Was I wrong or would you be mad too??

[jaxnRN]

I was so upset the other night, I really needed all of your professional opinions!!!

I am changing my place of employment next week and hopefully will not have to deal with the following problem (as much) there!

I had been sick for about a week. Head cold, fever, cough, etc. but was on antibiotics and was getting better, just really drained and exhausted easily. I work in OB but the department was "closed" that night when I came on duty. There are two OB nurses assigned per shift to the department.

I went on the Med/Surg floor to "float" for the night (7p-7a). Well, a labor patient came in and I get her on the monitor etc..., she was not in labor. Well, the other OB nurse came into the department and told me to take a patient assignment on the Med/Surg floor so that she would be in OB. I would not have had a problem with that except within the past hour I felt REALLY REALLY bad. Dizzy, ear pain, temp 37.4 after taking Ibuprofen and literally unable to think.

Well, my patient load consisted of 10 patients!!! There were only two other Med-Surg nurses scheduled on the floor (40 bed unit!). I told the supervisor that I could not take that much responsibility in my condition and didn't feel that I could give good patient care with 10 patients and only 1/2 of me. I actually came into work because I hate leaving the staff short an RN, but I could legitimately called in sick.

She told me she didn't know what to tell me but there was no one else that she could call in. I was so upset because first of all, this is my license on the line if a mistake is made due to any nursing error. Also, since they knew it was one of my last nights, the OB nurse was really rude to me and so was the supervisor. She ended up telling me to go home and they would manage!!!

I am supposed to work again tomorrow and still feel like crap. It is my LAST night to work there, thank God!!! I know that nurses float, I NEVER have a problem with that. I ALWAYS went in extra to work when the hospital called due to census being high. I am not lazy but not crazy either!!!

That hospital relied on OB nurses to actually take a patient load...which leaves the patients and the other nurses in a bad situation. Does anyone else have this problem all the time????? And did I over-react?

[GraceyB]

I think that most times we are too loyal to our jobs but management just doesn't give a damn about us. Hope you feel better soon and good luck on your new job.

[psychonurse]

Never Never Never go in to work when you are sick....that is bad plus they always find someone to cover you. Its not safe for your patients and you could also make your co-workers sick which would make them really upset also... I realize you aren't going to be there much longer but you really should have called in. I think that like others have suggested when you are feeling better to talk to your supervisior and let her know what happened.

I use to float all the time from ICU to the med/surg floor but they never gave me patients cause you never knew when I would be pulled away for an admit to the unit from the floor or ER....so I just helped out where I could.

[bigred]

I agree with the others that said if you are sick stay home.

[New CCU RN]

There are a few issues here.

1) You are right that an OB nurse should not be taking care of a full M/S assignment. It's a good thing you are leaving.

2) You should not have been at work that night. If you are sick stay home!!! There is no arguement there. You know better. If you are sick......... stay in bed!

[ShandyLynnRN, BSN, RN]

Originally posted by OBNURSEHEATHER

Whether or not you should have been the one to go back to OB isn't really the point here. You really shouldn't have been at work at all if you were sick.

I totally agree. I was just pointing out that in addition to her feeling crappy (yes, she shouldn't have been there) it seems she was being dumped on as well.

JaxRN, I really hope you have a better start at your new job than the way this job is ending for you.:kiss

[tattooednursie, LVN]

I think you had every right to be mad.

I know what it is like coming to work sick. There was the stomach flu going around last November. Nearly every resident and every staff member had it. I tried to call in when I got it because I was non-stop puking for 2 days. I mean it was just running out of my mouth. They told me, "I don't think we are going to find anyone to replace you."

I came to work. I was too weak to do ANYTHING. I had to ask for help with every single person. I spent more time throwing up than I did working! I think I should have just said "Oh well, I can't come in."

I learned an important lesson then. Now when I feel ill, I call in. I do get that feeling of guilt, but I would feel even more guilty if I gave a patient something that kills them. Last time I called in, I did so because of pnemonia, and BOY I'm glad I did.

I hope you start feeling better.

