How does your unit handle daylight savings time?

[PhilaBSNstudent]

It's daylight savings time tonight! I just finished my 3-11pm shift and it was definitely a big topic of discussion tonight with our staff. Does your institution pay you for that extra hour of work? I know our hospital will pay for 13 hours (instead of 12) if you work 7pm-7am but some of the nurses told me that other hospitals they have worked at previously do not compensate for the extra hour.

Also, how does this affect your charting and meds? I'm still a student so right now I'm only working as a tech. I asked some of the nurses what they were going to do but they all had different ideas. There seems to be no standardized way to handle it. I know some of the kids on our floor get q2 or q3h narcotics and it's important to keep them as close to this schedule as possible. With the time change, this makes it very confusing for the staff! In the spring, it's even more complicated because you lose an hour and we give out a lot of 2am meds on our floor as most of our kiddos are GT fed. How does your unit handle these issues?

For those not working, enjoy that extra hour of sleep!

[rn/writer, RN]

Paying the extra hour and not paying the missing hour is the fair solution. There is no guarantee it will all even out many months later.

As for meds, if you give something crucial during that overlap hour (2:00-3:00am), just annotate the system you were under at the time. If you gave something at the first 0215, you'd write 0215 EDT (Eastern Daylight Time). If you have a "may repeat if ineffective after one hour," order and you want to give that second dose, you would then write 0215 EST (Eastern Standard Time) to distinguish between the two.

The "switching hour" is the only time that could be confusing. Everything else just falls into its usual place.

This should affect only a handful of people, but if you're one of them, just make sure you know which initials to use in which place.

[Otessa, BSN, RN]

It's daylight savings time tonight! I just finished my 3-11pm shift and it was definitely a big topic of discussion tonight with our staff. Does your institution pay you for that extra hour of work? I know our hospital will pay for 13 hours (instead of 12) if you work 7pm-7am but some of the nurses told me that other hospitals they have worked at previously do not compensate for the extra hour.

Also, how does this affect your charting and meds? I'm still a student so right now I'm only working as a tech. I asked some of the nurses what they were going to do but they all had different ideas. There seems to be no standardized way to handle it. I know some of the kids on our floor get q2 or q3h narcotics and it's important to keep them as close to this schedule as possible. With the time change, this makes it very confusing for the staff! In the spring, it's even more complicated because you lose an hour and we give out a lot of 2am meds on our floor as most of our kiddos are GT fed. How does your unit handle these issues?

For those not working, enjoy that extra hour of sleep!

I have worked my share of DST shifts on nights. You got paid for what you worked -either less or more depending on the time of year.

[red2003xlt, LPN]

Since I used to code payroll systems.

DST has been built into most commerically available payroll system for the last 40 years. Standard practice is to add/substract the extra hour as needed.

[Jamesdotter]

I've retired now, but in our facility (under a union contract) we were paid for 8 hours in the spring and 9 hours in the fall. The only rationale I can think of for the 8 hours pay in the spring was that we were expected to do 8 hours work in seven!

[raebabelvn, LVN]

I'm in home health, and they sent out a notice for the NOC shifters (which is me!) to leave an hour early. So, my shift ends at 7am, I leave at 6am. They're not big on overtime, in fact, they don't even follow labor laws here in Cali. As far as charting goes, we have to acknowledge the extra hour in our narrative. I just adjusted the times for meds. Nothing on my patient is critical anyway.