Manager Insists....

[alaskaman]

On a new position for 7 months....last week the manager told me that to comply with the policy day shift nurses (12 hour) stay on the unit until 1930. Typically in a high acuity area after you give report and check in with the patient you can leave. The manager derives her view from those 7 minutes totaled up are a lot of hours of wasted labor. So even after clocking out at 1923 she wants nurses to stay.I point out that the unit is steady and many of us have lives which benefit from leaving a few minutes after report is completed...and yet she is adamant and insistent. I pointed out that I will have to pull back from full time to a .6 next year. She was clearly shocked.

First time in 25 years as an RN I've ever heard of this. Anyone else?

[KRVRN, BSN, RN]

I left a widely known and respected hospital in my area because nurses were working off the clock at 6 am so they could get organized for the day (checking the mar and orders). They would then clock in at 7 am once they wrote out all of their notes. That is 6 hours of unpaid pay every paycheck. I could not wrap my head around that so I left the place.

So is that okay to do? Accessing patient charts when you aren't on the clock and they aren't technically your patient? HIPAA and all?

[Sour Lemon]

Even though you might have twice as many nurses during report, you're still understaffed since you have less staff providing direct patient care than required.

Wouldn't report be done if the off-going shift is leaving? ...at least for some staff? What are the odds of finishing work at 7:30, exactly? The last thing I want to do is go get involved in something non-urgent on my way out the door. That could easily result in staying late which drives management even more wild.

This doesn't sound like a matter of wanting anyone to stay for staffing reasons, just a matter of not wanting any employee to get away with a "free" seven minute block of pay. Maybe they're counting on employees being less than seven minutes late and getting seven free minutes of labor, instead?

[Mavrick, BSN, RN]

On a new position for 7 months....last week the manager told me that to comply with the policy day shift nurses (12 hour) stay on the unit until 1930. Typically in a high acuity area after you give report and check in with the patient you can leave. The manager derives her view from those 7 minutes totaled up are a lot of hours of wasted labor. So even after clocking out at 1923 she wants nurses to stay.I point out that the unit is steady and many of us have lives which benefit from leaving a few minutes after report is completed...and yet she is adamant and insistent. I pointed out that I will have to pull back from full time to a .6 next year. She was clearly shocked.

First time in 25 years as an RN I've ever heard of this. Anyone else?

Heard of what?

1) Being expected to work the hours you are being paid for? My time clock will round my hours to 1930 if I clock out at 1923, so I AM being paid until 1930. You should stay.

2) If you are cutting your FTE to .6 because of this reasonable management request you are petty.

3) If you have never heard of this type of time clock rounding, you have lead a very sheltered employment life.

Adjust your expectations that this manager wants you to stay the entire time you are being paid. Or clock out early and get docked.

[morte, LPN, LVN]

It's a SIX minute thing. It is covered under the labor laws. That is why administration watches it like a hawk. Punch in early, you should get paid for OT. Punch out early, you get docked for 15 minutes.

where ever I have worked before this it has been seven minutes.

[chare]

It's a SIX minute thing. It is covered under the labor laws. That is why administration watches it like a hawk. Punch in early, you should get paid for OT. Punch out early, you get docked for 15 minutes.

Actually, it is seven minutes. The U.S. Department of Labor's Fact Sheet #53 – The Health Care Industry and Hours Worked addresses rounding of hours based on the quarter hour. In order to do this, the employer has to round the time both forward and backward to the closest quarter hour. This is allowed, as over time it should average out.

Vanderbilt University's rounding rules (opens as PDF) further details the times used for each quarter hour rounding period

[alaskaman]

Thanks for the replies. Its always been a flexibility issue for me. To meet family for dinner, I see it as a courtesy. But be that as it may I don't really think that it is a deal breaker. I am planning to change hospitals after my year is up (relo pay) as there are much larger clinical issues which concern me easily more. I just wondered. Typically I have found that managers who are focused on rules miss other more important issues.