Someone has to stay!!!!!

[anotherone]

I work in a large hospital. Many times we are short staffed. Sometimes it is due to lack of staff even scheduled other times due to call offs. How does your hospital handle this? Usually about 5 times a week someone is made to stay under the threat of patient abadonment or no threat even required. Most people work 12.5 hour shifts so that means 16.5 hours of working, possibly already short. I know we have a law against being mandated in our state but the hospital doesn't seem to care at all. what is the punishment for them, if any ? this facility is the biggest in the area and the company controls almost all other hospitals in about a 150mile radius. stirring trouble or not being a "team player" is not worth the ability to leave when scheduled to leave. some people are very very receptive to being mandated and don't seem to care, just see it as their "nurse duty". some are very agaisnt it and confrontational with management when it happens. i don't know what the point of this rant is , aside from a vent and for perspective on what goes on in other hospitals. i mean we can't work THAT short, so how is it dealt with in other places?

[DixieRedHead, ASN, RN]

Here is one way it could be handled. It never will be, but it seems to get "overlooked" everywhere in all disciplines.

From 7AM until 5 PM, at least, there is NEVER any shortage of nurses anywhere. Think about it, DON, ADON, Nurse Managers, Assistant Nurse Managers, Case Managers, all the outreach nurses that any hospital offers.

Heaven forbid that any of the above actually have to provide patient care. You remember patient care don't you, the PRIMARY FUNCTION of a nurse.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

i know it stinks....but when you don't answer your phone someone else has to stay...it's just a vicious cycle and there are no easy answers. calling people in or making people stay was by far the most hated part of the job

if you are physically at work and they mandate you to stay, you're more or less stuck. but your day off is your day off, and if this is happening frequently i wouldn't answer the phone either. i've been in low staffing situations where everyone was mandated to pick up an extra 12 hour shift per month -- and you knew it six weeks ahead of time. i've been mandated to stay overtime, and i've worked where they've solicited volunteers to stay over. that was at a union institution -- if you worked four extra hours, you got "short break pay". you got double time for the four hours you stayed over and time and a half for the next shift you worked. no one ever had to be mandated there . . . in fact, when the charge nurse called for volunteers to stay, there was a stampede to get to the front desk to sign up for it.

[Forever Sunshine, ASN, RN]

Here is one way it could be handled. It never will be, but it seems to get "overlooked" everywhere in all disciplines.

From 7AM until 5 PM, at least, there is NEVER any shortage of nurses anywhere. Think about it, DON, ADON, Nurse Managers, Assistant Nurse Managers, Case Managers, all the outreach nurses that any hospital offers.

Heaven forbid that any of the above actually have to provide patient care. You remember patient care don't you, the PRIMARY FUNCTION of a nurse.

First thing taught in nursing school that no nurse should ever forget.

Back to OP- If an 11-7 nurse calls in or doesn't show I will volunteer to stay for half a shift only IF I am off the next day. I have done a double shift before and I am basically dead for the next 3 days after that.

[tyvin, BSN, RN]

I am always adamant about not doing overtime; forget it! It pushes me into a tax bracket that eats my paycheck. So they would catch me every once in a while but why should I cover for those nurses who call off on a regualr basis? Like clock work this one use to call and low and behold she called ... I refused but some words were said and in the end I said "I'll stay but I'm not doing anything but sleeping in the nurses lounge" and I did. You see I was working nights and I was on my 3rd day of staying awake (problems at home, couldn't sleep). I was literally buggy and going off narcoleptic with dream visions...how could I stay and be useful? They never did anything to me because by law all they needed was an RN in the building; a body if you will. After that they never asked me to do OT again.

Yes, I know the feeling of being abandaned by all the other nurses and management; it sucks.

[anotherone, BSN, RN]

i think my facility should hire more pool nurses. they have a very very small amount and if there is an icu or step down shortage, then that nurse goes there of course andmed surg can just cut it with 2 extra patients and no aides.

[GM2RN]

The union contract where I work states that a nurse can only be mandated for 4 hours past their scheduled shift once every 3 months. No one can be mandated who is already working an unscheduled shift. If we are mandated, it must be done at least 2 hours before the end of the shift.

I work nights in the ED and we also work short a lot. We are a 29 bed ED (only 20 are monitored, the rest are fast track), and a couple of weeks ago we were holding 11 admitted pts in the ED, plus 3-4 others who hadn't been dispositioned yet, at shift change. Someone from day shift had called in leaving them one short. When the other day nurses got there they were ****** when no one from nights would stay over, but they had our ED manager and other management people to fall back on if necessary, and we don't have that on nights. They initially refused to accept an assignment and it was a big mess for awhile, but they eventually took report and nights got out of there about 45 minutes later than usual.

[tokmom, BSN, RN]

You must not be union.

We usually will have two people split a shift. One from days staying over and a night shift coming in early.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

there have been lawsuits where the facility loses on the "patient abandonment" threat, because if there is a pattern of mandatory ot for short -staffing, it demonstrates that these were not, in fact, emergencies but regularly-occurring incidents due to inadequate hiring.

you can give report to a qualified rn-- a supervisor, say. that person is then on the hook.

keep statistics on the ot and mandates, folks, and when you have enough data, go to the state department of labor and wages. you will be glad you did.

[rnccf2007, BSN, RN]

You know, I don't mind staying extra when something unexpected comes up. People get sick, accidents happen and stuff like that. Can't be helped.

What frosts my buns, is when I'm being given the guilt trip because the person in charge of scheduling screwed up or always does a p*** poor job making sure of coverage.

What?? Because YOU screwed up, I have to stay?

Noooooooooooooooooooooo.

Seriously, I don't make their staffing problems my own.

Have to agree, this happens many times where I work. Refuse to be guilted anymore, because after 12-14+ hours with one or two five minute breaks, I can't do anymore without being a danger to my patients and my liscense.

[nola1202]

I too have been told they "called everyone" and wasn't called. However, looking back, I never would call back or come in if called. Now I have to deal with cruddy staffing, not because someone's messing up as much as people are calling in on weekend and I don't have many people who will come in if asked.

I really did call everyone at first. Started at the top of the list and went down. Then I got to know who would want to come in and when. I have copious notes and make calls long before the weekend to set up the emergency crew. Even so it all hits the fan sometimes. All the people who will come in are already working, or on a rare vacation. Then I do pull out the list and call the prns with preferences beside them for that shift, next I call the full timers, then I call everyone else on the list. Last resort the on call nurse or I have to stay. Trust me, I don't need the money that badly! I do everything I can to make sure staffing is good. If the staff is happy I am happy.

I can't judge anyone elses situation, but I do believe there are a lot of us who work crazy hard, to the point of driving over on my off time to pick someone up to get them to work on time...ahhhh crud. people belive what they need to believe.

[merlee]

When we worked 8's, it was not as problematic to work an extra 4 hours, or even to do the occassional 'double' in a true emergency. But there is no cushion in 12's, and those 4 extra hours can be really difficult.

I don't know how facilities can abuse their staff on a recurrent basis, and get away with it. I would call the local news media and complain.

[joanna73, BSN, RN]

My day off is my day off. Period. If I don't want to answer the call, I don't, and I feel no way about it. Work does not dictate my life, and I'm not on call. Nor would I work anywhere that had on call as a requirement. It is absolutely insane the lengths that some employers will go to.