Registered Nurses and Mandatory Overtime

Paper Summary:

This paper provides an overview of the developing trend in many hospitals of mandatory overtime for nurses. The paper reviews literature regarding the issue to discuss the effects of mandatory overtime on the overall health care of patients and the nurses themselves.

From the Paper:

"With increasing number of patients requiring inpatient care, nationwide, hospitals are faced with a stiff resource crisis. Invariably, this shortage of nurses is met by implementing mandatory overtime regulations for the nursing staff. However, this has proved to be an unhealthy and dangerous practice affecting the quality of patient care as well as overburdening the nursing staff. Providing extended hours of service on a regular basis, nurses become tired and stressed out which not only increases the attrition rate but also affects the outcome of the patient. Foley of the ANA says, "By far the riskiest result of understaffing is the abuse of mandatory overtime as a staffing tool," [Robert Steinbrook]. Over extended, burnt out and even underpaid, nurses develop job dissatisfaction and as statistics indicate one out of five nurses are contemplating on quitting the profession altogether. Further the increasing patient/ nurse ratio directly implies a serious compromise on personal care to patients. Let us now look into some recent research studies that also confirm the negative effects of mandatory overwork among nurses."

More papers on Registered Nurses and Mandatory Overtime:

• Essay # 5160 : "Maryland Nurses and Mandatory Overtime"
• Term Paper # 120568 : "Mandatory Overtime for Nurses"
• Analytical Essay # 6377 : "Mandatory Overtime in Nursing"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: