I work in the health care field, Washington State....

[icymist]

as a Certified Nurse Aide. The nursing home where I work has started a new policy that if someone from the next shift calls off, the person working the previous shift must stay. No asking, mandatory. Mainly, this is being done to the nurses and with much griping. The company tells us that because this is the health care field that they can force you to work extra shifts without any notice what-so-ever in an emergency situation, so therefore they (the company) has the right to force this on us. I would hardly cal somebody calling off and the companies refusal to call an agency to replace the spot an emergency.

So, my question, is this legal?

[lvx35]

1. Yes.

I was in an even sketchier situation in Washington state health care. Labor laws suggest that they can ask you to work as much as they want, even overtime. I recommend you do what I did, and walk. If they are understaffed 99% of the time its cause their not paying enough.

[lvx35]

5. Call L & I

1-800-547-8367

And ask about the law regarding the nurse. If you are a certified NAC, there MAY be goodies.

[icymist]

6. Thank you. I'll call them.

I can't wait to see what goodies there are!

[lvx35]

8. I am 100% sure there are laws protecting how much nurses can work

Now that might just be RNs and you may have LPNs, but check it out.

[icymist]

9. Well I called the Dept. of L&I number you gave me.....

They "Yes, your employer can force this on you at will." Then they referred me to the Washington State L&I who then referred me to call the US Dept. of Labor & hour division who then put me into an automated information loop. I guess I'll just put my head down and look for another job. Good thing I'm not going to school to try a better myself, eh? :sarcasm:

[lvx35]

10. I'm in the exact same boat is you

And I have like 5 years experience in the field, so its hard to switch. But you learn from it, you know. These people in that field are sick, they try to make you a slave of compassion, they try to exploit like nobody would be able to do with a hamburger boy at wendy's because you care about the residents/clients/patients. But its intolerable. In my opinion, the most socially responsible thing to do is to let the healthcare/geriatrics world implode, if that's what it takes for people to finally face the scope of the problem. I mean jesus, the assisted living facilities are already nursing homes, the nursing homes are acute care facilities, such is the amount of overflow from each. the whole thing is so corrupted its unbelievable. I haven't worked at one where lying was not completely part of the institution. Compare this with working education in public schools, where things go down exactly as they should, and special ed kids get exactly the care they need. Absurd.

You cannot make changes to this system as a CNA. If its what you feel you must do, work as an RN, just get the loans and do it. If for one have recognized the that this field is not where I belong.

[bemildred]

2. Quit. Tell them why. That's 100% legal. nt

[lvx35]

3. Oh, a second thing.

Different rules apply to the nurses...let me see if I can find that.

[Ilsa]

4. I think the nurses need to get together and

verify with their state board of nusring what their options are in a situation like this. It is practically a form of involuntary servitude, IMO. It is difficult for nurses and CNA's because we can't "abandon" the patients.

I don't think it is an emergency either. All they need to do is call an agency and bring on extra help. Of course, they don't want to pay triple the hourly wage. Another thing they could do is pay nurses "PRN" standby wages for making themselves available for these "emergencies".

The nurses may need to officially complain that extending their hours like this puts patients' lives in danger with respect to care and administration of medications. Once the organization has been put on notice, they increase their risk of liability.

This isn't right, and I feel for you having to deal with this.

[icymist]

7. A lot of our nurses have been quiting.

They work the required shift, hand in their two week notice, and then management comes out to 'over-see' their work personally. They usually wind up getting 'fired' sometime the next day after handing in their two week notice. I feel this is intimidation to the remaining nurses.

[MockSwede]

11. NOPE

Healthcare ain't special with regard to labor laws. Supervisor has to get someone 'on-call' to come in. Talk with state labor laws office - sometimes called Dept of Wage and Hourly Work, etc.

[oscar111]

12. 48 hour interns.. NY outlawed it, hosps ignored it

so a tv crew found out.

on one of those 6O minutes style shows.

a former asst NYC District Attorney no less, crusaded to outlaw the insane 48 hour shifts.

got a law.

The insane hospital directors ignored the law.

When will we ever take control of them with nationalized healthcare?

Germany has had it for over a century. 25 nations outlive us.

[icymist]

13. 48 hours? My God! That's insane!

Wake up people! Your healthcare system is in the hands of those who only care about how much money they make!

[oscar111]

14. it is a nationwide practice AFAIK.

and one thread here said it is also done in Germany.

claim is , it is to see if dr's can function in a time of plague, with the long hours that would need.

but frankly, i see that as a flimsy excuse offered up by sadists, to keep the practice going.. practice of "initiation" of newbies to the field.

Initiation rituals, sadistic in nature, are common... Canadian Air Force scandal.. frat initiation scandals so numerous.. boy scout initiations occasionally... all done by sadists.

Who enters medicine anyway? two kinds.. those who want to end suffering.. and those who love to see suffering - the sadomasochists. Sadly, today the S and M crowd rules the med field.

ask any oldtimer at work - they can verify the 48 hour intern shift thing. Imagine how many patients have died because the intern was too bleary eyed to function. Wouldnt even want my cab driver to have been up 47 hours before picking me up. It is a bizzare ritual.

Freud said there is a "greed-sadistic" personality, with greed and sadism at the core. Fits perfectly with our current preponderance of US dr's.

Other sadism seen.. i have seen two dr's .. one just at a distance.. who sew up patients with no anesthesia. The hollering of pain could be heard in the waiting room in both cases. One was my childhood GP. I dimly seem to recall that "he only did that with blacks." Not sure of that dim memory of someone's comment on him.

but i clearly recall the hollering. Pretty bad. Sewing up some foot wound, i recall.

[oscar111]

15. Nurses being mistreated in so many ways!

i casually recall hearing so many stories of it.

Foreigners brought in to cheaply replace US nurses.

Nurses quitting because of the lack of respect from drs.
High turnover as a result.

LPN's dressed up as RN's and made to do RN tasks.

Nurses given overlarge no's of patients.

The field seems to be under a terrible attack from the greedheads who run things now.
We all suffer. Nurses and patients both.

We must reverse this if we are to climb up from being 25th in longevity. It was about 20th in 2OOO, IIRC.
=============
fm WORLD HEALTH REPORT 2OOO, from the UN: the US is ---
37th in healthcare delivery system quality
72 in the overall health status of our population

we pay the most per capita.

not typos, 37 and 72. Incredible.

France is the best, overall.

[dflprincess]

16. There was just a piece on the local news

that the nursing home connected to VA in Minneapolis (everyone here calls it the "old soldiers home" is also doing this. Apparently, they've also cut back on staffing as well - relying more on aides than nurses. As a result of these policies they are losing even more of their skilled nursing staff because the nurses are not just overworked, but concerned about the decline in the quality of care when the RNs are overly tired and when fewer RNs are on staff. The local news uncovered that, since this policy went into effect, the home is reporting a lot more preventable infections and incidents like bedsores.