Ok, so I just graduated nursing school then passed the NCLEX... I got hired over the phone with a "home health agency" although I actually am a private duty nurse doing 8-12 hour shifts. The service is paid for by medicaid. Medicaid pays my company and then the company pays me. I clock in and out using the clients mothers phone (my client is pediatric).
On 2 separate instances (once in August and once in September) the clients phone was unavailable, so as instructed by my supervisors, I called management, with the fathers phone, and they were supposed to clock me out. In BOTH cases the managers never clocked me out and I received a call from the office the following mornings wanting to know why I had not clocked out. I never got paid for these two days. I spoke with the owner of the company numerous times and she insisted they would be on my next paycheck. But paycheck after paycheck came and the hours were never added.
Then, the owner calls me just last week and tells me she will not be paying me for those two days as she had just found out I have been taking a lunch break. I was told by the woman who hired me, the pt's mother and the nurse who has been working for this company that lunch breaks were allowed. There is NOTHING in my contract that says we are not allowed a lunch and I have not even taken a lunch everyday. I might get to take a lunch 2 days out of 5 that I work. I spoke with the medicaid case manager about it and she said the company was paid for all of my days, including the two where the office had to manually enter my departure time the next day. The owner of the company said that the only way she will pay me for the two days is if she goes back from my start day (over 6 months ago) and takes 1 hour lunch out for every day... Which would make me owe her money!!!!
So just to summarize, the company was paid during every lunch I took, and was also paid for the two days where my managers did not clock me out, but I was not paid for the two days because "of the lunches" i have taken. I am no longer taking lunches now that I know that it is not allowed, but I was counting on that money and I feel its not fair that the company was paid for doing nothing while I am being shorted for almost 25 hours of work! I am still a new nurse, this is my first nursing job and I just feel like it isnt right.
They have hired 7 nurses total for this case and I am the only nurse who has stuck with it. The rest of the nurses quit due to pay issues as well, but this has been my first negative experience. I have had several people tell me they are not allowed to just take my pay like that. Does anyone know legally or from any aspect how all this works?
I posted a link to information from the source. Doesn't get any more clear than that. If that is spreading false info, I guess the link I posted is lying about their own rules as well.
And this is your natural response; again, you have NOT posted FEDERAL guidelines; that's what matters in the long run.
I am fully aware of the current guidelines in terms of nursing care, which includes allowing new grads and nursing students to be allowed in homes, the current funding amount that they allow agencies and independent contractors to have, issues you have posted before and have been inaccurate about.
We have had these conversations before and ALL my links were through the CMS site; feel free to look through those regulations on your free time in order to be more knowledgeable about those regulations.
Again, I behoove you to follow CMS regulations because those are far more accurate than state and local agency regulations; there are more accurate in terms of protecting your license, as you have expressed.
I have found that it is best to stick with the work that is done at the interface of the tire and the road. I leave the rules and regulations (for the most part) to the people getting paid more than me in the agency office. After all, there has been more than one time that I have found the office personnel giving me inaccurate or unlawful instructions. I always have to decide whether or not I want to work and that is the bottom line for me. And keeping my malpractice insurance in force.
I have found that it is best to stick with the work that is done at the interface of the tire and the road. I leave the rules and regulations (for the most part) to the people getting paid more than me in the agency office. After all, there has been more than one time that I have found the office personnel giving me inaccurate or unlawful instructions. I always have to decide whether or not I want to work and that is the bottom line for me. And keeping my malpractice insurance in force.
I understand however my point is become familiar with said regulations in order to be more informed, so you at LEAST know when the agency is being less-than truthful, which is happening in the OP's case, unless there is more to the story.
Advocacy is one of our biggest practices; what good would it do if we don't know if we are getting the run-around by some of these companies?
It also sounds like the OP's agencies that give reputable home health agencies a bad name.
How would a break be provided if you are the only qualified caregiver in the home?
This. I don't like eating in the patient's bedroom, I do not eat in my bedroom; but I do the best I can to keep from spilling or dropping anything. To be quite frank, most of the time I don't even eat a lunch at all. I usually limit myself to drinking sodas. A bad alternative.
First mistake, new grads don't belong in PDN (home health is visits, PDN is shifts. Neither are good for new grads).
Next, this is PDN...you don't get a lunch break. You work straight through your shift and eat as you can. Insurance requires you to be in the same room with the pt at all times. If you aren't doing this and you are taking a break away from the pt to eat while still getting paid, its fraud. It also means you left your pt unattended. If a parent is giving you a break and you leave for a lunch break, you must clock out.
We can't give you legal advice per terms of service. If that's what you are looking for, you should contact a lawyer or use your local resources such as the labor board, and insurance compliance line.
This stuff happens all the time. This is one reason why new grads don't belong and why its important to know insurance requirements and how PDN works. Medicare/medicaid also requires one year of nursing experience (although that could possibly vary by state). If you are representing yourself as a nurse with a year of experience, that is fraud in some states. Sounds like you are learning a tough lesson and you have much more to learn.
You would be better off working in a facility for a while and learning how things work before trying PDN. Learning what insurance requires of us will also help. Nursing school doesn't teach this stuff. Nursing school just gives you a snapshot of the larger areas of nursing. Nursing school gives you the minimum you need to know to be a nurse.
Good luck.
Who says new grads don't belong? If I were to hear someone say that to me and believe it I'd never have the job I'm in, pediatric PDN.
Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.
When I accompany patients to school I either eat lunch at the same time as the student (some are scheduled bolus feeds some are PO tastes) or with my preschool patient that naps. I eat lunch as the kiddo naps next to me.
LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN
8,429 Posts
And this is your natural response; again, you have NOT posted FEDERAL guidelines; that's what matters in the long run.
I am fully aware of the current guidelines in terms of nursing care, which includes allowing new grads and nursing students to be allowed in homes, the current funding amount that they allow agencies and independent contractors to have, issues you have posted before and have been inaccurate about.
We have had these conversations before and ALL my links were through the CMS site; feel free to look through those regulations on your free time in order to be more knowledgeable about those regulations.
Again, I behoove you to follow CMS regulations because those are far more accurate than state and local agency regulations; there are more accurate in terms of protecting your license, as you have expressed.