Wisconsin Nurses Urging State Legislature To Ban Mandatory Overtime

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborradio.org/node/8024

Registered nurses in Wisconsin are asking that the state legislature ban mandatory overtime. Jesse Russell reports from Madison:

At a hearing on Wednesday concerning SB 512, a bill before the Wisconsin State Senate, six registered nurses expressed why the state needs to step in and ban mandatory overtime in hospitals. In concept, mandatory overtime is only supposed to be used in extreme situations, but according to the nurses on Wednesday, overtime has been increasingly used at Wisconsin hospitals to fill permanent holes in staffing schedules. As a result, nurses are fatigued and overworked, resulting in dangerous situations for patients, as well as lower morale in a profession already seeing a shortage of workers. Ann Louise Tetreault, is a registered nurse at the University of Wisconsin Hospital:

"So we don’t have nurses telling stories to children, to friends, that 'I had to stay, and I’m not able to do this, or I put my patient in jeopardy'. This cannot be what we do in healthcare to our patients."

The Wisconsin Senate is expected to vote on the bill Wednesday.

http://www.laborradio.org/node/8024

[jody]

1. I hope the nurses win this one. n/t

[TexasLawyer]

2. If nursing paid better

more people would be drawn to the field, and the few and the proud would not have to work mandatory overtime. If you're smart enough to be an RN (which is pretty dang smart) then you're smart enough to become a Dr., lawyer, researcher or other more highly paid professional.

It used to be a profession (like teaching grade school) that was a the only gaame in town for smart women. Not true anymore.