Mandated

[nsaids_nurse420]

almost everynight at least 2 nurses are mandated to stay to work the next shift. the supervisors notify us at 10:30 at night and our shift is over at 11pm, which i feel is a very unreasonable amount of time to find someone to pick up my son. i cannot stay. i have a young son who stays at the sitter, and i pick him up shortly after 11pm. my husband is an over the road truck driver and is only home over the weekends., i don't feel comfortable having the sitter watch him overnight. i also don't feel that this would be fair to my son. the facility doesn't allow kids to stay overnight while i would be working, and i under no means can leave my son home alone. what should i do if this facility mandates me to stay and work the entire next shift?

[RN~in~CT]

What states are you all from that allow mandating??

[Valerie Salva, BSN, RN]

Veteran's hospitals and nursing homes have mandation.

[barefootlady, ADN, RN]

Emergencies happen at every facility and sometimes mandating is necessary. But the key word is emergency. Too many facilities rely on mandating to fill the holes in staffing. I recently talked with a HN who mandates staff on a regular basis, when I asked her when does she take her turn, she got very angry and said "I have to run the unit". I looked her in the eye and told her she needed to do a better job of staffing the unit, on every shift, not rely on mandated staff, it is dangerous and unfair. Needless to say, our conversation went downhill from there on out. Too bad. Nurses work hard, will usually pitch in to cover emergencies, but to continually mandate is a sign of poor management, an uncaring attitude for staff, and a lack of forsight for the future. Overworked staff will reach a breaking point and resign. Then you have more problems filling holes. Good luck to anyone attempting to find another position to avoid mandating. There are a few out there.

[country mom]

I feel for you. This one hit home- my hubbie is a OTR truck driver too- I actually left a position at a hospital that was BIG on mandating for this very reason. Certainly, make plans ahead of time if you think you'll be mandated- if you cannot leave your child in a situation you are comfortable with- then choose your child over the job. Talk to your manager about the situation, if they can't work with you on it, then you need a different employment situation.

[northshore08]

This is absolute craziness. I guess I have lived in a sheltered world. I have never heard of or been told I could not go home after a shift ended, wilth the rare exception of staying for a hurricane (and I had notice so I could make family arrangements.)

Me no workee in places that do that.

[OC_An Khe]

Right to work states don't have an exclusive on non mandating. Many "union" states have laws against mandating or severely restrict its use. These laws came about mainly from union political action in the state legislature. Been there done that.

In my 4 decades of working in hospitals mandating has gone from frequent to extremely rare to illegal (at least in the states I worked in). If some states can do it, and not be harmful to patient care, then others can also. Professionals need to be treated as professionals not involuntary servitude (I know that's inflammatory).

Nursing homes and government hospitals are by far the worst abusers of using mandatory OT for routine staffing.

To the OP I would be looking for another position in which mandatory OT isn't a concern.

[Thankful RN,BSN]

i would never work somewhere that mandates overtime.

[loriangel14, RN]

I have never heard of such a thing.My employer would never do that. If we did do double willingly we would get overtime but we would never be forced to stay.

[country mom]

Why is it that truck drivers have both a maximum limit on their workday and also their work-week, but nurses can be left on duty as long as the employer desires?!? When there's a law on the books outlawing mandatory overtime (except in dire emergencies of course), then we'll know they're serious about patient safety. Until then, the patient safety discussion is a bunch of hot air.

[Pudnluv, ASN, RN]

New York state recently passed a law that prohibits mandatory overtime except in the cases of disasters or weather emergencies. This law goes into effect July 2009. Of course there is that little clause that says that you can also be mandated if patient safety is in jeopardy (which can lead to wide interpertation.)

Currently my hospital mandates all the time and quite frankly we are sick of it. When I first started working here and one of the reasons I came here was because they never mandated. We have staffing grids that are used and there are never enough staff to meet the numbers. And of course we can never refuse admissions, so the people keep coming and management just uses mandation to fill the holes. If you refuse mandation, you can be written up, and you have to use a vacation day. On the other hand, if we do end up working short-staffed, we have to be paid a stipend (20% base pay). While the idea of staffing grids is ok, it never takes into account accuity. Also, my NM is only allowed to schedule for a max of 26 patients on the floor, even though we can go up to 35 and usually run quite full. I truly can't wait to see what is going to happen in July.

[CHATSDALE]

this is the only time i have seen mandated overtime linked to unions

usually it is the other way around

however, the time to make a decision on this is not when some nurse doesn't come in at shift change and you are faced with leaving patients unattended to picking child up at baby sitter

the time is now, look for another job and ask about their policy before you agree to work for them---

nurse managers, DONs, etc have nursing licenses and they can and should come in and cover

do not risk your license, neglect your child, put your health in jeopardy

i know that working/not working is not an option for most of us but the time put into getting through school gives you an opportunity to choose where and under what conditions you will work