taking away my overtime in the OR

[90021nurse]

How many of you are getting this: every day, depending on the number of surgeries, is a different shift. I never clock in the same time twice and never know when I will clock in until the afternoon before. Well, I can deal with that for awhile because we are training a couple of new nurses and I am supposed to go to a permanent day shift position by the end of the year when they are trained enough to work independantly when there aren't as many other nurses around late afternoon and evening.

However the worst of this is losing my overtime by adjusting my clock-in and out times so that I can't get even a minute overtime. So where is the incentive for staying late, working a 14 hour day, missing dinner with my family if the next day I am told to come in later or clock out early so I don't go over 40 hours?

When I interviewed for this position 3 months ago, I got the standard talk about how I would get shift diff, on call pay and weekend diff in addition to overtime on top of my base pay and that would make for a nice paycheck. I feel cheated. I'm not saying I like getting stuck working late but it bites to see on my way out the door my name on a list of staff members who have anywhere from 2 minutes to 6 hours of overtime. We are expected to go home early to control this on the days there are not late surgeries going on.

I am curious if this is the norm among hospitals trying to cut costs and how others feel about losing their overtime pay?:angryfire

[ewattsjt]

touchy subject!

you never stated if you were “as needed”, part time, etc… we have some part time employees that work full time but they have the same dilemma. it is the exact scenarios that you are describing. it may be worse here because they are sometimes notified the morning of, not to come in.

for full time employees here, we do clock in at the normal times but may be required to clock out early if there are no cases. this bites because you may stay over later in the week and get no overtime for working a 14 hour shift. we are not made to stay but, if there is no one to relieve you; you can not just leave. i might note that while this occurs, it is by no means on a normal basis. it is usually during spring break and times like that.

[90021nurse]

Yes, I am a full time employee. I am having a very hard time dealing with having no set schedule. My usual shift was to be 10-6:30pm however I seem to be working everything but that. Every day is different. This week alone I have clocked in at 5:30,6:00,8:30,10:00,and 7AM. The hospital I work at is in financial trouble,the clinical manager makes assignments the day before and then thats the end of it. Staff are expected to stay til the work is done and there are no adjustments made when, as usually happens, the surgery schedule can change drastically from one hour to the next.

It would make more sense that those on call should be the ones who come in a little later in order to finish up the later cases of the day but this isn't how its done. The only concern management seems to have is fixing the issues of overtime after the fact instead of trying to stagger clock in times beforehand.

This issue of having to go home when there is overtime is not helping the overall morale of the department, which is already at its lowest level. This often leaves us shorthanded while cases are still going on, work is left undone ( next days stocking and case preparation). My question was that I was wondering if this is as commonplace and routine as it is where I work?

[Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN]

Man that's not commonplace where i work. While there's plenty of room for overtime, you only take it if you want to.

My regular clock-in time is always 0620 (start work 0630). Sometimes i get out at 1530, sometimes 1715, sometimes 1915, and sometimes 2315. It just depends on what i signed up to work for that week. Sometimes i sign up for 2 16's and one 8 (my favorite, since i get 4 days off straight), sometimes 4 10's, sometimes 3 12's. My point being, if i work over my usual time, it's because i said i would, not because i'm forced to.

Overtime can't be avoided in our dept. Our hospital is more concerned about unnecessary overtime, meaning the people that are there sitting on their orifice doing nothing and getting overtime for it.

[ewattsjt]

90021nurse,

i am sorry; i do know what your question was but, for the comparison of facilities it is relevant to know if you were part or full time.

what you describe is not a common scenario for full time employment where i work. everything is done to keep away from mandatory overtime and schedule changes are voluntary.

it can, however, be the norm for the part time people here. our part time people sometimes do not find their schedule has changed until the morning of. they are scheduled as needed and the schedule is subject to change without notice. this would include being sent home early or told to come in late one day and expected to stay until the job is finished the next. once they hit 40 hours, everything is done to get them out of the facility.

if the overall moral is down, that within itself is a good indicator that what is being practiced is not good. hopefully the manager(s) will realize this before it is too late and there is a mass exodus of the facility.

[chartleypj]

I'm connfused; if you were hired for the 10:00 - 6:30 shift, then that is what you should be doing - and you obviously are not agreeing to this last- minute scheduling issue.

What is your hospital's scheduling policy? Are you unionized? I have never worked in a facility in which the schedule wasn't posted for 1 month in advance; afterwhich, a schedule change could only be made after asking the staffer to accomadate the schedule. Something seems amiss if the nurse manager cannot schedule staff in advance of 1 day to cover her department.

Good luck with your dilema,

Paula

[ewattsjt]

; I have never worked in a facility in which the schedule wasn't posted for 1 month in advance; afterwhich, a schedule change could only be made after asking the staffer to accomadate the schedule. Something seems amiss if the nurse manager cannot schedule staff in advance of 1 day to cover her department.

^^^^That is how my facility works with full time employees.