Mandatory overtime in nursing -I need your help

Nurses Safety

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Hi everyone. Im a senior nursing student at Penn State, and I am doing a huge report on mandatory overtime. I need your help! What are your experiences with mandatory overtime? Has it affected your physical and mental health? Has it affected your family? Also, are your places of employment trying to reduce their usage? How are they doing this?

Your help would be greatly appreciated! THANK YOU!:kiss

Originally posted by ageless

Mandatory overtime..

with a 12 hour shift and a full night of call. I have worked a 21 hour shift..and needed to be back in the morning for my regular shift again! Shower, change, and start all over.............

that's not mandatory overtime...

Specializes in ICU.

The Australian experience

We don't have - have never even heard of it until I came to this board. We have on call for places like theatre and the staff who work there are paid to be on call - it is a pittance but they are paid. We can be asked to do over time and we will do so but it is an ask not a demand. We are not allowed to have less than an eight hour break between shifts and if you work into that eight hours of your rostered time off then you so not come back to work until eight hours after you finished AND you are paid "fatigue" leave. They don't consider mandatory overtime because it is too expensive!!!

I quit my first and ONLY nursing job that required that I work mandantory OT. The OT and not knowing when I'd get off work is 95% of why I'm not still there now.

It was overall a pretty good job and super close to my house, but mandantory OT is bull.

Originally posted by lsyorke

It comes down to "Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine" :)

Perfectly put. It's not my problem that arrangements weren't made ahead of time. Hospitals that mandate OT but refuse to utilize agency nursing - what a load of bull.

The hospital I worked at started Manadatory OT. we all thought it would be a "short fix" to the staffing problems however it continued on and on. Sooo finally the union that was trying to get in was accepted by the RN staff..first thing to go was the mandatory OT.

Erin

I quit my last job because of the mandatory overtime that went out of control. Once in a while was not so bad but when it became the answer to a missing 2nd shift nurse I was gone. It takes you away from your family , causes agitation between staff members, causes stress on your mind and body, and is a unsafe work situation. Deb

Originally posted by Erin RN

The hospital I worked at started Manadatory OT. We all thought it would be a "short fix" to the staffing problems. However, it continued on and on. Sooo finally the union that was trying to get in was accepted by the RN staff..first thing to go was the mandatory OT.

Erin

Woohoo!

Great for you, standing your ground and getting results. You showed 'em!:balloons: :lol2:

Specializes in Corrections, Psych, Med-Surg.

I refuse to do it, and recently quit a job that had agreed I wouldn't be subject to it, then reneged on the deal a few weeks later. Fundamentally it is matter of surrendering all your time, scheduled and non-scheduled, to your employer's whims. Forget it.

I have worked on both sides of the issue. The first time I was mandated OT, I was told,'you should always have a contingency plan in the event you are mandate' Now, anyone with kids know that is not always possible.

Now I am acting nurse manager and due to severe shortage, am told I must tell some poor soul they must stay.

I am very torn...if I stay for this person, I will get busted by the union for showing favoritism. I also know how horrible it is to have to stay.

As a manager, however, I have to make sure our patients are covered.

The only reason I am writing anything on this thread is to remind nurses that some of us hate to mandate OT, but have no choice.

I KNOW they hate me for it, but what can I do?

what can you do?

stand up against it, hiremore prns, have your OWN contingency plan, use registry, and if all else fails, QUIT!

that's what I have done

Specializes in ER.

When I am hired for a job I make it clear that I will NOT stay if mandated and if that is a problem they shouldn't hire me. I also let them know that I am well known for helping out when called and asked, and signing up for extras. I've never lost a job because of that.

Right now I am in a supervisor's position and have the opinion that if there is a call out or shortage of staff the managers and sups need to work out the problem or stay themselves. That's part of the job description here. At my hospital every manager and sup has done extras/OT regularly, and managers are on call for their units if a problem is expected.

So it works for us, no MOT ever. The one time a disaster was declared all over Eastern US and Canada we got volunteers. We do use travellers when needs exceed the amount of extras we can get from staff.

Originally posted by canoehead

Right now I am in a supervisor's position and have the opinion that if there is a call out or shortage of staff the managers and sups need to work out the problem or stay themselves. That's part of the job description here. At my hospital every manager and sup has done extras/OT regularly, and managers are on call for their units if a problem is expected.

I'm glad to see that canoehead. I am of the belief that if you accept a supervisory position, then part of your duties should be to cover staffing - NOT expect your staff to cover for you. After all, it is our charge nurses/managers who are responsible for staffing the unit/floor. Not the staff nurse. It is not my problem if it is understaffed.

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