Recently, the Governor of NYS signed legislation that bans mandatory overtime for NY nurses.
 The only times that nurses would have to work overtime are:
• Natural or other types of disasters that increase the need for nursing services,
• A federal, state or county declaration of emergency,
• A nurse engaged in an ongoing medical or surgical procedure,
• When necessary to provide safe patient care where no other alternative staffing is available; and
• A nurse voluntarily agrees to work overtime.  
(Source: http://www.state.ny.us/governor/press/press_0815082.html)
When it comes to mandatory overtime, I am not overly affected. With the exception of the mandatory 12 hours of on-call time per 6 week schedule block, mandatory overtime is not an issue in my workplace. I and some of my coworkers are hopeful that this legislation will do away with call-time all together, but I am realistic to understand that call time will most likely fall under the category of ‘no alternative staffing…available.’

I do wonder about the fallout though…will we now have higher patient ratios? I am lucky in my position that it’s generally only 5 patients at a time…I have seen others where the ratio goes up to 6 or more patients per nurse.

What do you think of this legislation? Do you live in a state where overtime is mandated? How does it affect you?