Thoughts on Covering Own Shift

Nurses General Nursing

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I work on a rehabilitation unit and most nursing staff have fixed schedules. My co-worker "Beth" is very dependable and has been charge nurse for several years. Beth had been experiencing eye discomfort and eye doctor discovered benign growths on both eyes. Surgery was recommended and scheduled for the next week. Beth called our assistant director and informed of scheduled surgery. She was told that since we schedule 6 weeks in advance, she would need to find someone to cover her shifts. I have enjoyed working on my unit, but this puts a bad taste in my mouth. In a case like this, shouldn't the unit managers make an effort to find coverage? This makes me feel less valued- we cannot predict life 6 weeks in advance. Are you required to cover your own shift if situation beyond your control? Would love to hear rationale from someone working in management.

Specializes in ICU; Telephone Triage Nurse.

I'm with the general consensus on this one, not much more to add that hasn't been already said.

Management has to have done patient care at one time through - how does one forget so quickly how it feels to walk in those shoes?

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Specializes in Psych, Peds, Education, Infection Control.
I seriously believe they would have allowed me to come in with it! I couldn't get 5 feet away from a toilet and literally called the DON from my bathroom lol.

They had guilted nurses to come into work who were puking throughout the day a few times. These were full timers so their "or else" was come in or we will find a reason to fire you.

I worked in a nursing home like this. They even tried to fire me for "being dramatic" when I was so sick I was throwing up at work. Wouldn't take the doctor's note - "This doesn't even have a diagnosis on it." I was on my way out the door anyway, but dang, I'm still bitter about that. I knew I had grounds for a suit, along with a couple of other reliable nurses they got rid of about that time for various made-up charges, but then I was just so glad to be gone from there, I decided it wasn't worth my time.

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Specializes in LTC.

In my building, the scheduler has been known to deny your requested day off even if you found your own coverage. The kick in the teeth is that the scheduler will use the person you recruited to cover you to fill a hole on that shift, thereby having both of you work. Super shady IMO.

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Ridiculous. How do employers get away with this?

No unions=no common sense protections/benefits for staff. They can do whatever they want.

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I had a supervisor try this nonsense on me when my husband had to have emergency surgery the next day. I told her "I don't think so." I would check the your employee handbook, ASAP.

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Specializes in many.

I very kindly ask...why are you here, if you're never coming back to nursing?

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Specializes in many.
So many pigs in healthcare. You know, I work in a manufacturing plant now (left nursing completely because of b.s. like this garbage). I make more money with better working conditions, security, benefits, blah, blah, blahblahblah...I love and miss nursing but there's no way in holy hell I'm ever going back...

How did this crap (amongst all the other crap) of finding your own replacement *evverrrr* get started anyway?

very kindly asking "if you're never coming back to nursing, why are you here?"

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I like things about nursing, but yeah, this is one thing I think is utter ... in my previous career, if you were sick, you were sick, called in, and that was it. So when I hear this 'find your own coverage' nonsense, I couldn't believe it. Honestly at my facility there are plenty of times when they HAVE to find someone else because someone is clearly too sick to find their own coverage, but I feel like uh, isn't that part of what mgt. is THERE for?

I had a manager of an ice cream shop try this with me when I was a teenager calling out because I was literally vomiting over the toilet bowl with a stomach virus several hours before my shift.

Me: "Sorry I cannot come in this evening. I have a fever of 103F and can't stop vomiting".

Manager: "Okay. Here's w,x,y, and z'scphone numbers. See if one of them will work. If they will come in then you don't have to come in today"....

This was the first time I ever called out. My first job. I was like, "But I'll puke in your ice cream!" This was before the day of cell phones and video chat etc or I would have done some smart ass video of the thermometer and toilet contents and sent it with a resignation email along with a copy to the department of health.

Instead I was 16 and my father grab the phone from me and said, "She's sick. She's not coming in. You want her to come in when she's better or not?" Just an A-hole manager not wanting to do his job, trying to push it on the sick, off the clock hourly worker to do for him. He still wanted me in when I was better. I made no calls.

Sadly I haven't had too many jobs that haven't asked me to find my replacement, nursing or elsewhere.

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I'm still here (and staying) because I love nursing.

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It is called bull **** when there is an urgent medical need. You have a stroke and need to dial up your replacement?

benign growths vs. stroke

not sure the growths constitute an urgent medical need

do they, OP, or can Beth wait safely wait 6 weeks? If not, she should just schedule her surgery and the manager can hire a temp or otherwise cover Beth's shifts. Beth should be able to get FMLA, too, it sounds like, whether the manager likes it or not.

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I am not an ophthalmologist but even benign growths on the eye don't sound like something you want to delay for 6 weeks!

The assistant director's attitude stinks.

I'd tell your friend to get a note from the ophthalmologists that the surgery is very urgent and needs to be done next week. If the assistant director is still insisting she get her own coverage arrange for a meeting with her and have a lot of the staffs resignation letters ready to be submitted!

You must live and work in Fantasy Land! LOL

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This same thing was standard in my previous workplace (not nursing), and I hated it too. I didn't mind if I was *requesting* personal time off, but there was one time I had to call off because of a serious family emergency (child rushed to ER, very serious situation, ended up in hospital for 10 days), and they expected me to call around finding a replacement. I was livid - I wanted (and needed) to be with my kiddo - not sitting in the waiting room trying to locate a replacement; at that moment in time, I didn't give a flying **** about work.

And I hope you were with your child, not trying to find coverage.

I've always wondered how a person who doesn't have all the phone numbers is supposed to call everyone.

If my child were in the ER or otherwise seriously ill/admitted, I would not give a second thought to even trying to reach anyone else, even if the job gave me everybody's contact info.

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