Hello I'm a new member! Ive been creeping for over a year but I decided to join because I'm becoming more serious about the career.
In particular I'm wondering can nurses work as much OT as they want? While I'm young and before I start a family id like to work like 60 to 80 hours a week. Do they get time and a half ot pay?
Also if you get your ADN will most employers help pay for you to get your bsn or is that not the norm?
I'm considering this career because ive cared for ill people in the home as a home caregiver and id like to get an in demand job that has flexibility.
I'll say it one more time for the people in the back: OT is not guaranteed and should never be counted on to pay bills unless you've signed a contract that entitles you to it. My employer has discontinued OT recently and my coworkers who counted on it are distressed. Finally, if it is available, if you work inpatient you will run yourself into the ground working all that OT. Three shifts is a lot to take people to the bathroom, turn them, pass meds, do dressing changes, get them up with the Stedy to be up for 15 minutes, cater to all their family...etc etc and give safe, quality care. I have gone behind people who were downright dangerous because they were stretched so thin from picking up extra shifts. Orthos weren't done, creams weren't given to people with eczema, blood pressures hung out at 190...then they started calling out because they were so tired. OT is wonderful if you can get it, work it responsibly and never let it overshadow the three shifts you're already scheduled for.
I work 8s. I get 1.5x my rate if I work over 8 hours to 12 hours. I get 2x my rate if I work more than 12 hours to 16 hours. I also get OT if I go over 40 hours in a work week, like if I decide to pick up an extra day of work.
OT is possible. However, I wouldn't count on it, as facilities prefer to keep costs down. They're more likely to find a nurse who won't be going into OT to pick up a shift than to have to pay someone OT. Also, staff that would accrue OT that shift are usually first on the cancelling block.
If you're living a lifestyle (or have other plans) that require you to have more money than you would make in a 36-40 hour work week, then get a 2nd job--the income from that would be more reliable than hoping you can get some OT this week.
I was a staff nurse at a facility that considered staff nurses to be salaried employees. We did not get overtime, ever. It didn't matter how many hours a week we worked. We could be regularly scheduled to work 48 hrs one week but not get paid anything extra because another week on the schedule (not necessarily in the same pay period), we'd only be scheduled 24 hrs to even it out. There were some pros to this arrangement (such as you could work 48 hrs x 3 weeks and then get a week off without using any PTO) but, by and large, it benefited the hospital more than the nurses.
A well-staffed facility will not have endless overtime available and I doubt that any employer will want one nurse regularly working 80 hrs/week. They could hire another full-time employee for less. If you work at a facility that does offer overtime, when you're scheduled for an OT shift, guaranteed that you'll be the first one canceled if census is low.
Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
I'll say it one more time for the people in the back: OT is not guaranteed and should never be counted on to pay bills unless you've signed a contract that entitles you to it. My employer has discontinued OT recently and my coworkers who counted on it are distressed. Finally, if it is available, if you work inpatient you will run yourself into the ground working all that OT. Three shifts is a lot to take people to the bathroom, turn them, pass meds, do dressing changes, get them up with the Stedy to be up for 15 minutes, cater to all their family...etc etc and give safe, quality care. I have gone behind people who were downright dangerous because they were stretched so thin from picking up extra shifts. Orthos weren't done, creams weren't given to people with eczema, blood pressures hung out at 190...then they started calling out because they were so tired. OT is wonderful if you can get it, work it responsibly and never let it overshadow the three shifts you're already scheduled for.
Your coworkers were raking in the cash, but you were doing their work and putting out their fires.
There is a lot of flexibility in nursing. Depending on State laws and facility policy but OT will certainly be paid at some point if you work enough hours. Whether those OT hours are available depends solely on the employer, some places OT is plentiful others it's almost impossible. I work in a SNF and OT is not only readily available, it's not uncommon for it be mandatory. My facility pays OT after 40 hours in a week for nurses, this allows for some of us to work 12 hour shifts without triggering OT. Our CNA's are paid OT after 8 hrs a day or 40 hrs a week.
