Tired Nursing Working Extra Hours

Working in healthcare takes a certain type of person, the sort of person where others needs come before their own. You're likely to be extremely caring, generous with your time and compassionate. Have you ever felt like it's too much pressure or felt obligated to help over and above? Union says NHS Trusts are 'over-reliant on nurses’ goodwill'.

Unsurprisingly one in three nurses do more than their contracted hours, with more than 7,000 still working more than two hours on average after they should have gone home on an average day.

The vast majority do overtime for free with NHS Trusts accused of becoming ‘over-reliant on nurses’ goodwill’.

But the report by Unison warns that by staying so late to help out colleagues, tired staff are actually putting patients at increased risk of harm either by making mistakes or by missing key signs and symptoms.

The report, published at the union’s health conference in Liverpool this week, warns: “Patient safety is clearly more at risk if they are in a ward where the staff are overworked.”

Patient campaigners said nurses working for hours after doing a full shift was putting patients in a “dangerous situation”.

Of more than 4,000 nurses quizzed by the union, 37% said they worked longer than their contracted hours on the day they were all surveyed.

Nurses working overtime 

37% Stay beyond contracted hours 

6% Proportion that stayed >2 extra hrs 

90% Proportion not paid for overtime

There are 315,000 nurses across the country, which means that when extrapolated, 118,000 work longer hours than they are supposed to.

Nine out of 10 nurses who do overtime are not paid a penny for sticking around after their shift, the report found.

Of those nurses who don’t leave at the end of their shift, alarmingly, 6% stayed more than two hours longer than they should have done on the day they were surveyed - which equates to over 7,000.

For the full story, visit http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/nhs-crisis-unisons-patient-safety-5526983