Mandatory Overtime

[MQ Edna]

should congress pass legislation effecting a change in the mandatory overtime requirement of nurses? what do you think? please also include your:

occupation:

title:

years of experience:

specialty area:

gender

work location:

[debbyed]

RN

Senior Clinical Nurse

>20 years

Emergency

Know any guys named Debbye?

Hospital

Until I moved to a Metropolitan area I had never heard of Mandatory Overtime, I thought that was banned about the time Child Labor laws were passed.

Now don't get me wrong, in the event of a disaster (and I'll include severe snow storms) I think that any nurse who is true to her professsion would stay on until sufficient help can arrive, but to routinely require nurses to stay after completing their shift because the facility refuses to do what is necessary to keep and recruit sufficent staff is unacceptable.

[CEN35]

witht all the answers in the poll........this really needs to be multiple choice, with a few more answers.......i for one cannot just answer one of them? sorry

[fergus51]

staff nurse, RN, L&D, 4 years, female, BC, Canada. We do not have mandatory OT and I will never work at a place that does. Our system does rely on OT however, it is worked voluntarily. Ususally because we are stupid enough to be guilt tripped into going.

I don't think mandatory OT should exist at all. If I am hired to work 40 hours a week, that's all I want to work. I have a right to life outside the hospital and to stop working when I feel I am too tired to be safely practicing.