In Tennessee can you lose your CNA license by refusing to work a double shift?

Question

I was threatened that I would lose my license if i didn't work a double shift... is that legal?

Answer 1

Ok, I am not an authority on this, but I have worked in a LTC setting.  But not as a CNA.  The time your license would be in jeopardy would be if you walked off of your regularly scheduled shift.  This is abandonment of duty.  Whether one time would lead to revocation of license, I don't know.  It would probably depend on various circumstances.  If you were scheduled for a double-shift and while working it decided you would leave at the end of the first shift, you could at the least be in jeopardy of some type of censure. If however, the scheduling person was attempting to make a schedule for the next week or something and made this threat because you would not agree to work a double, then this threat cannot be carried out.  As for it being illegal to make the threat, I don't think it is but I'm sure there are people in the state of TN that oversee and survey LTC facilities that would frown on the practice.  

So that is what it depends on: was it already scheduled and you wanted a change during the scheduled work period and stated you would not fulfill the schedule, or was it something they were trying to plan for the future and attempting to coerce by that means.