Jul 11, 2012

My facility does NOT have a union. Nurses are encouraged to take their breaks. Nurse managers cover the floor so the med nurse can go to lunch. Of course overtime isn't something we want. For what it costs in overtime, I could hire more regular staff. I know some days are busy but on a normal day, there really isn't a reason for the nurses to stay 1, 2, or more hours over. If anyone in my building punches out, thet MUST go home. End of story.

merlee · Jul 11, 2012

If something happens to you while you are in the facility and you have clocked out then you will not be covered by worker's comp. If you do a procedure while you are off the clock and there is a problem you will be hung out to dry.

Contact your local labor board. Do not work off the clock.

AweSmiles · Jul 11, 2012

I work a very large world-renown hospital and my shift is "7am- 7:30pm". We do not get paid that extra half hour. Supposedly, it's supposed to represent our lunch time that magically hardly ever appears some days. And get this, our unit is so busy and understaffed, even nurses who have been there for years get out sometimes 2 hours later than they should. And it's at no fault of ours. It's usually because our charge nurses make us take post-op patients from PACU or icu pts who aren't ready for the floor yet at around 6-7pm they call to give report and by the time the patient gets here its 7:30pm (the time I should be getting off work right?) and I still have to get the patient settled and document their arrival and assessment.

And get this, we don't even have a clock-in/clock-out method where I work. There's a piece of paper that hangs on our conference room door that we initial and sign the time we arrived to make sure we go there on time. Theres nothing that we sign or do to prove when we actually leave! I think it's horrible and should be illegal. I asked someone why some units use their badges to swipe-in and swipe-out and we don't and the response I received was "because, then there would be an actual record showing how many of us are staying past our shift yet not paid the over time. As of right now, if we fought for the matter, it would be just our word we'd go by".

Does anyone else work at a place that does this? This signing-in thing but no signing-out?

merlee · Jul 11, 2012

You just initial a time-sheet? Start writing on it the time you actually leave.

malamud69, BSN, RN · Jul 11, 2012

Well I am new to nursing school, work as a CNA...I see some of this in the LTC I work at but for the most part if people need to stay to finish...they do. At this point in our society it seems so much of how you are treated on the job is luck of the draw. I applaud unions. I have worked in numerous jobs over my life and can honestly say that the union jobs far outweigh the non. Workers have rights and are appreciated, the pay is better and the overall expectation from both sides is far more realistic. Anything other than that and a worker (I don't care what the profession) is nothing but an expendable number in somebodies ledger. "Do no harm" be damned. So I really have no sympathy anymore for people that are so upset when they are treated this way...we...that's right...all of us...gave up our rights as workers and became serfs of the kingdom of the rich oligarchy when we started to dismantle the unions. They got us right were they want us...look at how many of us are scared to lose our job over these ridiculous incidents and fears...what the heck is going on in this country? Forget about the days of working for a company loyally for years and being taken care of...those days have been gone since Reagan was in office.

malamud69, BSN, RN · Jul 11, 2012

If something happens to you while you are in the facility and you have clocked out then you will not be covered by worker's comp. If you do a procedure while you are off the clock and there is a problem you will be hung out to dry.
Contact your local labor board. Do not work off the clock.

Absolutely, positively never work off the clock.