"Work 20+ hours in your shifts or resign"

[MBRN4]

Hello all,

My puppy and I recently moved from the northeast to Florida for a job. My current positions is a nurse with the Emergency Transport Team for a hospital in south Florida. A little bit about what I do: I pick up kids from other hospitals in an ambulance, helicopter or airplane (we do international calls as well- think Jamaica, St Croix, etc.) and bring them back to the hospital I work for. I do NOT do scene work or 911 calls. Sometimes the kids are sick but most of the time they are stable and coming for a second opinion or because the other hospital doesn't have pediatrics. A lot of the calls are non-emergent.

Upon starting my new job in a new state with a new apartment lease, I'm made aware that I will be expected and required to work 20+ hours in a shift. It happens frequently where the nurse and paramedic as a team must work 24 hours or more. If the insurance is approved at 5:00pm for a child in Jamaica, the day shift is expected to go still even though it's at least an 8 hour round trip if everything goes well. If it doesn't go well- which it ended up not going well as Jamaican ambulance drivers in Jamaica did not want to go to that part of town the hospital was in because it was too dangerous, it may take 12 hours. Or ones plane can break down at any point and one may be stranded overnight.

Obviously the patient must be stable in order for him/her to make an 8 hour transport. Why can't the nightshirt team do the transport at 7:00p when they come in? The answer I received:

because you still have 2 hours left in your shift. If you don't want to work the hours you need to resign. This teams policy

states you must work 20 hours in one shift if you are asked to do so. If you work 24 or more hours in a shift you can come in

late the next day if you are scheduled to work.

I think from a safety perspective- safety for everyone me, my license, the patient, my dog at home this is incredibly unsafe and unacceptable. My former employer in the Northeast had a limit of one hour after ones shift- so if the transport was predicted to take you beyond 8:30p then the transport was delayed until the next shift.

I've looked into florida labor laws- they basically have no laws. One can work 24hours a day x 7 days if you follow Florida Labor Laws. The Federal laws are no help either. The ANA has made a statement that a nurse has a MORAL obligation to decline an

assignment if you are tired (exhausted). However the basis of morals is not going to work with my employer.

I went to human resources. They did not gasp in horror as I expected when I told them this was going on. "so you don't want to work 20hours a shift?" I asked for a transfer to another department: "well it hasn't been 6months, I don't think we can do that."

I don't know what to do. I moved myself down here, the hospital gave me a $3000.00 relocation bonus that I must repay if I leave within the first 12months and I signed a 1 year lease on my apartment- they are not forgiving here and will not allow someone else to take over the payments. I have been looking for other jobs but it's slim pickings and the pay will cause me to file bankruptcy.

Does anyone have any ideas? Thank you so much for any and all ideas!

[caliotter3]

I would put in my one year to cover the expenses of the apartment and make plans the entire time to move on if you don't like the circumstances at the job. From your description there is obviously no plans for them to change how they have been doing things and they expect the employee to adapt.

[Bubbles]

I am sorry that you find yourself in this situation. It sounds like you didn't fully understand what this job required. But, if I understand you, you are not actually working all those hours as some of the hours are spent traveling. Is your regular shift (if all goes well) 12 hours? So in a way you are working on call? I worked as an on call nurse for hospice for more than 2 yrs. Initially my shift was from 5 pm Friday to Monday 8 am. That is 63 hours. But I was not actually working all those hours. I could sleep sometimes between calls. So can you sleep when you are traveling to the patient? And since most are stable on the return trip you would not be doing intensive nursing during those times. Have you met your neighbors? Could someone help with your puppy when things don't go as planned? I would check it out. I would definitely try to be more flexible and do not even think of bankruptcy as it would really screw up your finances! Good luck to you. :redbeathe

[MBRN4]

Hi bubbles.

It definitely would be helpful if I could sleep. The back of the ambulance is not made for comfort in the slightest. On the way to pick up a patient I could theoretically take a cat nap, if my partner does not mind/have an issue with it. But honestly we should be preparing for our soon to be patient. A lot of our "travel time" is driving from the nearest airpot to the hospital and back and then again once we get back to the states. I think our definitions of stable are a bit different. My definition of stable includes those that would be in an ICU- intubated, dopa, epi gtts, milrinone, etc. Those patients still require preparation and every 15 minute vital signs/frequent monitoring. Yes they can crash and burn at any time especially with altitude changes but typically they have been stable on their current therapy for a few days at least (for out of the country flights). We are not allowed to rest or sleep during our down time. As a matter of fact people seem to be watching us- as we ate our lunch in the cafeteria for about 25- 30minutes someone thought that was more than enough time and reported us to the manager. We r NOT provided resting quarters and are expected to be working at all times (projects, committees, cleaning, organizing, help in the ICUs, etc) if I just sat around (or slept) waiting for a call to come in then I could see where working a 20-24 hour shift might not be that bad. That is not the job I interviewed for.

Oh and just to clarify I did not misunderstand, as I have done this job elsewhere, I was not informed. I do believe it is the managers job to disclose something like that. Why post a job for 36hours part time. When it's clearly not.

Thank you for your input.