Night shift and mandatory meetings

[aprilrazz]

I work nights and my job requires me to attend mandatory meetings twice per month as well as any in-service training. The problem is that they are all scheduled during the day (meetings are at 1400) and I work 7p to 7a. I have worked elsewhere where the nurses meetings were held twice a day, once in the mornings and again in the afternoon. We are required to be there and get written up if we don't show. For the last two months I have had to work the night before and the night the meetings are held. The last time I had a med error (caught fast thankfully) that I honestly think was made simply because I was tired. Management refuses to change the time of the meetings or offer more than one and I am afraid someone will be injured because of this. I read a while back about a nurse that was killed in a car wreck because of a similar situation. I live an hour away from work and that is three plus hours at least that I can't sleep due to meetings and training. Of course day shift sees nothing wrong with the way things are now.

I love this job but don't want to hurt myself or someone else because of lack of sleep.

Should I go above their heads or look for another job?

[guest52816]

If you like this job, I would try and work out a compromise regarding these mandatory meetings. Can you write up a nice proposal and present it to the DON or NM?

Otherwise, I would look for another position. I recently ran into the same problem (sort of). We had in-service training, and then were expected to work our shift. Because my facility has eight-hour shifts, I would have worked 16 hours! I told one of the NMs that I wouldn't do that because it wasn't safe. Their solution was for ME to find my own replacement for my shift.

This is why nurses need a union, or at the very least, stronger labor laws.

Good luck. I empathize with you!

[caliotter3]

A common problem. On any writeup, I would supply the same rationale. BTW I almost bit the dust while driving to an all day assignment after working all night. My manager laughed at me when I the told him. This was not in nursing, but the same lack of consideration.

[GeminiNurse29]

At my work, night shift meet the last hour of our shift (0630-0730). Day shift has to come in an hour early. Perhaps that's a possibility?

or if/when you get written up or leave, just nicely ask how they'd like to be woken up for a meeting at 2am?

[Penelope_Pitstop, BSN, RN]

This stinks and I've usually seen meetings held at 730 & 1400 to prevent this issue. (Hey, we can't ever make day shift come in early or stay late, now! Sorry, long term noc nurse)

I was on a committee that every fourth Tuesday for four hours. That was fine, except we always met 1100-1500. Thankfully I never had to be back at 7P that night but a few times I left at 7A and had to come back. I asked once if we could please hold our meeting at 7A instead because my vacation was starting that day. Nope, majority ruled.

Don't get me started on nurses' day festivities.

Sorry - I chose to work nights but sometimes I have to whine.

[Mandychelle79, ASN, RN]

My last job did that. I didn't go to the meetings and sent my boss my reason why. They tried the am meeting for a while but didn't do it like normal. There were 2 meetings per month one at 730 and one at 1500 but didn't cover same topics. Current job has 2 meetings hat cover same topic and the option to call in to listen

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

Well, if they write you up, does it do anything? Do you get suspended after so many write ups, or is it just another piece of paper for them to wrangle. I'd be tempted to send an email (and save it) explaining why you are unable to attend within 12 hours of your night shift, and then just don't bother going. Let them write you up. It's unsafe, and illogical, and don't they circulate minutes of those meetings? Just read the minutes.

[amoLucia]

Sadly, write-ups for this can come back to bite the employee when it comes time for performance evals, raises, promotions or transfers.

I have seen where Staff Devel or shift supervisor does like an inservice with the minutes for the absent employee.

This prob seems to be universal for all off-shift staff. No easy answer.

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

The easy answer is for them to hold the same meetings twice or more. Once at the end of Night shift for Night and Day staff, once at the end of Day shift for Day and Evening staff.

Also, the Minutes should be circulated and the staff must read them and sign that they have read them. This should have to occur within a week because it's important to keep up with procedural changes, new equipment, meet new staff, policy changes, etc.

Evening, Weekend, and Night Staff should have to attend meetings at least 3 or 4 times per year. Oth

What is so hard about coming into the modern era with regard to these meetings? The only fair way to do this is for meetings to be held every month at 0200 and 1400 if they're not going to take the other suggestion above.

A meeting could be videotaped with audio so it could be viewed along with reading the minutes amd said video could be viewed as often as needed so that all staff are actually "there". The meetings could be on Skype so nurses could at least watch and participate from the comfort of their jammies at home.

Any situation that threatens the sleep, health, life and limb of staff who must jerk their sleep schedules around to be at these meetings must be stopped. The only thing I know to do about that is to present a cogent response to the manager, DON, HR, and Legal/Risk Management about the benefits of regular and sufficient sleep vs. the dangers of sleep haphazardness. Provide scholarly documentation. Have a Sleep doctor and an attorney in as guest speakers. Serve bagels and cream cheese.

I hope things work out well, OP.

[amoLucia]

Kooky - I think there's a problem with video/audio tapings of staff meetings with re to HIPAA (private stuff ALWAYS gets brought up). Also employee honesty and spontaneity suffer when taping occurs so meetings freq become one-sided wah-wah, wah-wah, wah-wah kind. Staff also felt the risk of repercussions for any negativity. We used to do it at one place but then it stopped because Legal advised against it.

There are just too many variables that Admin/Mgt do not take into account for these meetings. I can tolerate a RARE emergency type meeting but even then it needs to be considered seriously. This is something that is just too abused and taken for granted.

[cleback]

Since they aren't willing to change the times, can you teleconference in?

[DeeAngel]

I used to send an e-mail to my unit director telling her I would not be attending the mandatory meeting if it's not made available in a time slot either right before or right after night shift. If it's not at one of those two times then it become inaccessible to night workers to attend and in my mind starts to verge on a hostile work environment. I did this for every meeting and nothing was said about it. Then again it didn't matter to me if I got fired for it. I refuse to tolerate this type of nonsense hospitals try to cram down nurse's throats.