Essay - Overtime and Insurance for Nurses Introduction Most of Us Probably...

Overtime and Insurance for Nurses

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Most of us probably see the issues of overtime and insurance as being entirely separate from each other. But ***** nurses, there is a clear connection between the two - one that is becoming clearer all of ***** time. Nurses have throughout the p*****t decades found themselves working more and more hours, often being forced to take overtime shifts. This has resulted in a decre*****sed quality of life for the nurses themselves and often results in poorer care for patients. One of the roles ***** nurses have always provided is the kind of extended personal care that patients need and that doctors cannot economic*****y provide. ***** ***** being compromised by ever*****increasing patient loads ***** ***** nurses who themselves are increasingly stressed.

***** what has the issue of mandatory overtime to do with insurance? Quite a lot, actually. ***** are being used more and more ***** to perform work once done by doctors, even as LVNs and technicians are being pushed ***** ***** more to perform work once done by RNs. This displacement of labor down the organizational hierarchy results in savings in health ***** (since each task is performed by ***** person who can be paid the least to do it) - or at ***** savings for insurance companies and HMOs. These ***** are paid for in terms of lowered patient healthc***** and decreased job satisfaction.

However, some ***** have in the past several years begun to flex their muscle to demand that savings ***** ***** companies not interfere ***** patient care to the extent that nurses are ***** too many ***** and seeing ***** many *****.

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Nearly anyone who ***** ever been in the *****force has been faced at one time or a*****her with ***** ***** of ***** overtime ***** ***** is, being asked to w*****k more than eight hours in a day or f*****ty ***** in a week. Th***** situ*****tion is *****times perfectly acceptable to the employee. For example, an accountant might reasonably be expected to be called upon to work more than 40 hours in the weeks leading up to April 15. Assuming that she is being paid for ***** ***** *****ed, she is more than likely ***** agree ***** such a "request" on the part of her employer is a reasonable *****.

*****, sometimes required overtime ***** not so rea*****nable, as is the c*****e taken up in this paper. When workers are not compensated for overtime (either ***** paid at all or ***** only at their regular rates) or when they are ***** to w*****k such long hours that their own safety or those of others is endangered, then the ***** ***** rightly concerned about the issue.

*****e ***** ***** mandatory overtime is one ***** ***** in the past decade become of ********** concern to nurses. Th***** is due to a number of causes, including the fact that many fewer women now choose to go into nursing ***** the simple reason that *****y ***** more prestigious and better-paying options