Mandatory inservices, meeting, etc

Nurses General Nursing

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I was talking to a coworker and we are annoyed with being required to come in on our day off for the multitude of inservices our hospital is constantly requiring. I live ove a half hour from work and I don't like to wreck my days off so frequently. It's getting old.

End of rant, thanks for listening.

Do you have any suggestions about fixing this problem?

It would not matter what time of day or night or day of the week an inservice was scheduled - SOMEONE would be off at that time.

Being a nurse that is responsible for the lives of the public entails certain things. Some of those things include continuing education and inservices to ensure that you are practicing safely and up to the most current standards. It includes being on committees so that you, the practicing nurse, has a voice in what goes on in your facillity.

Most people on this forum complain that rules and regs are made without any input from real nurses. Yet here are real nurses griping because they are REQUIRED to be on committees and attend meetings.

You can't have your cake and eat it to. If you want things to change for the better, you have to be willing to attend educational offerings and meetings. Those meetings and inservices may not be useful to you but they may be useful to someone else. If you don't go to the meetings then you won't know that the meetings need to be changed to improve their relevance to nurses. If you refuse to go to the meetings, you will never have the chance to work on making a positive change in your environment.

Good things rarely come without a bit of hard work and sacrifice, yet I see nurses who think they deserve better but do nothing but complain.

Be part of the solution and not the problem.

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Specializes in LTC, Med/Surg, Peds, ICU, Tele.

What our hospital used to do was to double staff on inservice days. Now they have gone to offering them on multiple days and requiring us to come in on our off days. They've also labeled more and more things 'mandatory'.

I don't have a solution, but I will have some cheese with my whine ;)

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In dental, they always schedule things during our lunch or on our days off and they usually don't even want to PAY us for them...I know it's illegal but they get around it by saying: "It's not mandatory, but highly recommended"...which is basically saying we're not paying you so we can't MAKE you come in; but if you don't it sure won't look very good when it comes to raise time and schedule requests. This is one of the million reasons why I want to get out of dental...mandatory things on your day off will always happen in medical/dental but at least the hospital has to PAY you for being there.

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Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

I work in education and will tell you we don't like it any better than you do. Inservices are required to be sure everyone is "on the same page". Sometimes reduces facility policy premiums when certain education is done. There are loads of reasons, but in our rural hospital many people live quite a way from the facility. We have developed mandatory training that is computer based, some are online. We pay a flat fee for doing it off site if it is mandatory so you don't have to come in. I arrange to be here at various hours and days - but that is not much help since attendance is always low at night. They really don't have the staff to leave their units. Walk-around inservices work best but it is catch-as-catch-can. If someone has better ideas I am more than willing to consider them!

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Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.

Excellent post from RN1989.

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Specializes in LTC, Med/Surg, Peds, ICU, Tele.

I'm currently annoyed because I theoretically have this week off of work, but looking at my calander I will be going to inservices Wed, Thurs, and Fri. THAT is irritating.

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One of my travel assignments was at a hospital that did mandatory inservices on all shifts. Their education department was staffed with people working all shifts (yes, even nights) so that staff did not have to come in on their days off. They also had a library with inservices and seminars on video that could be checked out and taken home.

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Pretty harsh reply RN1989. This forum is designed for two purposes: 1.) to vent, and 2.) to ask other's their opinion and to ask what happens in other's situations so we can compare and get some ideas. Don't assume that these people that are frustrated with their hospital's expectations haven't already approached their own hospital pleading for change. I know I have. While we all value learning and know the importance of Inservices, the bottom line is we all deserve our personal time as well. The majority of people here believe that they should attend Inservices but their sleep time and family time need to be accommodated and given the proper level of importance. Classic Dame has the right idea in sharing suggestions when she says that their hospital offers many programs online to be taken at the employees's convenience. Going to meetings isn't the problem, it's being expected to do so on your day off and being reprimanded if you don't. This forum has helped some of us learn how the good hospitals schedule their meetings in order to lessen the inconvenience and how other hospitals are perpetuating the bad practice of the poster's hospital. It was interesting to learn that there are hospital's that care about their employees and provide many original ways to reach all employees at all hours. Again, that's what All nurses.com was designed for....to share ideas. Please don't chastise and lecture people for expressing their feelings and asking for other's input. I thought this was a great thread because it's a current issue that all of our staff nurses are discussing right now.

One other thing....I would love to be on more committees and help to improve the workplace....just as I would love to be on more School Committee's and Neighborhood Watch Committees and American Cancer Society Committees....But there's only so many hours in one day. With working full-time and raising kids and taking care of extended family obligations....We all have to draw the line somewhere. I'm forced to say no to many worthwhile causes that I'd love to be a part of and that could use my help but it would shortchange my family...Why does my employer think they can force me to spend my personal time helping them improve the workplace. I'd like to but I JUST DON"T HAVE THE TIME now when my kids are young. When they're gone I can throw myself into my job more deeply but that should be my choice, not theirs. Basing your raise on how much time you devote to work outside of your regular work schedule is not a fair practice and shouldn't be tolerated.

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.

GIRN; that was worded beautifully, simply beautiful.

Yes, it is common knowledge that we, as nurses have to be current, up to date and knowledgable of changes in patient care. But many times, these so called meetings and inservices are filled with arguments, petty gossip and simply not respecting the time that nurses who are off are coming in on their personal time to deal with. For all of the aggreviation I have encountered, I would sometimes rather that they just gave me a note or a video clipping to say what they want and sign for it.

We have days off to take care of personal things; appointments for ourselves, children, classes, quality family time, or even scratching our rear ends. Now, jlsrn was to be technically off, but THREE of her days are spent coming to the job for inservice??? Now, if she came in impaired due to lack of sleep, or unable to deal with personal health issues, or whatever, then, they would be more than willing to write her up, bring her up on charges, and basically crucify her, or any of us.

Technology offered a wonderful thing; the Internet. Many of these things can be done on line. An employee can be told that the assignment has to be completed by a certain date, and it will be viewed on the computer if the person made any attempts or even tried to comply. Maybe not all, but enough of it can be to give respect and consideration for our time. How can a person be interested in improving the workplace when our own private lives may be a disaster?

I have seen the night shift being slaughtered with this. And, at the last minute. You are ready to go home after a trying night, some have babysitters to relieve, children to pick up, sick spouses to care for and a host of other things. Nurses may already be at risk for staying later than they intended to because of late relief, a crashing patient, mandatory overtime or documenting notes. But, at least these situations are due to direct patient care needs. But, to find out that you are getting off at 7:30am, and then, have to remain for a meeting at 10:00am (and will not get paid or comp time until the meeting starts???). Then, be due in the same evening? Nope...I can see the anger there.

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Could you tape the inservices that you give and the off tours watch them when they can? We had done that here and it helped. I liked it when they know the night shift gets out at 8am and schedule an inservice at 9am. We don't get paid for that hour if we hang around and by the time they start the inservice....9:30am, we are falling asleep during it.

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Don't forget too that in addition to work, family and other obligations, many nurses are going to school. I want to teach, but before that, hope to get into some leadership roles at work. Hopefully I can then advocate for the nurses and aides under me.

I totally understand the need to stay current, but there is no reason why adminstration can't schedule better or come up with ideas to accomodate everyone. In our profession, we need our sleep and we need our time off. Why add to the burn out rate?

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