Paid for Mandatory Online Learning from Home?

[J.Adderton, BSN, MSN]

I am just curious-

Does your employer pay you to complete mandatory online learning from home? If they do pay for at home completion, is it full time and prn staff or just prn staff? I have experienced inconsistent practices from dept to dept.

[PeakRN]

If possible we prefer staff to do their online education during shift, however they have access to complete it at home. All staff are eligible for paid time at home.

If staff are repeatedly claiming online education hours at home, especially in a level much higher than their peers then we will probably be having some conversations.

[beekee]

If it’s mandatory, it’s paid. Whether you will catch some grief for it is a different story. Some expect you to complete it in X hours and/or during your regularly scheduled shift.

[J.Adderton, BSN, MSN]

Thanks for feedback- very helpful.

[Nurse SMS, MSN, RN]

We don't have a policy one way or the other. It is up to the individual managers whether they allow it or not; some do, others do not.

The ones that do not are the ones burned by people submitting for hours of online learning at home, only to discover modules still outstanding past the due date. So the answer does vary widely by department and even by person. A trusted employee is more likely to get this perk.

So basically the assignments are mandatory but foundationally staff are expected to accomplish these while at work. Some get the benefit of being able to do them at home.

[Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN]

If it’s mandatory, the DOL says non-exempt employees must be paid. Withholding pay is not an option for the employer.

[JadedCPN, BSN, RN]

Any mandatory training should be during paid time - most facilities I have worked at prefer that to be during your scheduled shifts if you have the time.

I've worked at places that allow us to complete X amount of education from home and get paid for X amount of hours. I've also worked at places, like my current facility, that do not allow you to do training at home but do allow you to come into work for X amount of hours (as long as it doesn't put you into overtime for that week) to complete the training at a computer in the hospital.

Either way, I am not doing mandatory training on my own time without getting paid.

[Nurse SMS, MSN, RN]

1 hour ago, Here.I.Stand said:

If it’s mandatory, the DOL says non-exempt employees must be paid. Withholding pay is not an option for the employer.

This is correct. Withholding pay isn't an option. Withholding allowing it to be done from home, though, is.

[JKL33]

No, employers don’t have to approve home hours. But they do have to pay for mandatory work-related activity. They are well aware that they wish to run very lean even as far as basic patient care is concerned, so they really can’t get away with pretending that there is time for mandatory educational modules while taking care of patients.

This is another game, not unlike telling people that OT isn’t allowed so they need to punch out for lunch whether they got a break or not. It’s a lot of baloney that either tricks or scares a fair amount of people into just giving away their time for free by the sounds of it.

This is why things are the way they are. Even reading some of the responses here there is an implication of something being amiss if people don’t get them done during patient care shifts and yet they know they didn’t schedule time for everyone on shift to not be engaged in patient care for X amount of time ? ?.

[caliotter3]

We are told if we don't want to do something online from home we have the option to come to the office to do it. Doing it online is usually presented when the deadline is near. No pay is ever given for doing this at home. I suppose this is because the "come to the office to do it" option is presented. Of course, they don't pay for that either. Such is life.

[L-ICURN, BSN, RN]

My previous employer refused to let anyone do them from home. They claimed we had ample time to do them at work. (Yes, we laughed at this). So at the end of the year, most people had to come in for an extra 4 hours a week to finish annual education. Remember, no overtime allowed, Haha.

[RNKPCE]

We can do them from home and are paid, if the system works from home. Some e-learning only work on the intranet at work. Some things are long and require headphones and would be very difficult to do during a shift.

In the past employees have gotten suspended for padding the amount of time it took them to complete learnings. Some of our systems have timers built in so management can tell how long you are using it. Other items we are told how much time is allotted for each thing. I set my timer on my phone when I sit to do my education and charge that much time.