Ignoring for a moment the incred­ibly disre­spectful and patron­izing nature of Sen. Walsh’s remarks, it’s evident that she misun­der­stands the purpose and function of the bill. Manda­tory overtime isn’t just an abhor­rent employer practice: it’s also a terrible patient care practice.



Study after study show that unplanned overtime assign­ments have a high poten­tial to be unsafe. Working more than 10 hours in a given day, when unplanned, results in lower quality of care, higher RN burnout, decreased patient satis­fac­tion, and increased errors.

That’s why, ultimately, there is zero logic behind an amend­ment to the rest breaks bill that would cover nurses and patients in some hospi­tals, while leaving others without any protec­tions. There’s a reason it’s so hard to recruit nurses to rural facil­i­ties – exempting them from laws requiring uninter­rupted breaks and subjecting them to manda­tory overtime would just make it worse.

No, Senator, nurses are not sitting around playing cards. They are taking care of your neigh­bors, your family, your commu­nity. And they do read the research: manda­tory overtime is bad for patient care and it’s bad for your rural hospi­tals. With all due respect, Sen. Walsh: perhaps it’s time for you to put down the cards and pick up the literature.

If you’re a nurse who doesn’t play cards for a consid­er­able amount of the day, you can email your legis­lator about this issue here: https://​p2a​.co/EDv6Ikt.