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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be pissed of with dh's work

21 replies

Mrsstarlord · 12/09/2014 21:40

DH is a nurse, they have changed everyones shift pattern so they do 14 hour days. A full time contract is 37.5 hours, last week he was rostered to do 49 hours but came home an hour late every night as they were so busy, hadn't had a break. This week he was rostered to do 42 hours but was an hour late home each night, no break. Just had a phone call, no one bothered arranging cover for tonight so he now has to spend another 4 hours there after a 14 hour day. No overtime, no thanks just get on with it. Cant leave because of duty of care (not that he would leave vulnerable people anyway) but it boils my piss that they take advantage of their staff like this.

OP posts:
ihatethecold · 12/09/2014 21:42

Jeez Op thats fucking terrible.

Floundering · 12/09/2014 21:43

The NHS is run on the goodwill of staff like your DH, sadly, and is one of the reasons I left nursing after having DC.

I couldn't do those hours & still feel I'd done my best.

Hats off to him, they are taken advantage of by managers who are more concerned with their budgets than patient care & staff welfare.

Notacs · 12/09/2014 21:44

I sympathise, I work a bit as a care assistant and we get taken advantage of in a similar way. What smarts is it's your goodwill that gets taken advantage of.

Original poster
Mrsstarlord · 12/09/2014 21:45

He's just phoned, they have managed to cover from somewhere else so he can come home. Thanks for letting me rant - I needed that! Thanks

OP posts:
PenisesAreNotPink · 12/09/2014 21:45

Well what would happen if he HAD to leave?

He doesn't run the hospital Grin

If he actually said 'I have to leave' then I bet the person in charge would call someone else in.

MsVestibule · 12/09/2014 21:48

This certainly isn't safe (I know I wouldn't want a nurse administering medication to me at the end of a 14 hour shift) but is it even legal? Does he belong to a union? It absolutely stinks, I feel for everybody in this type of situation.

Original poster
Mrsstarlord · 12/09/2014 21:53

Thats what I say Pink, he won't do it though. And I agree Ms Vestibule, its a terrible idea but I believe that the unions have been involved in the change process.

There is a very unpleasant culture in the NHS right now (which I guess has been in the private sector for years) do as you're told or you're out. Not just at his place but at many others too.

Makes me sad when I read all the negativity about staff in the NHS, most of them do a bloody good job in spite of the barriers put in their way by the organisation.

OP posts:
originalusernamefail · 12/09/2014 21:58

Penises as a nurse he has to abide by a code of conduct which states he has a duty of care to his patients. If he were to leave them he would run the risk of loosing his registration and his job Sad

originalusernamefail · 12/09/2014 22:01

It's the same with mandatory training, we have a duty to attend but the hospital will not roster it. We end up doing it in our own time...............for free.

PenisesAreNotPink · 12/09/2014 22:14

Well, what would happen if he had to leave?

When I did my training I had to leave at a certain time and it was the ward sisters or ward managers responsibility to arrange cover.

The problem is that we are expected to cover and actually you can't always - if I hasnt left and picked the kids up SS would have been called.

The duty of care is not a catch all term to allow exploitation.

Is it really his job to always have to stay?

I ask because I'm not practising now and it was different 15 years ago?

ThinkIveBeenHacked · 12/09/2014 22:16

Its awful at the moment staffing wise, and I only had an insight as a patient this week. A midwife attending to me started her shiftat 7.30am and finished at 9pm. She was back on duty at 7.30am the following day Sad

Everyone there was doing looooong days. Silly long.

creampie · 12/09/2014 22:26

You can't always leave, even if you genuinely have to. The contracts say you can be forced to cover the first 48 hours of unforeseen gaps in the rota eg sick leave. Obviously this doesn't apply if the gap was known about in advance but just couldn't be filled.

At this point, though, you still can't leave due to duty of care Hmm

originalusernamefail · 12/09/2014 22:29

If there is no one to cover you, you can't leave. My longest shift to date was 07:15 until 23:45 as the night nurse had to take her son to A&E. Management arranged cover it just took a few hours to arrive.

PenisesAreNotPink · 12/09/2014 22:29

The thing is that it appears that they are fudging the 'knowing in advance' bit in order to avoid getting bank/agency staff in and paying extra (I've still friends working there)

It shouldn't be at the stage where you turn up to work and not know when you're going to get home - I think that chronic understaffing and refusing to pay for it is the problem.

There's definitely no way he should be unpaid for it though Confused

Madratlady · 12/09/2014 23:00

Sounds familiar. In my last job if the night nurse was off sick we were told that one of us would have to stay overnight if no cover could be found.

UncleT · 13/09/2014 06:28

It is shocking. Does he not even get paid the additional hours?

Original poster
Mrsstarlord · 13/09/2014 07:59

Had he have stayed the four hours he'd have been paid standard rate - no overtime rates anymore. He doesn't get paid for the rest, might get time owing if he can find someone to sign it off but then no one gets a chance to take it.
To be fair everyone does extra hours for work and many don't get paid but it's the consistency, the fact that it's on top of a 14 hour day and the risk to staff and patients in the interest of management flexing their muscles which concerns me.
and the fact that me and the kids barely see him at the moment

OP posts:
Knottyknitter · 13/09/2014 10:01

You can leave, in as much as there is always someone on the incoming shift who can cover in the short term (might be the bed manager, or calling in the ward manager from home) There are emergency agencies who will supply staff at a moments notice, but as they are very expensive, the Powers That Be don't like to use this option, and will happily make more junior staff think they have no choice. The ooh managers are often fairly junior in management terms and you can always tell in these situations as there can be a degree of bullying over "your registration/ your duty of care" rather than admittance that after 12 hours no one can function safely in this environment, and spending to deal with it properly.

I bet someone is leaving on time, and suspect they are putting on him as he's not yet put his foot down. I also wonder if as a bloke, he's getting the short straw as the mummies need to get home to the kids. Well so do the dads! Once in a while is an emergency, every shift is a p*ss take, and he's not expected to cover those.

x2boys · 13/09/2014 10:18

He can leave IM A nurse a d have been in situations like this and been expected to stay I have no childcare and tell them I have to leave they soon find cover but I agree its terrible its happening everywhere not enough staff and they won't employ more the NHS is crumbling!

x2boys · 13/09/2014 10:24

Of course you can leave originalusername it would be the managers fault for not making sure there was cover not the nurses fault if it was/a choice of leaving my kids on their own or patients then my kids always come first any union would back you in that!

Tiredemma · 13/09/2014 10:27

Where I work we have a system of 'on call' (not just the Dr's - but senior nurses too)- in this instance one of us would have to come in and take over the shift.

The stuff you describe is how we lose good staff.

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