[LaurieCRNP2002, MSN, RN, APRN]

JaxRN

I agree that you have to take care of yourself first and foremost. Management does not care if you are sick. I agree with the person above who said martyrdom only generates more expectations of martyrdom.

One more suggestion: Maybe you can send the management at your old hospital a copy of the JAMA study from last fall published by researchers at Penn that demonstrated the link between better staffing and lower mortality. It won't help you since you're leaving but maybe it will help those that are still there

Laurie

Not so newly minted MSN

[jaxnRN]

Thanks for all the fresh angles on this. Tonite is my last nite at the old job and I start on Monday at the new one. OB nurses at my NEW job are expected to float to other departments when OB is closed but NEVER EVER take on a patient assignment.

I don't know what the management is thinking. If one of the Med-Surg nurses had been ill, and OB was "booming", that would have left ONE nurse on Med-Surg. Small Midwestern Hospital but that shouldn't make an ounce of difference. They have NO ONE to replace the 3 OB night nurses on staff, and still, they say, they do not need to hire anyone more. I can't wait for tonite to be over.

I have been an RN for 11 years and am not afraid of hard work. I went to work that night hoping that once I got there my second wind might kick in, but it didn't. I don't feel that I was infectious to anyone, be it patient or co-worker.

I was not too sick to float. But I was not with it enough to take 10 patients on , ones that I was not familiar with especially in the Med-Surg department. That would be hard on a GOOD night!!!

[OBNURSEHEATHER]

Not too sick to float? This sounds like you weren't well enough to be anywhere other than in bed.

Originally posted by jaxnRN

I would not have had a problem with that except within the past hour I felt REALLY REALLY bad. Dizzy, ear pain, temp 37.4 after taking Ibuprofen and literally unable to think.

[cindylouwho]

we have a new nursing director who's philosophy is this..."a nurse is a nurse is a nurse is a nurse....no longer true"....she doesn't think it's safe for a NICU nurse to float to Neuro.....finally someone with half a brain.....

[OrthoNutter]

I have a HUGE problem with people turning up to work sick. If you're sick, STAY HOME! Last night, I got floated to theatre and called for a pt from OB (emergency caesar) to be greeted with the response that she (the nurse) had just come back from two days off and had 12 pts to look after so there was no way she could get the patient there until at least midnight (it was 11pm when I called).

Hey, no skin off my nose, it's not my baby's health that could be compromised....so I volunteered to come and collect the patient before I changed into my scrubs for the night if that would make things easier and let's face it, better for mum and bub. THEN, the bird yells at me for insinuating that she was incompetent and couldn't manage her workload and how dare I think that as a lowly ortho/sometimes theatre nurse, I could possibly escort an expecting mother the whole 10 metres down the corridor to theatre....then she told me to hold my %$&*$ horses and slammed the phone down in my ear.

I was absolutely gobsmacked...I understand that things can go wrong and that OB is a specialist area but I was just offering to help out and I don't think I deserved that kind of ranting. I told the doc there would be a delay, so she rang the ward, telling them to get the pt here NOW, threatening to do a caesar on the ward under GA if she had to. Surprisingly enough, the nurse showed up with the pt within 5-10mins.

She asked if I was the person who called for the pt and when I said yes, she started apologising profusely, saying that she was sick and therefore had a short fuse and how she felt she could not possibly cope feeling the way she was. When I suggested calling the manager and saying she had to go home due to illness, she said she couldn't do that because she'd been called in and she would be letting everyone down.

This kind of situation is my pet peeve. If you can't control your tempers and feel like absolute crap, do yourselves and your colleagues a favour and stay home. I know I do when I'm sick and I bounce back far earlier than my colleagues who choose to work through it and are then bogged down with the flu for weeks on end. You HAVE to look after yourselves first. :kiss

[Hellllllo Nurse, BSN, RN]

Originally posted by GraceyB

I think that most times we are too loyal to our jobs but management just doesn't give a damn about us. Hope you feel better soon and good luck on your new job.

True true true!

When you are a sick nurse, doesn't make any difference if you call in or go to work. Damned if you do and damned if you don't, in my experience.