Mandatory Overtime

Mandatory Overtime

Mandatory overtime has become common in our hospitals.

Hospitals have been cutting back on the number of nurses they keep on staff in order to save money. Understaffed hospitals are increasingly calling on nurses to work back-to-back eight-hour shifts, or four extra hours on top of a 12-hour shift.

Reports have shown that as many as 98,000 patients die because of medical errors each year. When exhausted nurses are forced to work additional hours beyond their shift, the risk of medical errors occurring increases.

Pilots, truck drivers, flight attendants, and other professionals whose performance affects public safety are restricted by law from working more than eight hours in a row. Why is it ok for nurses to work 16-hour shifts?

There has been a lot of talk about a shortage of nurses that will occur when the baby boomers reach retirement age. How can we expect more people to go into nursing when the conditions are so bad that nurses currently working in hospitals don't want to stay? A recent University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing Study found that 1 in 3 nurses under 30 years of age plan to leave the profession within the next year.