prn/overtime addiction/survey

calivianya, BSN, RN · Mar 15, 2016

I can live off of 36 hours a week just fine. I'd live comfortably and have room for some extras, but not much saving. Besides, I'm taking classes right now so I have to pay tuition. I work a FT job and a PRN job, both in MICU. Because of said classes, I can only work my two shifts every six weeks at my PRN to stay on the schedule because I can barely even fit in the FT hours. When I am out of class, I often work four to five 12s per week. Worked 72 hours last week - spring "break" wasn't much of a break.

I do want to retire one day, after all, and working just what's going to pay for my day to day life isn't going to get me there in the long run.

Nothing wrong with being an OT addict, especially if you're banking it. I have a coworker who says it freaks him out if there's a month where he doesn't put at least $1000 extra into a savings account. He is also handy and bought two cheap as crud rental properties and fixed them up. Life goals right there - being in your mid 20s with two rental properties and banking over $1000 a month to your savings.

I'm obviously doing something wrong.

Kitiger, RN · Mar 15, 2016

I work private duty pediatrics, and the hours are not always reliable. I usually work around 40 hours/week. In January, I worked an average of 55 hours/week. We banked that money. Then, one of my kids ended up in the hospital for 6 weeks (he came home for 2 days in the middle of that, then right back in). That was a regular 2 shifts/week, 10 hours each, missing from my income. Granted, that's unusual, but my point is that I took the extra hours when they were available because I knew I might need the money later.

It isn't wise to live paycheck to paycheck when doing private duty nursing.

I did pick up some other shifts during that 6 weeks, but they were not reliable, routine hours.

chacha82, ADN, BSN · Mar 15, 2016

1 job, 3 nights a week, OT only if I feel like it. Right now I'm blessed and don't have to.

I work at an academic hospital and most of us only have 1 job. I believe we have to get special approval to work anywhere else, as we are expected to be available for our designated weekends, holidays, and staff meetings. We would never be able to get out of staff or practice meetings due to work elsewhere. I think it's in our contract that any paid work elsewhere (for full-time employees) must not interfere with our full-time work and must be approved by HR.

ThePrincessBride, MSN, RN, NP · Mar 15, 2016

1 job, 3 nights a week, OT only if I feel like it. Right now I'm blessed and don't have to.
I work at an academic hospital and most of us only have 1 job. I believe we have to get special approval to work anywhere else, as we are expected to be available for our designated weekends, holidays, and staff meetings. We would never be able to get out of staff or practice meetings due to work elsewhere. I think it's in our contract that any paid work elsewhere (for full-time employees) must not interfere with our full-time work and must be approved by HR.

Can they legally do that? I mean, I have heard of that for MDs, but not nurses!

ThePrincessBride, MSN, RN, NP · Mar 15, 2016

I worked 100 hours in 2 weeks plus pulled in $275 in call pay last pay period...why - because someone has to treat all those pts. I do inpatient dialysis, and if we have 6 pts admitted on a MWF schedule, guess what we stay till they're done.

Much respect to dialysis nurses, you all seem to work some crazy schedules!

Twinmom06, ASN, APN · Mar 15, 2016

Much respect to dialysis nurses, you all seem to work some crazy schedules!

yea but its still better than running after 5-7 patients on the floor!

Ard123 · Mar 16, 2016

I worked 100 hours in 2 weeks plus pulled in $275 in call pay last pay period...why - because someone has to treat all those pts. I do inpatient dialysis, and if we have 6 pts admitted on a MWF schedule, guess what we stay till they're done.

First off, it is against the law and in my opinion immoral to be forced to work overtime unwillingly or out of necessity (with a few exceptions in government positions). Correct me if I am wrong, but stating "because someone has to treat all those patients" sounds like it fits in the above category. If your employer guilt trips you into doing overtime "for the patients", (or worse yet, you guilt trip yourself into doing so and you knowingly have the doubt that you will not be fully capable to do so), consider this: If you are not mentally or physically in the right state to work overtime (and we all from time to time fall into this category whether it be fatigue, committment, etc), then you are doing your patients a major disservice if you stay and give less than 100% of your reasonable and potential effort. If you don't want to or can't reasonably work overtime without it affecting your life balance adversely, by all means it is in the best interest for you and for your patient that you not do it. Too many times have we heard of medical errors because of staff fatigue, or of high staff turnovers (as a result of burnout) that leads to inadequate care. And mandated overtime almost always leads to fatigue/burn out. Just food for thought and advice next time you feel that you are mandated for overtime.

