During all my childhood, I was always wondering why my father wasn’t at family parties for Christmas festivities like all my cousins’ fathers. Then my mother would tell me that he was still working because “sick people do not stop being sick when there are festivities.” In fact, he was doing compulsory overtime, exhausted, and it obviously affected his family and friends’ relationships. Mandatory overtime should be legally banned for every nurse in all health care institutions of the country because it is not a sustainable solution for understaffing, it leads to nurses’ acute fatigue and to a notable decrease of patient care.
A lot of health care organizations consider mandatory overtime as a solution for understaffing of nurses. Because they …show more content…
Of course, as reported by the CFNU, extra hours of work increase nurses’ fatigue, stress, negativity, injuries, and even violence. In some non-negligible cases, overwrought nurses that work a lot of overtime become depressed. Furthermore, in agreement with the Canadian Nurses Association (CAN), some health care professionals are sometimes so tired after work that they fall asleep while driving home and put their lifes at risk. In addition, as stated by the CFNU, compulsory overtime work is likely to have major interprofessional consequences between overworking colleagues and decrease the quality of their interactions because of the their high level of stress, pressure, negativity and exhaustion. Also, interpersonal consequences are often inevitable for nurses who do compulsory overtime work. For instance, some nurses even feel guilty to stay at work for extra hours again, while they are far from their family. Also, as reported by the CFNU, nurses are often unable to take vacations to see their family and take a rest because they are constantly asked with pressure to work overtime. Consequently, according to the CFNU, nursing is considered as one of the sickest professions because of what they live through in their everyday work environment. In brief, it is obvious that mandatory overtime contributes significantly to the sickness of the profession and has to be …show more content…
In fact, nurses’ fatigue causes the degradation of their capacity to make decisions, their lack of concentration, the decrease of their judgment and the slow-down of their reactions. Moreover, a study directed by the CNA on 393 nurses during twenty-eight days had as an objective to determine if there is a link between the number of hours worked and the frequency of errors. This research showed that nurses worked on average fifty-five minutes longer than scheduled every day and more than forty hours a week. Furthermore, 199 errors and 213 near errors were reported and approximately sixty percent of them were related to medication. Following these facts, it is indubitable that nurses’ ability to provide high-quality care is compromised. In fact, benign appearance errors can turn into serious problems putting patients’ lives at risk. Indeed, it is possible that such errors could make them lose their nursing license, the right to practice their profession and, of course, their jobs. In brief, because nurses’ fatigue due to extra working hours could cause severe mistakes to the detriment of their patients, health care professionals should not be forced to do overtime
A lot of health care organizations consider mandatory overtime as a solution for understaffing of nurses. Because they …show more content…
Of course, as reported by the CFNU, extra hours of work increase nurses’ fatigue, stress, negativity, injuries, and even violence. In some non-negligible cases, overwrought nurses that work a lot of overtime become depressed. Furthermore, in agreement with the Canadian Nurses Association (CAN), some health care professionals are sometimes so tired after work that they fall asleep while driving home and put their lifes at risk. In addition, as stated by the CFNU, compulsory overtime work is likely to have major interprofessional consequences between overworking colleagues and decrease the quality of their interactions because of the their high level of stress, pressure, negativity and exhaustion. Also, interpersonal consequences are often inevitable for nurses who do compulsory overtime work. For instance, some nurses even feel guilty to stay at work for extra hours again, while they are far from their family. Also, as reported by the CFNU, nurses are often unable to take vacations to see their family and take a rest because they are constantly asked with pressure to work overtime. Consequently, according to the CFNU, nursing is considered as one of the sickest professions because of what they live through in their everyday work environment. In brief, it is obvious that mandatory overtime contributes significantly to the sickness of the profession and has to be …show more content…
In fact, nurses’ fatigue causes the degradation of their capacity to make decisions, their lack of concentration, the decrease of their judgment and the slow-down of their reactions. Moreover, a study directed by the CNA on 393 nurses during twenty-eight days had as an objective to determine if there is a link between the number of hours worked and the frequency of errors. This research showed that nurses worked on average fifty-five minutes longer than scheduled every day and more than forty hours a week. Furthermore, 199 errors and 213 near errors were reported and approximately sixty percent of them were related to medication. Following these facts, it is indubitable that nurses’ ability to provide high-quality care is compromised. In fact, benign appearance errors can turn into serious problems putting patients’ lives at risk. Indeed, it is possible that such errors could make them lose their nursing license, the right to practice their profession and, of course, their jobs. In brief, because nurses’ fatigue due to extra working hours could cause severe mistakes to the detriment of their patients, health care professionals should not be forced to do overtime