Stories about the shortage of nurses and other healthcare professionals are everywhere. But in reality, there are two shortages--one caused by a declining number of new workers, the other caused by thousands of current workers who are leaving their chosen field. Surveys have shown that the exodus of registered nurses, therapists, technologists, technicians and service and maintenance workers is directly attributable to difficult working conditions, including inadequate staffing, mandatory overtime and insufficient compensation.

The use of mandatory overtimes causes significant problems for healthcare workers. Mandatory overtime has been linked to poorer general health, increased injury rates, greater levels of illness and even increased levels of mortality. Mandatory overtime has also been associated with unhealthy weight gain, increased use of alcohol and tobacco and lower levels of functional ability and job performance.

The effect on family life is harder to quantify, but may be even worse. Many healthcare workers who are forced to work mandatory overtime say that the time away from their families has cause marital and child care problems and a general decline in the emotional well-being of the family. Mandatory overtime strongly affects workers' relationships with spouses, children and friends.

AFT Healthcare has been working with its state affiliates to ban the practice of mandatory overtime. Our approach has been two-fold--through legislation and contract language.

At the state level, AFT Healthcare affiliates in Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey and Oregon have won legislative and regulatory bans on the use of mandatory overtime. The New Jersey legislation is the strongest in the nation, and covers all healthcare workers--not just nurses.

At the national level, AFT Healthcare has joined with other AFL-CIO unions to push for a federal law to eliminate mandatory overtime for nurses. The bill, H.R. 3238, sponsored in the House of Representatives by Reps. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) and Steve LaTourette (R-Ohio), and S. 1686, sponsored in the Senate by Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), would end mandatory overtime in hospitals. The bill is a first step toward ending mandatory overtime for all healthcare workers.

To learn more about this issue and what AFT Healthcare and its affiliates are doing to counter this problem, see the resources in the right-hand column.