Law Bans Nurses\' Overtime
New Jersey is the second state to enact the statute.
Trenton, NJ.- After a five-year battle, New Jersey has a state law barring hospitals and nursing homes from forcing health care employees to work overtime except in emergencies.
Who does the law affect? The law covers all New Jersey hourly workers who provide patient care or clinical services, including nurses, nurses' aides, pharmacists, therapists, technicians who do tests and similar workers, but not doctors, who work at hospitals, nursing homes and in home health care.
Nurses and union officials said the law, only the second in the nation, should improve patient safety and prevent mistakes that people who have been on the job for up to 16 hours can commit.
"It's really hard when you're doing a 10-hour (day) shift to be told when you come in you may have to stay until 7:30 the next morning," said Noreen Malloy, a registered nurse at Bayonne Medical Center for 33 years.
With the law that went into effect Tuesday, New Jersey joins only Washington state in banning mandatory overtime at health facilities. West Virginia lawmakers passed a ban that awaits the governor's signature. At least six other states have debated such legislation, said Mary MacDonald, director of the AFT Healthcare union.
The New Jersey Hospital Association concedes hospitals will have a tough time obeying the law because of patient loads and demands on hospitals change daily and they don't have enough staff.
"Our hospitals are gearing up to deal with it," association spokesman Ron Czajkowski said. "Everybody will try their best, but it will be a test."
Unions, the New Jersey State Nurses Association and consumer groups started lobbying for the law in 1999.
Health facilities pushed for provisions to give them flexibility and limit which workers the law would cover. Hospitals got flexibility in what "emergency" means - when they can make workers stay on duty after they exhaust efforts to find volunteers or call in per-diem nurses.
"Now it allows a hospital dealing with major trauma - a casino bus accident or a snowstorm - to declare an emergency," instead of requiring a state or federal declaration, Czaijkowski said. "That's acceptable to us."
If workers made to work overtime complain to the state Department of Labor, the state can fine a facility $1,000 for each day it breaks the rules. The whistleblowers cannot be fired or disciplined.
Nurses said the improved working conditions should draw personnel who had quit in frustration back to the bedsides, helping to reduce staff shortages.
The average vanancy rate for nurses at New Jersey hospitals has fallen from 14 percent three years ago to 9 percent, according to the hospital association. That's due to hospitals' increased efforts to recruit and retain nurses.
Article in, The Oklahoman, Sunday, Feb. 22nd, 2004
By Linda A. Johnson, Associated Press Writer
Trenton, NJ.- After a five-year battle, New Jersey has a state law barring hospitals and nursing homes from forcing health care employees to work overtime except in emergencies.
Who does the law affect? The law covers all New Jersey hourly workers who provide patient care or clinical services, including nurses, nurses' aides, pharmacists, therapists, technicians who do tests and similar workers, but not doctors, who work at hospitals, nursing homes and in home health care.
Nurses and union officials said the law, only the second in the nation, should improve patient safety and prevent mistakes that people who have been on the job for up to 16 hours can commit.
"It's really hard when you're doing a 10-hour (day) shift to be told when you come in you may have to stay until 7:30 the next morning," said Noreen Malloy, a registered nurse at Bayonne Medical Center for 33 years.
With the law that went into effect Tuesday, New Jersey joins only Washington state in banning mandatory overtime at health facilities. West Virginia lawmakers passed a ban that awaits the governor's signature. At least six other states have debated such legislation, said Mary MacDonald, director of the AFT Healthcare union.
The New Jersey Hospital Association concedes hospitals will have a tough time obeying the law because of patient loads and demands on hospitals change daily and they don't have enough staff.
"Our hospitals are gearing up to deal with it," association spokesman Ron Czajkowski said. "Everybody will try their best, but it will be a test."
Unions, the New Jersey State Nurses Association and consumer groups started lobbying for the law in 1999.
Health facilities pushed for provisions to give them flexibility and limit which workers the law would cover. Hospitals got flexibility in what "emergency" means - when they can make workers stay on duty after they exhaust efforts to find volunteers or call in per-diem nurses.
"Now it allows a hospital dealing with major trauma - a casino bus accident or a snowstorm - to declare an emergency," instead of requiring a state or federal declaration, Czaijkowski said. "That's acceptable to us."
If workers made to work overtime complain to the state Department of Labor, the state can fine a facility $1,000 for each day it breaks the rules. The whistleblowers cannot be fired or disciplined.
Nurses said the improved working conditions should draw personnel who had quit in frustration back to the bedsides, helping to reduce staff shortages.
The average vanancy rate for nurses at New Jersey hospitals has fallen from 14 percent three years ago to 9 percent, according to the hospital association. That's due to hospitals' increased efforts to recruit and retain nurses.
Article in, The Oklahoman, Sunday, Feb. 22nd, 2004
By Linda A. Johnson, Associated Press Writer