Workload fair or no?

[MissRN2394, BSN]

For the past 4 months I have been working in a fast paced, but smallish cardiac office. I am the only nurse in this office which isn't the problem. I knew this would be the case when I interviewed. In short my duties include triaging LOTS of phone calls, medication refills, coumadin management, and rooming patients for doctors. The problem is we have a sister office in a different city and they only have a part time nurse there 3 days a week. The other two days I am alone managing all the nursing duties for both offices. When interviewing for this job I was told I'd be covering for when the other nurse was out of her office, but did not know that it would be every week. IDK if it is just me, but the workload is quite overwhelming. I was wondering if this is a typical set up for other offices? Does this sound fair? Before this I was working in the hospital so this area of nursing it still a little unfamiliar to me. 

[John2018]

This is unfair but their rebuttal with you is that they gave you a heads-up about your duties and responsibilities. This happened to be before when I was working as a company nurse. Aside from nursing duties, I also help in the HR when they are swamped in hiring (which happens all the time), all that is involved in the hiring process. But when I reached out to my supervisor which is the HR supervisor, she mentioned that on my contract there is a phrase "Whenever needed" something like that, so I resigned.

[klone, MSN, RN]

Whether it's fair or not is irrelevant. This is how it's set up. Only you can decide if it's a reasonable workload for you or not. 

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

This is definitely  a case of not asking the right questions during the interview process.  They did tell you before you were hired that you would be covering the other office, you really should have asked then exactly what that entailed. But telling you the obvious that hindsight is 20/20 isn't real helpful so I do apologize for that. 

At this point all you can really do is decide for yourself if the required workload is too much and if it is either try to renegotiate for enough compensation to make it worthwhile or start looking for other opportunities.

Honestly though I give you a pretty poor chance of successfully negotiating for increased compensation since you agreed to covering the sister office at the offered wage/benefit package prior to starting.

I could however see you asking for at least increased travel pay,  gas reimbursement or both since the sister office is in another city.  The argument that increased fuel costs are negatively affecting your pay is a real one and a legitimate reason to either renegotiate at least that part of your compensation package or use their refusal to do so as a good reason to leave without blaming your exit on a workload that is tougher than you expected even though you agreed to it when hired. 

[MissRN2394, BSN]

Thank you for all of your responses. It is helpful to have a different perspective. I definitely should have asked more questions during the interview process and gotten a better idea of the work I would be doing. I assumed what my job would entail and it bit me in the butt. I have applied to some other nursing positions. Wish me luck. ? 

[KalipsoRed21, BSN, RN]

On 3/18/2022 at 9:08 AM, kbrn2002 said:

This is definitely  a case of not asking the right questions during the interview process.  They did tell you before you were hired that you would be covering the other office, you really should have asked then exactly what that entailed. But telling you the obvious that hindsight is 20/20 isn't real helpful so I do apologize for that. 

 

I think it is hilarious when people make comments about how the interviewee needed to be more through. There is just a point in every interview where you don’t know what to ask because you’ve never worked for this employer. It makes it sound like there is actually away to prevent the hiring facility from being quasi honest about what they are wanting you to do. ???? Don’t know, just kills me every time.

My suggestion (as I have also just recently escaped to an abusive clinic because I can’t take the abusive hospital anymore) would be do what you can, BUT take ALL your breaks and clock out on time every day. Obviously with the Coumadin you have to keep on top of that…but the calls. Let them go. And when they *** that you aren’t keeping up with standards you just say you are doing the best you can by yourself. As with the hospital setting, you can only do so much, likely you won’t get fired because they know you can’t do two people’s jobs. Anything that does not require a response by the end of the day can wait until the other nurse comes in the next day.