Should I have volunteered to stay overnight?

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So, last night at work, we were extremely short on staff, even more than usual. Since there was only one nurse scheduled to work overnight, the supervisor was going to have to stay as well. Well, 11 pm came around, and the nurse that was supposed to relieve me did not show up. We did attempt to contact her, but she did not respond.

I was working with another nurse, who volunteered to stay over night. Unfortunately, they weren't able to take him up on his request, since he had not worked at our facility long enough. This meant that I was the obvious choice to stay overnight. However, I work a second job during the day, so working extra hours really doesn't work for me, which all of the staff there know.

So, at about 11:30, when the other nurse still had not shown up, the supervisor came to tell me that she had tried contacting other nurses, but no one had responded. She also let me know that the nurse manager was coming into relieve me and the other nurse, but that I was under "hot waters" for not being the one to stay overnight (although she said that those were someone else's words, not hers, and that it was unfair to penalize me because this was my secondary job).

I'm just wondering if I should have volunteered to stay overnight, even though working any extra hours is a major inconvenience for me.

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Tough call! In one instance, it is unfair of them to expect you to do this and deny the opportunity to someone who had offered to stay (although newer, SOMEBODY is still better than NOBODY). At the same time, out of personal responsibility to my patients, I could never in good conscience go home without knowing that there was adequate care to replace me. Though, also, sleep deprivation is never a quality of value in a caregiver. I guess this is just another lesson in the importance of adequate pay for healthcare workers... if people were paid a decent wage, they wouldn't need to hold two jobs. I'm sorry that you were placed in this situation.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Capacity/Bed Management.

I would not have stayed overnight, considering you have another job during the daytime that would have caused a conflict.

If they cannot seem to sort out their staffing patterns then that is their problem.

When nurses are put under situations like that they need to stop thinking "what about the patients", the facility clearly does not care about the patient if they continue to short staff to the point where people do not come in and others are continuously asked to stay extra.

We need to form a collective voice and demand better staffing throughout the continuum of healthcare. *Steps off soapbox*

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They can say what they want. They don't have the staff to fire you. And if they don't want to have managers stay late to cover, they need to stop staffing with such a razor thin margin of error, hire a staffing agency, or offer enough bonus money to make it worthwhile for their staff to cover for them.

Look, I'm sympathetic to managers who need to call in a favor when three nurses are in an accident carpooling their way to work or a building collapsed nearby and their trauma bay is swarmed with 10x more patients than usual. But when they just don't staff adequately in the first place to deal with the crises that inevitably and predictably happen in this field - that's on them, not on you.

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

I would also look up the mandatory overtime laws in your state. In mine, it clearly states what is and is not allowable for mandated overtime. If they try to discipline you for not staying, having the law to back you up would be a good thing.

And they have no business trying to guilt you into staying beyond the scheduled shift. Any management that does so is poor management and likely the reason they don't have adequate staffing.

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I'm just wondering if I should have volunteered to stay overnight, even though working any extra hours is a major inconvenience for me.

It's not just an inconvenience, it can also be very unsafe. Only stay if it's beneficial to you. Your employer would have no problem sending you home if they didn't need you ...or throwing you under the bus if you made an error while working in an overly-tired state.

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.
At the same time, out of personal responsibility to my patients, I could never in good conscience go home without knowing that there was adequate care to replace me.

Depending on the situation, I would have no conscience issues with leaving at the end of my scheduled shift. If a place is chronically short staffed, giving in to requests to stay over does not lead management to fix the problem- they'll simply continue asking people to stay over. I'm not an enabler.

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At the same time, out of personal responsibility to my patients, I could never in good conscience go home without knowing that there was adequate care to replace me. .

I completely agree. However, the nurse manager did come in and she is fully capable of caring for the patients. :) It would be different if I would have left with nobody there at all.

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They can say what they want. They don't have the staff to fire you. And if they don't want to have managers stay late to cover, they need to stop staffing with such a razor thin margin of error, hire a staffing agency, or offer enough bonus money to make it worthwhile for their staff to cover for them.

Look, I'm sympathetic to managers who need to call in a favor when three nurses are in an accident carpooling their way to work or a building collapsed nearby and their trauma bay is swarmed with 10x more patients than usual. But when they just don't staff adequately in the first place to deal with the crises that inevitably and predictably happen in this field - that's on them, not on you.

While it's very true that it would not be in their best interest to fire me, simply because I'm not able to work all of the hours they would want me to, it's not in my interest to take advantage of that. I'm also working this job to gain some good nursing experience and possible references, so I do feel the need to try and maintain a good relationship with management, if at all possible (though, sometimes their demands seem slightly unreasonable). I agree that staffing is their own issue, but I feel guilty leaving others in a bind, too.

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I would also look up the mandatory overtime laws in your state. In mine, it clearly states what is and is not allowable for mandated overtime. If they try to discipline you for not staying, having the law to back you up would be a good thing.

And they have no business trying to guilt you into staying beyond the scheduled shift. Any management that does so is poor management and likely the reason they don't have adequate staffing.

Our facility basically has the policy that they can mandate whenever they want. It says that it is only done during "extreme" circumstances, such as emergencies or when very short staffed, but that is nearly every day. Not staying is looked upon as a "performance issue." I'll have to look up what my state laws say, though.

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Depending on the situation, I would have no conscience issues with leaving at the end of my scheduled shift. If a place is chronically short staffed, giving in to requests to stay over does not lead management to fix the problem- they'll simply continue asking people to stay over. I'm not an enabler.

That's sort of how I see it. If I start giving in to working excessively long shifts, they'll just keep asking me to do so more often. Having to pay me, or anyone else, extra for working longer hours does not seem to be incentive enough for them to find more staff.

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.
Our facility basically has the policy that they can mandate whenever they want. It says that it is only done during "extreme" circumstances, such as emergencies or when very short staffed, but that is nearly every day. Not staying is looked upon as a "performance issue." I'll have to look up what my state laws say, though.

Not an employer I'd work for, no matter what experience I could gain. That's practically blackmail.

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