De-escalation

I am having to take de-escalation courses for my employer this week. There is an online component and a classroom component on how to handle patients in a crisis. The online is supposed to take 2 hours and the in-person class is another 8. Sure, I will take 10 hours of overtime. The online class consists of videos that constantly ask for interaction, so you can’t just hit play and walk away. Things like

• “Click next to continue”
• Click on each image to read more. You have to click on all of them, or the class won’t go on.
• and quiz questions on the material to test if you are listening. If you get any of them wrong, you have to start that section over.
• If the video isn’t the only window open, it stops playing.

So I am sitting here having to let the video play on a laptop while I type this on my desktop.

The way online training works is they tell you how long it should take. In this case, 2 hours. That’s all they will pay you for. I have stopped doing the training, since they aren’t paying me for it. I got talked to last week for that. It seems that they are not happy that I am not completing the required training. I told them that I only do the training that I am paid for.

Back to today: I have been watching this video for an hour and 15 minutes. I haven’t failed one of the 4 built in quizzes that I have taken so far, so I haven’t had to repeat any sections. According to the progress bar, I am only 19% complete. At this rate, it will take me 6 and a half hours to finish. Remember, they will only pay me for 2. For that reason, I am stopping at 2 hours.

I dare them to try to tell me that I need to do more.

I know that many of you are saying that I should just get a different job. The issue is that this is how every health care job that I have ever had is. They demand as much as they can get away with, which is why, in my opinion, there is a shortage of nurses. So I just set clear limits and refuse to do work unless I am paid to do it. I also make sure that I put it off so I can do as much training in a single week as I can get away with, as well as doing it on a weekend. That way as much of it as possible is at time and half and with a weekend differential. If you are going to make me do it, I am going to maximize my pay for doing it.