Snow- at what point do you call out?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

I am a new grad, and my first day off of orientation is tomorrow... and we are set to get 2+ feet of snow in an area that only sees that much snow once every 15 or so years. While I've been in the healthcare setting for quite some time, I've never experienced a snow quite like this during my career. I understand my responsibility to work, but I also want to keep in mind my safety out on the roads (I have a 35 mile drive to the hospital). At what point do you decide that you just can't make it into work? Do you always attempt to make it in, or do you look out the window and make that decision?

Disclaimer: I am a team player, and understand that if I call out, that means our unit runs short. I'm interested in hearing when to draw the line.

Nope. Controlled substance, which requires an office visit. That was not a possibility, not at the time. She just showed up in the middle of a busy afternoon to tell us we BETTER BE THERE the next day, because she would be. We don't do early refills, due to the nature of what we prescribe.

Ah, gotcha. Just gotta LOVE the attitude. I think the only person who ever got away with "you'd BETTER do such and such" was my mother.....and that didn't fly for too long, LOL!

I don't suppose prescribing a Chill Pill would work ;)

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Not sure how to respond.

You know that if there is 2 feet already on the ground you can't drive in it so you will have to call off.

But if you know the snow isn't gonna fall till 1 pm and at 6 am the roads are clear you need to go ahead and go on into work.

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Specializes in PCCN.

I live in one of the areas that got spanked bad by this last storm- I had to drive in it- it was one of the scariest drives i have done. I literally could not see the road( it was 130 pm) and had to actually drive with my head out the window to see maybe 2 feet in fron of me. Almost turned around to go back, but then realized that the poor school bus drivers were dropping th ekids off in this crap, so if they have to do it, so should I. I was able to change my route and see better about ten minutes into my ride. My normal 45 min ride to 1.5 hours :-(. But all my coworkers were late too.And I live the farthest out.

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I balk at the idea that it's your responsibility to own a 4WD vehicle because you work for a hospital. Ridiculous.

I didn't say it's anyone's responsibility to own a 4WD vehicle because s/he works for a hospital; I said that it is one's responsibility to take reasonable precautions and make plans to ensure one can get to work in bad weather, and gave driving a 4WD vehicle as one example of reasonable precautions one might choose to take.

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I didn't say it's anyone's responsibility to own a 4WD vehicle because s/he works for a hospital; I said that it is one's responsibility to take reasonable precautions and make plans to ensure one can get to work in bad weather, and gave driving a 4WD vehicle as one example of reasonable precautions one might choose to take.

Reminds me of a conversation with someone I used to work for/with. When people would gripe about "having" to come to work in horrible weather, she'd ask "did you go to nursing school when it snowed? Did you live in NYS when you applied to work here....and did you KNOW how far your home is from this hospital? So, you have driven in snow for years, applied to work in a place where you know it snows--sometimes ALOT--and you also LIVE in the same area where it also snows--ALOT. You have known every time you drove to work that it took XX amount of time to get here in good weather. What, exactly, is your question?"

I'm also reminded of a new grad, second day of orientation, who simply didn't show up for work. I was in charge, and wondered what the h**l was going on. Her preceptor called her, and sure enough she was at home. Her answer to "where the h**l ARE you?" was "it was snowing so much, I thought we'd cancel!" ROFL.....her nursing school never cancelled classes for snow, what made her think her new employer would send her patients home so she didn't have to drive?!?

Simply put, it is every employee's responsibility to get to work.

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Specializes in Intermediate care.

i live in Wisconsin, so we become experts at driving in the snow. It isn't the snow that stop us, it is the rain/sleet that makes us occasionally late. Driving in snow is in our blood, but driving on ice can be very dangerous. So generally i do not call in for snow...i've called in for ice to say i would be late. Our work would rather have us there late than not at all.

Our hospital expects that you plan ahead of time. If you think you are not going to be able to drive in the morning they expect you call 12 hours in advance so we can make plans to replace you (more often than not we cant). Otherwise our hospital has special place/rooms for staff to sleep on occasions like this since it happens so frequently. It is an area with beds, bathrooms, showers, tooth brushes, soap...anything you will need to stay the night. They even provide extra scrubs, pajamas. If you stay to work an extra shift, they will provide you free food vouchers to eat in the cafeteria. Anything to get you to stay.

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I live in what I like to call civilized Siberia. Where I live just got hammered with 1-2 feet of snow with high winds creating snow drifts up to 4 feet in some areas. A snow emergency was called in my hospital, and some day shift people stayed back because they lived far away and couldn't guarantee they would be able to make it in the next day. As for me, I had to take a taxi home, and because my street was not plowed, taxi had to stop a few blocks away from my house. I walked back to my house in knee deep snow. I had to work the next day after the snow storm passed, and my street was still not plowed. Did the opposite this time, walked through knee deep snow to get to the nearest cleared street. I just moved to the area, and only recently bought a snow blower. Next time this happens, I can make a few tracks for my vehicle to get through the street. Actually, many of my neighbors did that.

Nevertheless, despite difficulty getting to work, I still arrived on time.

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