Mandatory Overtime for Nurses: Pushed to the Limit 22 October 2008 English Composition II- Flannigan keep even the bravest of patients away from hospital settings until the very last moment possible. Shirley Heck, 61, was left paralyzed after a visit for pneumonia at the Wesley Medical Center. When Heck began to have difficulty breathing in her room, her daughter went looking for a nurse at the nurses' station. She was angered to find that no matter how many times she yelled and pressed the 'nurse needed-emergency' button, no one responded. No one answered, because the nurses working during this time were lazy; they were simply unable to respond at the moment they were needed most. The nurses working during Heck's stay were working overtime hours and the hospital was short-handed by three nurses. In another hospital, Julie Thao, RN, mistakenly injected a sixteen-year- old patient with an intravenous epidural, resulting in the patient's death; and in Farmington, Minnesota, a nurse fresh off of a twelve-hour shift, for the third night in a row, caused an automobile accident resulting in the death of an eighteen-year-old. Unfortunately, these are not isolated incidents; while they seem unconnected, they all share a rather large trait: the nurses were working mandatory overtime hours and were all exhausted. Mandatory overtime for nurses should be banned to eliminate nurses' fatigue and to increase the quality of patient care. Minnesota accidents have received. In 2006, Chicago Tribune did a study on hospitals and patient accidents since 1995 and the results were alarming. At least 1,720 hospital patients have accidentally died and 9,584 others were injured since 1995 as a result of overwhelmed and overworked nurses (Hansen 3). Those 11,304 patients were in contact with the nurses for minor things: broken bones, postoperative surgeries, and delivery of children. Because the nurses were working overtime, they were unable to make decisions to...