mandation

[tsm785]

This past father's day weekend we were really short staffed on the labor & delivery unit where I work in a hospital in NYC. We were only three RNs. Some idiot in management did not realize that there were four nurses on vacation out at the same time. Then on sunday morning there were five nurses out and only two nurses scheduled to come in. The supervisor informed us, the night shift, that we were mandated to stay "until further notice". We had a terrible night with 4 stat c/sections and no breaks! The night shift "clocked in" saturday @ 7pm and did not "clock out" until 730 am on Monday morning. Is that legal? By the time I left monday morning, both my legs were swollen, red, and painful!! My doctor saw that morning and put me on bedrest, abx, steroids, and pain killers. He was r/o cellullitis. What can I do about what happned to us that weekend?

[Nurse Ratched, RN]

Where was your unit manager when three of her nurses were required to stay 36 hours in a row in the absence of anything but a hideous natural emergency?

I'd start with your state BON. I would also bet under those circumstances, that if a nurse made an error r/t fatigue, she'd still get the shaft and no manager would stand up saying, "It's not her fault; I made her work 36 hours straight and she was too tired to function."

I know it's extremely hard when you're in the middle of it, but I have had occasions when I have had to tell the house super that it doesn't matter where they find more staff, but she had to. Were I in that position, I likely would've called the NM at home and told her the situation and advised her my resignation would be effective immediately if we didn't get coverage pronto.

I hope you're feeling better. I would take this to your risk management person and approach it from the standpoint of the risk to pt safety in having such overly fatigued nurses (PARTICULARLY in the case of the most sue-happy pt population - OB.) Then I'd take it to HR and find out how such situations would be avoided in the future.

Finally, I note that JCAHO is visiting our facility soon. We keep getting lists of questions that have been asked of nurses in other facilities. One of them was, "How does your unit manage and protect pt safety in a short staffing situation?" I'd love to hear the surveyor's response to your case....

[SmilingBluEyes]

good response Ratched!!!!