Ard123 · Mar 16, 2016

Curious: Is anyone here a job/OT addict? How many PRN/PT jobs and overtime hours do you think is over the top?
And for those of you with more than one job, are they all in the same specialty?
How many hours do you work at your FT job and how many hours do you work at your PRN job(s)?
I used to work with a woman who has five kids. She works full time at one spot but then also has three PRN jobs. Every time she would quit a job, she would go contingent. Now, she has collected four jobs (all in the same specialty).
As for me, I have one FT job in one specialty and a PRN job. I will be out of town for a bit and have signed up for a nine straight days of work! Thankfully, they are a mixture of twelves and eights.
Oops.

I, personally, willingly take every opportunity I can to work overtime, because like everyone else on this thread, I too have a certain lifestyle, career goals, financial goals, circumstances, etc that i want to achieve/maintain. My personal record is 31 days straight. Here are the circumstances that make it possible and worth it for me to do so: According to my contract, I am given a 1.5 x premium pay on every day I work past 7 consecutive days, and double time every 7th day of work. (therefore, in the example above, I racked up 168 hours at a rate of 1.5x my base pay, and 24 hours at a rate of 2x base pay; my base pay is 67/hr, which is competitive for the area i live in). I have only 8 hour shifts from 830am-5pm, and I work in the outpatient setting, so most of my duties are lighter than in the inpatient setting. My relative base pay is great, so the setup above is the perfect storm to make a good living.

So here is the big question: at the end of the day, is it worth it?

According to my calculations, if I take advantage of my contract rules (and I am really motivated to do so), work 3 and a half months without a day off (assuming 56 hours a week, and that my employer continues to provide me with OT, which is a very good possibility because of the staff shortage ), then drop back down to 40 hrs a week for the rest of the year thereafter, I will gross about $200,000 this year (with my current tax status, I would take home an estimated 114,000, and an additional $18,000 in my 401k) .

Like everybody else, I want a nice home, nice car, secure living for my gf and possibly future kids, a good retirement, and great vacations. So yes, I think the above is worth it for me.

Lesson of the story: Make sure you get a good contract with your employer, be prepared to work hard and position yourself correctly, and earn what you deserve.

Editorial Team / Admin · Mar 16, 2016

First off, it is against the law and in my opinion immoral to be forced to work overtime unwillingly or out of necessity (with a few exceptions in government positions). Correct me if I am wrong, but stating "because someone has to treat all those patients" sounds like it fits in the above category.

Actually, I'm going to go with since the poster you quoted stated call pay that they are in a position that requires "on call" hours. My position requires on call coverage, with many hours of working extra during those times. On call hours are exempted from the mandatory overtime laws as it is an expectation of the job. It's not uncommon to see on call requirements for procedural areas such as cath lab/OR/endo/etc and certain specialties- my facility also requires call for ER and ICU nurses. This isn't call where it's "don't come in for your scheduled shift but we'll call you if we need you to come in" but where these hours are in addition to scheduled shifts.

OscarTheOwl · Mar 16, 2016

Luckily I do not have any sort of work addiction. I work as little as I can to pay my bills. My kids are small only for a short time, and I want them to remember their mom being home and present as much as possible.

Luckily I also don't have any addictions to fancy cars, huge homes, and big toys.

Been there,done that, ASN, RN · Mar 16, 2016

Um.. no. My addiction is to work as little as possible. I work 3 twelve hour shifts.. with CTO it's 29 hours / week. My sanity is priceless and life is too short to work overtime.

Been there,done that, ASN, RN · Mar 17, 2016

I work 32 hrs/week at my full time job and 24 at my prn. One tele and one ltach. I can't live off 32 hrs/wk.

Yes... you can. Work to live. not live to work.Kayden would agree.