Not only that but once you work a certain amount of hours over you take a major hit tax wise. We figured it out for where I work and anything over 10 hours extra you were basically handing that money over to the government.
Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.
Lets see a source for this claim please.
If I get some free time today I will see if I can find some links for you.
eta: took about five minutes to locate the below with many, many more that I didn't cut and paste here. There are an abundance of resources on the subject.
Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.
Lets see a source for this claim please.
Nurse staffing level and overtime associated with patient safety, quality of care, and care left undone in hospitals: A cross-sectional study.
Authors:Cho, Eunhee a
Lee, Nam-Ju b, âŽ
Kim, Eun-Young c
Kim, Sinhye d
Lee, Kyongeun d
Park, Kwang-Ok e
Sung, Young Hee f.
Affiliation:a Yonsei University College of Nursing & Mo-Im Kim Nursing Research Institute, 50 Yonsei-ro, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, South Korea
b Seoul National University, College of Nursing & The Research Institute of Nursing Science, 103 Daehak-ro, Jomgno-gu, Seoul, South Korea
c Dong-A University, Department of Nursing, Busan, South Korea
d Yonsei University College of Nursing, Seoul, South Korea
e Sunchon National University, College of Life Science and Natural Resources, Department of Nursing, Seoul, South Korea
f Sungkyunkwan University, Graduate School of Clinical Nursing Science, Seoul, South Korea.
Source:In International Journal of Nursing Studies August 2016 60:263-271.
Publisher:Elsevier Ltd.Abstract:
Objective The purpose of this study was to explore the association of nurse staffing and overtime with nurse-perceived patient safety, nurse-perceived quality of care, and care left undone..
Design A cross-sectional survey.. Setting and participants A total of 65 hospitals were selected from all of the acute hospitals (n=295) with 100 or more beds in South Korea by using a stratified random sampling method based on region and number of beds, and 60 hospitals participated in the study. All RNs working on the date of data collection in units randomly selected from the list of units in each hospital were invited to participate. The analyses in this study included only bedside RNs (n=3037) and hospitals (n=51) with responses from at least 10 bedside RNs..
Methods We collected data on nurse staffing level, overtime, nurse-perceived patient safety, nurse-perceived quality of care, nurse-reported care left undone, and nurse characteristics through a nurse survey. Facility data from the Health Insurance Review Agency (HIRA) were used to collect hospital characteristics. Multilevel logistic regression models considering that nurses are clustered in hospitals were used to analyze the effects of hospital nurse staffing and overtime on patient safety, quality of care, and care left undone..
Results A higher number of patients per RN was significantly associated with higher odds of reporting poor/failing patient safety (OR=1.02, 95% CI=1.004-1.03) and poor/fair quality of care (OR=1.02, 95% CI=1.01-1.04), and of having care left undone due to lack of time (OR=1.03, 95% CI=1.01-1.05). Compared with RNs who did not work overtime, RNs working overtime reported an 88% increase in failing or poor patient safety (OR=1.88, 95% CI=1.40-2.52), a 45% increase in fair or poor quality of nursing care (OR=1.45, 95% CI=1.17-1.80), and an 86% increase in care left undone (OR=1.86, 95% CI=1.48-2.35)..
Conclusions Our findings suggest that ensuring appropriate nurse staffing and working hours is important to improve the quality and safety of care and to reduce care left undone in hospitals..
Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.
Citation
Title:Article: Assessing the relationships between nurse work hours/overtime and nurse and patient outcomes: Systematic literature review.
Authors:Bae, Sung-Heui a, ∗
Fabry, Donna b.Affiliation:a School of Nursing, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
b School of Nursing, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, Buffalo, NY.
Source:In Nursing Outlook March-April 2014 62(2):138-156.
Publisher:Mosby, Inc..
Abstract:Background The effects of work hours/overtime on nurse and patient outcomes and specific components of work hours (per shift and per week) and overtime on these effects have not been systematically examined..
Purpose The purpose of this review was to systematically evaluate the effect of nurse overtime and long work hours on nurse and patient outcomes.. Methods An online search of six electronic bibliographic databases was conducted for research published from 2000 to 2013..
