Mandatory Overtime

[Charles S. Smith, RN, MS]

I think i clicked the wrong button and started a new thread by accident. This response is to the Staff Development Person who posted about Mandatory OT. Mandatory overtime is an abused system. While it can work for very short term fixes, with a set time limit, it often extends well beyond the tolerance of most nurses. Most administrators do not understand that when you demand more from nurses in the workplace, you actually reduce the quality of work life, but more importantly, the quality of the whole life. My question to administration is always: "How did you let circumstances get to this point?" Rarely does a situation ever present itself with such immediacy. It is a trend that astute managers/administrators should be able to recognize when it is occuring and begin searching for a more reasonable response rather than a knee jerk, last ditch effort. The results are usually the same and very predictable. Mandatory OT causes more problems than it solves.

There are many alternatives if managers/administrators are willing to shake off some of their antiquated thinking and look forward instead of backward. In my view, any administrator or nurse exec or nurse manager worth her/his salt (and salary) should be able to produce the work of patient care without resorting to mandatory OT.

best to all

chas