They all called out sick this morning!

Nurses General Nursing

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All three day nurses called out sick today. The first relief nurse came and then proceeded to call the nursing supervisor and complain, "This is unsafe nursing practice! None of us reliefs know these pts, and something should be done about this!" The second relief nurse just stood there with her hands on her hips not saying a word, and the third relief nurse came and said, "Well we will just have to make the best of it." Two of the six NAs called out, but they didn't complain. One of the nurses who called out said to me the other day, "I'm working 12-8 this Thursday night and I'll need you." As she's pointing her finger at me, she says, "And don't call out!" The nerve! She's never worked 12-8 before. I have half a notion to call out just to pi$$ her off, but I can't do that b/c I'm not that way. I almost did a double today if the supervisor didn't find those three relief nurses. Wait until I see those three nit-wits...

:(

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Specializes in NICU, Infection Control.

Was your Nurse Manager notified? I hope?? S/He should have been calling other regular staff members to see if one of them could come in and be off another day--even Christmas!!

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I was getting ready to start cheering.

I thought this might have been one of those organized things where administration had to jump in and start doing patient care.

You are such a tease.

I am going to talk to Santa about you

:D :D :D :D

Merry Christmas

here is hoping everyone finds more in their stocking than a lump of coal:)

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Now Wildtime, you know admin will always find another way out--never will they dirty their hands with pt care. I've had one NM in 6.5 yrs who would get out on the floor and actually do pt care.

Happy Holidays to all!! Be Safe!!

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Sometime the difference between a nurse and administration gets blurry.

Both Canoehead and CEN35 are both nurse managers and I am sure if I went up to either one of them and said "I need some help", that both of them would be right next to me getting their hands dirty.

There are many nurse managers and nursing supervisors who are in the same boat we are. They are in it under different circumstances.

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Specializes in ORTHOPAEDICS-CERTIFIED SINCE 89.

Let me ask this. Do/did/does your NM wear a uniform to work?

Ours didn't. Almost always wore street clothes and a lab coat. Of course I hardly ever saw her out on the floor either.

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Isn't it interesting how you can tell a lot about a manager by what they wear? Scrubs = willing to get hands dirty (usually), streetclothes = not too likely! :rolleyes: ;)

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Specializes in ER.

Thanks Wild, I needed the vote of confidence this morning.

We also had a call out crisis this weekend and I needed to stay 4h late and then come in again for my regular shift (avoiding using MOT) And no one I called to come in and help would do it as they all had shopping to do or other plans. But the scheduled staff got pissy about being floated, (that was not my fault) and sometimes I just have no sympathy.

In the situation discussed once all those call outs occured the sup had good luck in finding any floats, let alone three, so even though it was unsafe the most effective action is probably not to yell at the sup, but to get on the phone and ask your coworkers who called in if they really needed to, or if they were just shopping (if that is what you suspected). The sup can't do that- but regular staff can- and we need to hold coworkers accountable too for horrible staffing.

Best wishes to all those working Christmas this year. Have a holly jolly one.

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Heck the AHN lives around the corner and would never even think about giving a helping hand in times of great need and yet our previous AHN would ask, "Well, is it pt care or meds?" The supervisor??? Notify the NM??? No, they never do. It's the super's job to get it right. And to call NM and have her call up staff to see if they can WHAT? Possibly change their days off and come in for christmas??? LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's an endless battle, and I give up. I just know that when the holidays come around and I have to work, I'm always there so that other people who didn't get it off last year can enjoy it this year. So now you have the people who are off and the people who aren't off but make themselves off by being "sick", and no one comes to work! What happened to responsibility??? Musta went out the window when "managed care" came in. "OK patients, you can manage. (on your own) We have NO staff. No one wanted to take care of you over the holidays, but have a merry Christmas anyway!" That really strikes a nerve with me, and if I were in management's position, any person who calls in sick from say Dec.23 thru Jan 1st must bring in a Doc's note for verification. If no note, then a very severe penalty of some kind will be enforced. Whatever that is...It's just that when one person calls out it affects the whole system. Other people have to float, some have to do overtime and the bottomline, pt care always suffers because of it and it's not fair to them or the staff. What really gets me is that when it's all over, they come in grining from ear to ear and that's when I'd love to see administration put their big foot right up their a$$es! :eek: :eek: :eek: We have to put up with this kind of cr@p all year long, but we shouldn't put up with it during the holidays. Make the penalty severe enough, then maybe these fools will come to work.

Hey Wild, are you still going to talk to Santa about me? Tell him to leave coal to those BAD boys and girls who call out "sick" during the holidays. No wait, tell him to leave them bags of bull_ _ _ _ instead! ;) :D

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One more thing...(sorry!)

NM does the lab coat and street clothes thing, is pushing 65ish, recently had heart valve replaced with a pig {{{oink!}}} valve=There's no way in h#ll she's coming in!

:rolleyes: :p

canoehead, Yes, I got to give our super credit...:cool: He did avoid using MOT in our situation. Thank God he had the staff to float. I hope Santa is good to him just for that! No matter what, it seems that scheduled staff always gets pi$$y about floating... it's to be expected at this time of year. If the super is not allowed to question the staff who called out sick, I certainly don't feel that I have the right or the balz to call and ask if they're sick or just need to do the shopping. I can just hear the conversation...me:"Are you really sick today? We could really use..." them: "Who the "F" are you to call me and ask me if I'm really sick? It's none of your GD business!" me: "Well we really...{{{click}}} "eow,:eek: my ear! So much for that, not only are we very short staffed, I'm now very deaf in one ear!"

Well, have yourself a merry little christmas anyway...;)

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At my former hospital employer in San Diego County, the Really Big Administrators let it be known that our Nurse Program Manager was not to wear scrubs to work at all.

It was not her position to help out, was not "professional attire" in her role as Little Administrator, and did not project a united front with the rest of the Administration.

So...................screwed again!

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Specializes in NICU, Infection Control.

I can and have asked Nurse Managers to help, esp "on the spot". One of them (actually the top, the others are "associates") used to do lactation stuff--one day she was in the area I was, there was a mom who needed help--I told her to go over there and she did! Surprise! She also called Post-Partum and got them to send one of their Lactation Nurses down, so that day she was a help to me.

The Assistant NM calls to check on staffing on the weekends, and will make phone calls from home if necessary. They really manage to staff us fairly well. It's a 40 bed unit, there can be 14-21 nurses on depending on acuity, so staffing is a major task.

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