max hrs worked in a row

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I am from Iowa and I have looked through the IA BON website and couldn't find any information. How many hours can a nurse work in a row legally? Also how about in an emergency? We were talking about it at work and no one really was sure if it was 20hrs or what it was. Does anyone have any idea??

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Specializes in Psychiatrics.

I was told that it was a double or 16 hours, and at no point in time could we ever work 24 hours in a row. I was also told that a max in a week was 60/week. I could be wrong............If I am sorry.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

In my state of residence, the maximum is 16 hours in a row.

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Specializes in Med surg, Critical Care, LTC.

In my state NY, you can legally be scheduled to work no more than a 16 hours shift per day.

However three weekends ago I was on call, I work 30 hours over the weekend, with 20 hours of non stop work. Nothing I could do about it.

The hospital gets away with it by saying "you were not scheduled to work that 20 hours, you just got un-lucky and had a busy OR schedule that weekend - you could have clocked out for an hour and grabbed a nap while waiting for the next case" Yeah, right, bite me!

Sucks sometimes - and not at all safe.

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Specializes in Cardiac, ER.

We can't be on the clock more than 16hrs straight. Unless it is a disaster situation. We also must be off the clock a min of 8hrs before returning for another shift.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.
We can't be on the clock more than 16hrs straight. Unless it is a disaster situation. We also must be off the clock a min of 8hrs before returning for another shift.

That's how it is where I work. I'm not sure if that's law or hospital policy.

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