Discussion Twenty-one nurse outcome measures and 19 patient outcome measures were found in relationships with work hours and overtime. A total of 67 relationships to nurse outcomes and 41 relationships to patient outcomes were examined..
Conclusions The findings of this review suggested that evidence supporting positive relationships between working long hours and adverse outcomes to the nurses is strong. However, to make a conclusion of the positive relationship between long work hours and adverse patient outcomes, more evidence is needed..
Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.
Review: Associations between characteristics of the nurse work environment and five nurse-sensitive patient outcomes in hospitals: A systematic review of literature.
Authors:Stalpers, Dewi a, âŽ
de Brouwer, Brigitte J.M. b
Kaljouw, Marian J. c
Schuurmans, Marieke J. d.
Affiliation:a St. Antonius Academy, St. Antonius Hospital, Nieuwegein, The Netherlands
b Scientific Institute for Quality of Healthcare, St. Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
c National Health Care Institute, Diemen, The Netherlands
d University Medical Centre Utrecht, Department of Nursing Science, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Source:In International Journal of Nursing Studies April 2015 52(4):817-835.Publisher:Elsevier Ltd.Abstract:
Objective To systematically review the literature on relationships between characteristics of the nurse work environment and five nurse-sensitive patient outcomes in hospitals.. Data sources The search was performed in Medline (PubMed), Cochrane, Embase, and CINAHL..
Review methods Included were quantitative studies published from 2004 to 2012 that examined associations between work environment and the following patient outcomes: delirium, malnutrition, pain, patient falls and pressure ulcers. The Dutch version of Cochrane's critical appraisal instrument was used to assess the methodological quality of the included studies.. Results Of the initial 1120 studies, 29 were included in the review. Nurse staffing was inversely related to patient falls; more favorable staffing hours were associated with fewer fall incidents. Mixed results were shown for nurse staffing in relation to pressure ulcers. Characteristics of work environment other than nurse staffing that showed significant effects were: (i) collaborative relationships; positively perceived communication between nurses and physicians was associated with fewer patient falls and lower rates of pressure ulcers, (ii) nurse education; higher levels of education were related to fewer patient falls and (iii) nursing experience; lower levels of experience were related to more patient falls and higher rates of pressure ulcers. No eligible studies were found regarding delirium and malnutrition, and only one study found that favorable staffing was related to better pain management..
Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.
Nurse staffing and nurse outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Authors:Shin, Sujin a
Park, Jin-Hwa b
Bae, Sung-Heui a, *.
Affiliation:a College of Nursing, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
b College of Nursing, Daegu Catholic University, Daegu, Republic of Korea.
Note:The authors declare no conflict of interest..
Source:In Nursing Outlook May 2017.
Publisher:Elsevier Inc..
Abstract:•Greater nurse-to-patient ratio was consistently associated with the high degree of burnout of nurses.•An increase of one patient per RN ratio was associated with an 8% increase in odds of job dissatisfaction.•Nurses' intention to leave was increased 1.05 times when nurse-to-patient ratio was increased by 1.•Results of this meta-analysis showed that the effect size for nurse's job dissatisfaction was higher than that for nurse's burnout or intent to leave.•Findings of our study demonstrate that the greater nurse-to-patient ratio was related to negative nurse outcomes..
chacha82, ADN, BSN
626 Posts
I'll say it one more time for the people in the back: OT is not guaranteed and should never be counted on to pay bills unless you've signed a contract that entitles you to it. My employer has discontinued OT recently and my coworkers who counted on it are distressed. Finally, if it is available, if you work inpatient you will run yourself into the ground working all that OT. Three shifts is a lot to take people to the bathroom, turn them, pass meds, do dressing changes, get them up with the Stedy to be up for 15 minutes, cater to all their family...etc etc and give safe, quality care. I have gone behind people who were downright dangerous because they were stretched so thin from picking up extra shifts. Orthos weren't done, creams weren't given to people with eczema, blood pressures hung out at 190...then they started calling out because they were so tired. OT is wonderful if you can get it, work it responsibly and never let it overshadow the three shifts you're already scheduled for.