TEXAS BNE POSITION STATEMENT 15:26 "Nurse Working Hours"

Nurses General Nursing

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mad as hell: nursing position statement: 15:26

on april 19-20th the future of nursing as we now know it may change forever because of a select few who sit on the texas board of nurse examiners. they will dictate to the nursing profession how many hours we can safely work in a day and stipulate how many days we can work consecutively, and weekly. the silent majority must raise their voices and be heard. in a time when the nursing shortage is widening (over a million vacancies expected by 2012), the average nurse is 50 years old and close to retirement. fewer young workers are entering the profession to fill their places. nursing schools can't get enough faculty to accommodate students. the u.s. bureau of labor statistics estimates that as a result of demand for nurses, nursing will be the fastest growing industry nationwide for the next five years. mandating working hours will put undue strain on our already overburdened health care system. we presently can't appropriately staff our facilities. forcing nurses to work less is putting patients at risk, the very opposite of what your proposition proposes with no solutions in sight. we need leadership with vision not knee jerk reactionist. i'm mad as hell and not going to take it anymore. i will be in austin april 18th at the public hearing to defend our right of self determination for our profession and future nurses.

fossil78

i need your support and guidance in this endeavor. a dedicated and proud texas rn.

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What are you mad about? Are you afraid they'll allow MOT or are you afraid they'll take away your right to work OT?

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Geriatrics.

Wha-, what?? Are you serious? You want the right to be mandated to work double shifts and 7 days on without a break and if that's not bad enough you want to make it so other nurses have to do it? Please. I've worked with too many tired nurses, I've been a tired nurse and ya know, you should not be allowed to work back-to-back double shifts. And I'm no stranger to the game, I know how good the money can be especially when you are working pool and agency and you make all that money working extra shifts so please don't try to make this about patient safety and the nursing shortage. Working like that only leads to more errors, serious ones so it doesn't help patient safety. And it also leads to burnout so it definitely doesn't help the nursing shortage.

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Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.

What are they proposing?

At my facility we have many nurses who live a great distance away. They drive down and work their 3 12s then go home. Some come down and work 6 12s and then go home for 8 days off. Those nurses would quit if one size fits all laws are passed.

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OK, I just reread the OP. Tired nurses are impaired nurses. Some people don't know when to stop working, and they're dangerous. If we need to legislation to make them stop working, so be it.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Geriatrics.
OK, I just reread the OP. Tired nurses are impaired nurses. Some people don't know when to stop working, and they're dangerous. If we need to legislation to make them stop working, so be it.

I think the OP is on the opposite side of what you are saying.

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ok, i just reread the op. tired nurses are impaired nurses. some people don't know when to stop working, and they're dangerous. if we need to legislation to make them stop working, so be it.

tired nurses are indeed impaired nurses

too many nurses do not realize their limits..i don't want legislation either but we need to insist that pay for nurse-educators be brought up to par or we will never catch up..if there were enough nurses out there to do their job the way it should be done the ot problem would fade away

do the nurses in other countries with free health care have the staffing problems that we do?? would like to hear their input

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I know. I guess I was trying to restate the point that the last thing nurses need is people advocating for us to have more hours or employers to have more opportunities to use MOT.

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Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
tired nurses are indeed impaired nurses too many nurses do not realize their limits.

*** i very much doubt that somebody sitting in the state capitol who has never worked as a nurse is going to be better at knowing my limits.

i am very physically fit, my wife is a stay at home mom. that means that i get a lot of support like my scrubs get washed and hung up, i don't get up with sick kids when i am working the next day and she takes care of all the things that a single parent or those with hard working spouses have to do themselves. i regularly work 5 or 6 12s in a row without any problem at all. i fully realize that what i do may not be for everybody but it works for my family and i.

where i not allowed to do so i would likely have to leave nursing for another field.

besides it would be almost impossible to to enforce. are they going to ban single parents with young children from working? those i see at work who are very tired are single parents whose children are sick or something. lots of nurses have other non-nursing jobs or business. a rn friend of mine has a landscaping business, lots and lots of nurses i work with are also dairy farmers who work many hours when not nursing.

our unique schedules played a big part in why many nurses became nurses. i know this is particularly true for all of my male rn friends.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

This is a horrible proposal.

First, this isn't about a reduction of mandatory overtime. At all.

It is telling nurses when they can or can't work.

And, it won't work. First, the Board did not take into account custody arrangements when it put forward this proposal. It would be all but impossible to arrange a work schedule that both meets standard custody orders AND this board proposal.

Next, the chief advantage of 12 hr shifts is the ability to arrange your schedule, if you like, so that you can get multiple days off in a row without taking vacation. This proposal eliminates that possibility. In other words, I can't put my 6 in and have 8 days off if I want to, because working more than 3 in a row is forbidden.

Next, many nurses depend on voluntary overtime. This proposal would mean that, for those nurses, the only way to work OT is to limit days off to 1 day at a time. That has the potential for more burnout and mistake concerns than the proposal is designed to prevent. The 'cure' is worse than the problem.

Finally, make no mistake, this is an attempt to limit the autonomy of nurses. It is an anti-nurse proposal consistent with the idea that the BNE is not a friend of nurses.

The proposal, if passed, will in effect, only be punished in addition to other punishments. As a result, it will be widely ignored.

Rule or no rule, this proposal will not pass the 'what would a prudent nurse do' test. A prudent nurse would simply ignore the board's attempt to set punitive, mandatory work schedules for nurses.

The proposal has 3 basic rules:

1. IF you work 12 hr shifts, you cannot work more than 12.5 hrs in a row (not taking into consideration 'incidental overtime' to complete a shift - that is allowed. Being scheduled for longer is not.)

2. You cannot work more than 3 - 12 hr shifts in a row without taking at least 24 hrs off.

3. You cannot work more than 60 hr in any rolling 7 day period.

This means, if you want to work overtime, you have to work 3, take a day off, work 2, take a day off, work 3, take a day off, work 2, etc. It means that, to work overtime, you cannot also schedule downtime for yourself.

ftp://www.bne.state.tx.us/jan07.pdf

~faith,

Timothy.

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Specializes in Critical Care.
Wha-, what?? Are you serious? You want the right to be mandated to work double shifts and 7 days on without a break and if that's not bad enough you want to make it so other nurses have to do it? Please. I've worked with too many tired nurses, I've been a tired nurse and ya know, you should not be allowed to work back-to-back double shifts. And I'm no stranger to the game, I know how good the money can be especially when you are working pool and agency and you make all that money working extra shifts so please don't try to make this about patient safety and the nursing shortage. Working like that only leads to more errors, serious ones so it doesn't help patient safety. And it also leads to burnout so it definitely doesn't help the nursing shortage.

This has nothing to do with being mandated. It is about taking AWAY a nurse's autonomy to CHOOSE the best schedule for their lifestyle and family needs.

~faith,

Timothy.

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.... 50 years old and nearing retirement....

I'm 53, graduated in 2004 and cannot seem to find a job unless it is with a crappy (sorry) facility. If they limit hours, maybe facilities will be inclined to hire more older nurses who want to work.

I am not the only one I know of with this odd problem (hard to get a job in the middle of a shortage), and we are all "older."

Frankly, I think it bodes well for patients too. A tired nurse is a less safe nurse.

Go Texas!

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