Light Duty

Ayvah, RN · Jul 31, 2012

Whether or not you can be on light duty depends upon if your manager can work with your doctor's restrictions. If not, you should be able to be on disability for that time. If disability pays, for example, 60% of your paycheck, you can use your vacation time to cover the remainder of that 40%.

Please make sure you have FMLA papers in place for the length of time you will be off of work.

squatmunkie_RN · Jul 31, 2012

FMLA. There is no "light duty" nursing.

loriangel14, RN · Jul 31, 2012

It would be pretty hard in HH. I work in a hospital so for light duties we do desk work e.g. chart audits etc.Do you have a union? if you do they will help.

umcRN, BSN, RN · Jul 31, 2012

I was recently out of work for two months following massive surgery. My surgeon would not let me back to work before then. I had to use FMLA, ASSLA and then vacation hours since I did not have short term disability.

A co-worker of mine recently returned to work on "light duty" after hip surgery (a 26 year old having hip surgery) and was given tasks to do for management, chart audits, organizing of our patient "fun" closet (being a pedi unit this closet is filled with toys, books, clothes, movies etc). She did this for about 2 weeks before starting back to work but prior to that she had also been out on FMLA

meanmaryjean, DNP, RN · Jul 31, 2012

Our hospital gives light duty assignments all the time. Nurses do audits, phone triage, management stuff, work for the Research department, do community events.

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Jul 31, 2012

i was a workers compensation field case manager for many years. we occasionally had nurses injured on the job, mostly orthopedic injury (back, knee, shoulder). postop or during rehab we worked actively with the employers to provide light duty work, since it is well-known that this reduces the period of disability for many reasons. chart reviews (especially welcome in advance of regulatory agency visitation), preparing inservice education offerings, acting as a unit secretary, and other non-patient-contact positions were some of our choices. light duty is not usually subject to your previous schedule, e.g., if you worked days and the ld is on nights, you work nights or forfeit it. ask.

in most states light duty work is paid at the injured person's regular rate of pay, and benefits such as vacation and seniority accrual, employer ira contributions, and employer-paid insurance benefits must continue. these are not guaranteed in all states for someone out of work on worker's comp or disability. some states allow employers to require you to use all your vacation and sick time before you can collect indemnity (wage replacement) from the employer's work comp insurance carrier. some states allow companies to have employment contracts limiting the number of weeks you can work light duty before you return to regular work or get fired. ask.

one thing i learned really, really fast when i did this kind of work was to have a short- and long-term disability policy of my own to supplement whatever statutory benefits i'd get if i couldn't work for whatever reason. not that expensive and would save my behind. as a humorous note, i had a patient once who had the habit of buying these sorts of income protection whenever he got a credit card-- you know, six bucks a month from sears, five bucks a month from jcpenney, four bucks a month for opening a new bank account ... he had about a dozen of 'em. as luck would have it, when he was out of work for a year he was very well set up, with about $1200/month in addition to his comp indemnity.

MomRN0913 · Jul 31, 2012

Thanks for all the info. The crappy part is that I haven't been here very long, so I don't have much vacation. Sick time is one day a month, so when I have the surgery, I should be covered for almost the whole week.

I kind of know the surgron, so I know he would write me out for 4-6 weeks on disability, but living on only 60% of my pay may be almost impossible. I think i purchased short-term disability.

My last hospital was great, we had an extended illness bank we were able to supplement our 40% from without touching our vacation time. I was out for 3 weeks with my tonsilectomy (also pays to know the ENT who knows you work in the ICU and doesn't want you to breathe in ICU ickiness.)

While I am new to home health, I could be very helpful to chart audits, as I have done them before. Some are high functioning patients that require little to none real physical contact.

It's just something I don't want to worry about, because I need the money. But I also need my gallbladder out ASAP:( I know myself, even though they said in the ER it needs to come out soon, I will end up waiting until I am in the ER doubled over in pain againw ith an obstruction. I just can't do that.

mlykateRN · Aug 2, 2012

Not to be ugly....but why out of work so long? I had my GB out last year, had it done on a Friday and was released to go back to full duty on Monday. The surgery was a breeze! I ended up being able to use two PTO days and returned to work the following Saturday.....

Now I worked in the ICU, lifting, pulling, etc are a requirement, no light duty there. I was just fine when I returned.

Just curious......

BrnEyedGirl, BSN, MSN, RN, APRN · Aug 2, 2012

I agree with mlykate,...I had mine out at 0630 am on Thursday, was home on my sofa by noon and back to work Monday. Unless there is a reason you need an open procedure I don't understand the long wait to go back to work. I didn't even have any sutures to remove! There is no light work at my hospital either, unless it's a work comp injury. Good luck to you!

MomRN0913 · Aug 2, 2012

That's what I was told in the er when they were going to possibly do the surgery that day. I'll see the surgeon on the 14th and see what he says. If I can go work, I'll work. Glad to hear you had easy breezy surgeries, I hope mine is too!