Robson Bill Bars Forced Overtime for Health Care Workers May 8, 2001. Nurses who are forced to work double shifts of 16-plus hours end up exhausted physically and emotionally, Robson said. They are in no condition to care for critically ill patients. When the nurses do have time to sleep, they wake up in a cold sweat, worrying about whether they remembered a patient s medications or forgot to do some other vital task.
Overwork is a leading cause of medical error.
Because of these difficult working conditions, nurses are burning out and walking away from the profession to which they devoted so many years. The health care system is failing nurses. The bill contains an exception for cases of unforeseeable emergency in which the facility has exhausted all other options. A health care worker is defined as an employee who is involved in the direct care of patients or residents or who works in clinical services. A shortage of nurses creates the need for forced overtime, but forced overtime contributes to a shortage of nurses, Robson said.