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.
Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.
I will stop there but any interested parties can simply get on any research search engine and look for sources related to nursing, overtime and outcomes. There are an abundance of sources.
I found that I needed to get a second job altogether when working overtime turned out to be nothing more than a contingency platitude for my employer. They would first ask me for availability, then tentatively schedule me, then I would turn blue waiting for the phone to ring to confirm the overtime, when I had already planned to do the extra work. Since I wasn't doing the extra work out of my own generosity of giving up my free time, I went elsewhere to have regularly scheduled work that I can count on for income.
No matter how much my extended care home health clients need nurses to fill in their hours, the agencies only provide overtime-paid nursing when it suits the agency. Usually this does not occur at all. Overtime is not economical from the employer's standpoint and they don't always successfully find the new employee to work at straight-time rates. So, the client on the receiving end, goes without nursing care.
Specializes in ED, Cardiac-step down, tele, med surg.
It depends on the facility and unit you work on for OT. Tuition reimbursement is also facility dependent, some have generous reimbursement benefits, others don't. Also the more OT your work, the more you're taxed, so there are diminishing returns after a certain point.
If possible get your BSN so that it gives you a more of an edge when applying for jobs. Applying for a RN job can be competitive.
There are always opportunities to do overtime as a RN. Winter time is when hospitals are usually short staffed. However, beware that when you do overtime you are being held accountable to the same nursing standards as usual. You don't get to slack off because you are working an extra shift or that you're on your 11th day. An error is an error. I always decline extra shifts if I know I am too mentally tired.
Private Duty generally has lots of overtime,but there is a catch.
The catch is that private duty does not generally pay well in the first place.
Sure,there are some agencies that will let you work 70 hours a week,but what good is it when you make $23/hr,and most facilities in the area pay $37/hr and with better benefits?
OT is great as a supplement to a budget (I work OT to save for vacations and home renovations mostly). I'll agree with previous posters who stated that counting on OT money to make budget ends meet isn't a guarantee, and can be quite stressful.
I'll also point out that it doesn't take much OT to make a big difference on a paycheck. I work 4 hours extra a week (so 40 hours instead of 36). Sometimes I stay if the charge nurse begs me, and work 8 hours extra instead. Like a previous poster said, much more over that goes heavily to taxes.
As far as the question on *how* much overtime is possible...my employer sets the limit on 5 shifts in a row, or 60 hours in a week.
Specializes in public health, women's health, reproductive health.
We don't work overtime. My boss will push us out the door and toss our belongings out behind us if she finds us still at work one minute later than we are supposed to be. I might be exaggerating, but not by much. If something happens where staying late is absolutely unavoidable, we will get comp time that we are strongly directed to take before the pay period ends. Paying over time hurts my employer's feelings. Badly.
I live in a tourist area so we have "season" above and beyond the flu season. During season we could live at work and no one would complain. I had a 137 hour biweekly paycheck a couple of months ago and that was low compared to some of my coworkers. However on off season? We make our 3 shifts a week, most of the time. Sometimes we get put on call for one of them. The money difference is hard but you get used to it or you pick up a second job somewhere else.
I work for a facility which has issues in retaining nurses. When I was working on a med surg floor, I met a few nurses who worked like 5-6 12 hour shifts a week to make extra money. One was a traveler. Another was employed by the facility and soon ended up leaving because he became a traveler. The management didn't care quality of care the nurses provided. They just needed warm bodies.
From the experience, I think you can pick up shifts as many as possible if the hospital you work is desperate for nurses.
Well, people can say there is lots of OT in this specialty or that specialty, but that does not mean there will be OT at any given time for the OP. In all my jobs there has been some OT at times, but you certainly should not rely on OT as a guaranteed part of your take home pay.
Honey 60-80 hours a week is not something any nurse should do. After you start doing those 12 hour shifts that never seem to end, come back and tell us if you still want to do more than your 36 lol
An older nurse I worked with did 3 or 4 months straight of work, no breaks or weekends or holidays, all on the night shift. He made $$$$ but then promptly landed himself in the hospital and crashed hard. I swear, night shift is like 1.5 times the mental and physical drain of days simply because it's against the natural circadian rhythm.
Plus I think after so many OT shifts, whatever you make basically goes to taxes.
Nurse SMS, MSN, RN
6,843 Posts
I will stop there but any interested parties can simply get on any research search engine and look for sources related to nursing, overtime and outcomes. There are an abundance of sources.