Occ Health Rant

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

should you go to work when you're coughing, sneezing and spewing fluorescent green snot? what about if you're doing all of the above plus have body aches, a headache and a fever? is it nursing judgement, common sense or do you need to see a doctor to tell you that you're too sick to be spreading your germs around and maybe you ought to stay home and rest, drink plenty of fluids and take the cheapest cold remedy in the drug store?

and if you work exclusively weekend nights, that means you're calling in sick for a night shift. on a weekend. calling in sick on weekends is suspect. especially on easter weekend. (of course the fact that my husband was at work ought to be highlighting the fact that i wasn't calling in sick to go to the family easter extravaganza.)

according to policy, if you miss a week of work -- which i did because i worked thursday, called out saturday and sunday and wasn't scheduled until the following friday -- you have to be cleared by occ health before you can go back to work. i found this out after 4 pm on friday -- after occ health closed for the weekend.

i can understand occ health keeping banker's hours if they work for, say, a bank. but the occupational health department responsible for clearing folks to go back to work at an institution employing more people than the town i grew up in and the three closest towns and employing them 24/7/365 maybe ought to be open a bit longer. because not getting cleared meant i couldn't go to work the entire weekend. another 36 hours of sick time that i could have saved for either my hip replacement or my mastectomy. not to mention the contortions my manager had to perform to cover those three shifts which suddenly lacked a charge nurse. seems like occupational health being open a few more hours in the evening would have saved our unit a lot of money. multiply that by a thousand + bed institution and they could save lots of money.

ok, i'm a good employee. i call occ health and ask for an appointment to return to work. they don't do appointments, it's come in and wait. wait time is about two hours. i can't go back to work until i drive into the city, which takes an hour, sit in a waiting room for two hours, and drive back home. try to explain that you work nights, and they don't get it. "so if you don't work until 7pm, you have the whole day free." well no, i have to sleep. "huh?" i have to sleep. "in the daytime? maybe you should come and see us when you feel better."

that big bruise on my forehead? it's from banging my head against the wall.

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

I have had nothing but negative experiences with hospital Occ Health departments. I had a situation a few years ago where I wasn't allowed to come back to work until I was "cleared" by Occupational Health all because my doctor wanted me on lifting restrictions (because apparently a Nurse Practitioner from the hospital's Occupational Health department is better equipped to assess my "fitness for duty" than my orthopedic physiatrist) and of course it was Labor Day weekend. I was so mad when I got called at 5am on Labor Day and told that I wasn't allowed to work (and apparently it had taken them all weekend to figure it out) and was then forced to use my PTO and lose my holiday pay.

The no appointment thing is a little ridiculous. My former hospital wouldn't give me an appointment until I had a letter faxed to them from my doctor- which I promptly did and they conveniently "didn't receive", which then required me to run around town all day to go to the other hospital's medical records department and get a copy of my consult note. The frosting on the cake of the whole situation was that when they finally did see me, the Nurse Practitioner read the note (the consult was for lumbar disc degeneration/back pain/mild LLE weakness), she noticed that the doctor had referenced my history of having had a brain tumor/brain surgery several years earlier and then said, "well are you sure something neurological isn't going on?" with a really condescending tone. I was so annoyed and just wanted to say, "I have a neurologist, you're the occupational health lady, just sign this form so I can work!"

I also agree that they should have hours that are more convenient to the night staff. You should be able to either go in right before a shift or go over right after (that, of course, wouldn't help you if you need to be cleared to work but would if you needed to go for something else). To expect you to drive an hour in, sit waiting for 2 hours, then drive an hour home to have to turn around and drive back in that night is also ridiculous.