overworked and exhausted

If you are an hourly employee, it is reasonable to expect to be paid extra if you have to stay over your scheduled hours. Are you covered for liability for anything you do when you have punched out? I could be wrong, but I think that if mgt is aware of this happening, the hospital can be sued and fined for violating labor laws. Walmart got nailed for something similar a few years ago.

If you are worried about your reputation, do you you believe that if you consulted an attorney, that the attorney (who almost certainly has a doctoral degree [JD]), would fail to charge you for every hour s/he worked for you?

since charting is part of your job, you must stay to chart and you should put it on your time card. one of the reasons is because should a problem arise and your charting is scrutinized, the time stamp is there and how would it look if you were to state "i charted on my time". meaning you were practicing nursing out of the clock. its a liability issue. if staying over is an everyday thing, then you need to reexamen what is the problem with your routine that is causing you to stay overtime? if its not organizational, fine. i knew a nurse that would spend hours talking and talking and then rack up hours later which is unacceptable. if its the acuity of the patients then u need to talk to the manager so that more staff is hired. i hate staying over but sometimes you have to. but make sure your reasons are valid and do it right. its no different than a nurse showing up for work 4 hours before her shift, passing meds and charting. that would look suspicious and is a liability for the hospital.

What is a time stamp? We do paper charting and rarely do we chart as we go. We write what time something happened, not what time we are actually making the entry. Whoever stays over usually finishes up paperwork in the back. So, what should I do?

Let someone else stay over and chart! That's what you should do....you never want to be working for "free" your setting yourself up for a double leg butt kick.

get out of there! does not sound like a nurse friendly organization if they are putting you and YOUR license at risk in this manner. sounds like you are trying to do the right thing, but loyalty like this, without recompense or consideration... been there, done that. miss the friends i made, but are much much MUCH happier in my new role in a new place.

Get out of there. Why are women-dominated fields always expected to work beyond their paid hours? Nurses, teachers.... It is just a disgusting level of disrespect.

op: it sounds like a bad place to work. if i were you (and i was once... i worked a similar floor when i started as a new grad), i would be looking for a new job. in the meantime, follow the rules and do not complain. you will not change anything unless there is a union. the other nurses have accepted this practice and so you will do nothing but harm your chances in the future, such as leaving and being considered as a non-rehire. gl!

Unfortunately this is a very common practice where I work as a CNA. The managers actually LOATHE overtime and you can get written up for even a minute of overtime and have your name on the "wall of shame." However there is ony one nurse and a lot of patients so usually there is never enough time to do what is needed. Unfortunately a common practice is that the nurse punches out and then goes back to finish charting. I have never seen a nurse leave on time.

Lately, I have been looking at all the extra off the clock time I do in a week, and have been wondering if I could just work 1 1/2 easier jobs. One's where you can goof off a little, and actually take your breaks. We haven't seen a raise in 2 years, and min raise is raising. The acuity is backbreaking, and the work is unbelievable. There are people yelling and acting crazy. My supervisor actually took 4 chairs on wheels and just flug them, because she was upset at having to take a cart. I want out, but it's looking the same way every where else. But, I do enjoy being a nurse. But I am doing 3 peoples jobs. When will it calm down?

Do not understand why u think that these issues are your fault, if the job or worklevel requires paperwork to get done after shiftreport then so be it. It appears that by following the accepted norm that your co-workers and you enable management to pay you for 8 hours instead of 9,10 or whatever the shift took. As stated by a previous post, your options are do nothing, do nothing and look for other employment within hospital or out of it or maybe approach management about adding additional staff but on the last one i would not hold my breathe, good luck.

Charting is your responsibility, so you need to complete it. but do not do it for free.

you work your behind off during the whole day, and commited to complete the charting is being loyal to your job. the unit manager should appreciate your work ethic.

sounds like you need to find some other place where they have more support system in the unit.

like many of nurses suggested here, you may need to look for different job.

OR,,,

talk to that manager that you are willing to transfer to different unit.

I bet she probably don't want you to leave.

Welcome to the world of nursing too bad they never tell nursing students about these type of working environments and conditions