Nurse Safety Policy for Nurses Working Mandatory Overtime Essay Example
The nurses’ safety from workplace induced injury is of utmost importance to the nurses as well as the patients they are serving. The presence of well rested and healthy nurses is very critical to the provision of emphatic patient care, vigilant monitoring, and vigorous advocacy (Trinkoff, 2008). There are many factors and stressors at the workplace that can provide injuries as well as diseases to the nurses. These factors include the characteristic of the organization, the challenges that are external to the organization as well as the time taken by nurses at their workplace. The nurses have shown to experience a lot of physical and psychological demands during their day to day operations. The pressure within the organization to downsize has caused the remaining nurses to have to work overtime. Mandatory overtime for th
...e nurses has increased the physical and psychological strain on the nurses increasing the level of risk on their health.
Target Population
The policy development of nurse safety for nurses working mandatory overtime is focused on the lack of a standard policy on how many hours a nurse should work. The policy is supposed to target the nurses. The lack of policies on the maximum hours a day a nurse is supposed to work has resulted in detrimental physical and psychological effects on the health of the nurses. Nurses who have to work for long hours are prone to making errors during the treatment of patients and therefore, this also exposes the patients to risks as well. For instance, in 2006, an RN was charged with a felony when the RN mistakenly gave a patient epidural medication using an IV line instead of giving
the patient the prescribed antibiotic (Zimlich, 2014). That nurse had worked for two consecutive shifts of eight hours each which ended at midnight prior to committing this mistake. The nurse was also scheduled to begin another shift of eight hours seven hours later at 7 a.m. (ibid). This incidence shows how dangerous is for nurses to work overtime. In fact, many nurses admit that working for long hours, especially overnight can be very challenging and difficult. The problem is that the nurses are required to work mandatory overtime or face the risk of dismissal. These cases are not rare and indicate how the patients are in danger, as well as the nurses themselves.
Population Needs
Incidents of nurses being physically and psychologically strained and making mistakes at workplaces can be related to the lack of policies that clearly indicate the maximum number of hours a nurse can work in a day and a week to a larger extent. Many nurses face a risk of dismissal if they say no to the mandatory overtime. The nurses, therefore, need to be given freedom to choose when to work overtime. A policy needs to be developed across the nation that clearly states the maximum hours a nurse should work and be protected from the mandatory overtime. States like Connecticut has enacted legislations prohibiting the hospitals from forcing the nurses to work mandatory overtime. However, there is an exception for the cases where a nurse has to work mandatory overtime in case of emergencies (American Nurses Association, 2016). This leaves loopholes in the legislation because nurses are constantly faced with emergencies. What the nurses need is a clear policy for the
maximum number of hours a nurse can work.
Objectives
The objective of this policy is for the nurses to be given enough rest. This will lead to less strain on the physical and mental health of the nurses. As a result, the nurses will be able to avoid errors and give the patients the based care. Errors are detrimental to both the health of the nurses as well as the patients (Bae, 2012). The policy, therefore, focuses on the promotion of the accurate performance of the nurses. The policy is aimed at protecting both the nurses and the patients although its main focus will be protecting the nurses. This is because by protecting the nurses, the patients are also protected.
Process and Procedures
More studies to identify the effects of nurses working overtime should be done to help bring out why mandatory overtime is not a good idea for the nurses (Bae, 2012). The regulators and hospital administrators are supposed to have open discussions with the nurses to try and find ways in which nurses can be given enough time to rest. The legislators should always be open to suggestion from the other stakeholders on the best way to manage the issue of mandatory overtime. They should assess the effects of nurses having to work mandatory overtime on both the nurse as an individual and their families. Working overtime has also shown to cause family problems for many nurses as they have very little time left for their families. This increases frustration and the tendency to make errors at the work. The legislators should draw examples from other industries where employee are given enough rest which lead to improved
performance (Trinkoff, 2008). The nursing association should take the center stage in fighting for this policy.
Responsibility
Nurses’ rest is a very critical component of their health and that of the patients they serve. All the stakeholders are responsible for ensuring that the nurses get enough rest. The stakeholders are responsible for ensuring the nurses get enough rest include the individual nurses, researchers, the nursing educators, the nursing association, and the government regulators and administrators. The nursing educators have a responsibility of fighting for the rights of the nurses they educate. The nursing administrators are involved in the day to day management o the nurses. They are in better position to understand how the mandatory overtime affects the nurses and therefore, they should take a responsibility in fighting for their juniors. Researchers have a responsibility of proving evidence that mandatory overtime is detrimental to the health and performance of the nurses. Individual nurses have a responsibility of bringing out the fact that mandatory overtime is physically and mentally detrimental to them. The nursing association has a responsibility of fighting for the safety of the nurses and this should be on top of their list. Finally, the government legislators have a responsibility of enacting a policy that will free the nurses from mandatory overtime.
Conclusion
The safety of the nurses is an important aspect of the nursing profession. Many nurses have to work mandatory overtime which causes a lot of physical and psychological strain to them. Lack of rest cause the nurses to make errors which also endangers the patients they serve. Therefore, the nurses are supposed to be protected from mandatory overtime. The responsibility of making sure that the
nurses are protected from mandatory overtimes runs from the government legislators all the way to the individual nurses themselves. Implementing a policy that will abolish mandatory overtime will be very critical in ensuring the nurses’ safety.
References
- ANA State Government Affairs on Mandatory Overtime. (2016). Nursingworld.org. Retrieved 13 June 2016, from http://www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ThePracticeofProfessionalNursing/N urseStaffing/OvertimeIssues/mandatory12761.html
- Bae, S. H. (2012). Nursing overtime: why, how much, and under what working conditions?. Nursing Economics, 30(2), 60.
- Trinkoff, A. M., Geiger-Brown, J. M., Caruso, C. C., Lipscomb, J. A., Johantgen, M., Nelson, A. L., ... & Selby, V. L. (2008). Personal safety for nurses.
- Zimlich, R. (2014). Reconsidering the 12-hour shift for nurses. Healthcare Traveler. Retrieved 13 June 2016, from http://healthcaretraveler.modernmedicine.com/healthcare- traveler/content/modernmedicine/modern-medicine-feature-articles/reconsidering-12- hour-sh
