what your hospital policy on sick days?

Cattitude · Jan 13, 2007

to use fmla you need to fill out a boatload of paperwork and have it signed by a physician that you or an immediate family member has a serious illness which requires you to miss work. it can't be used for the occasional sore throat or stomach flu that people may typically miss work for.

exactly!! thank you for clearing that up for the previous poster. most nurses are aware of fmla. :idea:

Lacie, BSN, RN · Jan 13, 2007

I lost a job with the so called "occasion policy". My sons were both ill and in the hospital to include Ped's ICU on and off over a period of 3 months. One son had Kawasaki's disease and the other severe asthmatic being r/o for cystic fibrosis. I did my best to come to work but would have to miss maybe a day due to special procedures or they were having complications. So each time became a "new" occasion. I even worked, went to the kids rooms after shift, slept and showered in my sons rooms then would return to work when I could. My 3rd abscence was a verbal, my 4th written, my 5th was termination. All had reasonable cause to be with my children due to the severity of illness and also I was a single parent with no family in the entire state to help. In fact my children were hospitalized in the very hospital I worked at on one of those occasions. FMLA wasnt even a thought in 1990 so I lost my job. It didnt matter my kids were severely ill and in ICU only they needed the bodies to work the ICU. Go figure. I totally disagree with these type policies and think it should be looked at on a case by case basis. Genuine rational for needing time off shouldnt be a punishable offense. Yes my kids come first and always will over my job any day, any time, any where. You can bet those directors took thier time off when needed!

meownsmile, BSN, RN · Jan 13, 2007

At my facility they dont give us any sick days. Calling off gets you no pay, you can of course take vacation time to cover it but who wants to do that. You get no credit toward next years vacation for those hours either. And last i heard i think its like 1% of your scheduled hours you miss and you are given a verbal.

I agree with a previous poster that mentioned ,how a place that cares for sick people, and expect their staff to be caring, compassionate nurses be so uncaring with those same people.

mamason · Jan 13, 2007

I lost a job with the so called "occasion policy". My sons were both ill and in the hospital to include Ped's ICU on and off over a period of 3 months. One son had Kawasaki's disease and the other severe asthmatic being r/o for cystic fibrosis. I did my best to come to work but would have to miss maybe a day due to special procedures or they were having complications. So each time became a "new" occasion. I even worked, went to the kids rooms after shift, slept and showered in my sons rooms then would return to work when I could. My 3rd abscence was a verbal, my 4th written, my 5th was termination. All had reasonable cause to be with my children due to the severity of illness and also I was a single parent with no family in the entire state to help. In fact my children were hospitalized in the very hospital I worked at on one of those occasions. FMLA wasnt even a thought in 1990 so I lost my job. It didnt matter my kids were severely ill and in ICU only they needed the bodies to work the ICU. Go figure. I totally disagree with these type policies and think it should be looked at on a case by case basis. Genuine rational for needing time off shouldnt be a punishable offense. Yes my kids come first and always will over my job any day, any time, any where. You can bet those directors took thier time off when needed!

Oh...I agree...how management twists the rules around for their own convenience. God forbid, should a poor old staff nurse need to take off for their family's illness. What a joke! I'm sorry that situation happened to you.

lannisz · Jan 13, 2007

Our hospital is union, but we do have a rule about "6 occurances in one year." I'm not sure tho' if they start the clock every January or from when you start working for them. There are those who truly need to take a sick day and it would be harmful to patients if they came and exposed everyone to their GI/URI or whatever type illness. Even someone with a migraine is in no shape to drive to work, let alone use sharp equipment on patients! We are given ETO but penalized for using it? What really bothers me is that there are those who call in at the last minute because they "didn't sleep well last night" or "their pipes burst so they can't take a shower" or their "sister unexpectedly dropped in." Sick is sick. I get really irritated at male employees who boast "I've never taken a sick day cause my family was sick." Yeah, because your WIFE takes a day to take care of the kids and so she's got no ETO, OR she's home deathly ill and has to somehow take care of little ones because you don't want to ruin your perfect attendance record! Don't get me started. (P.S. I am referring to my EX- husband)

hhrhrn41, RN · Jan 13, 2007

Just got called into the office the other day about this. Had four call-offs in 6 month period (very unusual for me BTW) and I had to sign a paper staing this and that I would have no further call-offs in the next 90 days. I understand rules and policy but it just seems like there are a certain few who make a habit of this and ruin it for those of us who really are sick or who have children who are sick.

I asked NM what would happen if I did call off within the next 90 days (which is very possible considering my daughter is a newly diagnosed Type I diabetic) and she said that she would prob. go lightly on me since "Your're not one who abuses the system". Ok...then why make me sign a verbal warning in the first place then??!! :angryfire

Mind you this NM who tries to enforce this rule is the same person who somehow seems to think rules don't apply to her!!! For example, she took off almost an entire week b/c her grandson (who she is raising) had the flu. At least once or twice a week she leaves early for a "migraine" or an "asthma attack" or b/c grandson has MD appt.

Just b/c you're a NM doesn't make u immune to following rules or policy!!!:angryfire

HappyNurse2005, RN · Jan 13, 2007

We rack them up as "occurences". i think 2 days in a row out for same reason is 1 occurance, then each day after that for same reason is 1/2 occurance. I THINK you can get 6 in a year, maybe 7. You do get paid for these, if you have enough PTO banked up. we earn pto every pay period and its used for sick time/vacation/all time off.

of course, ifyou have a chronic illness and have FMLA for this illness, those fmla abscenses do not count as occurances.

if someone dies, you get 3 days bereavement leave and this doesn't count as occurance.

i knew of someone who got fired for going over her occurance limit for one year.... 7 just doesn't seem like that many!

Plagueis · Jan 16, 2007

First off I made a correction in my original post as one of the abusers is married with children and seems to get sick a lot on weekends. She is the rare abuser that when at work she is an outstanding CNA.
I should have been more clear in my post. I am not forming any opinion but mearly making an observation that can be proven true.
If you re-read my post you will notice I did not mention socioeconomic status. I do not know these sick time abusers well enough to make that connection.
One definition of class is; "a division or rating based on grade or quality." By "lower class of indivudual" I meant a lower quality individual. Those that abuse the sick time are the same ones that do as little as possible and try to "just get by", and have no respect for authority.
Nowhere in my post did I infer cause and effect. I don't know whether or not being unmarried plays a role. I suspect in and of itself it is not a determinant. I made a simple observation.

I'm late in posting this, but I understand that in your observation that certain people call out ("It's the CNAs that abuse the sick time"), and I assumed that you were stereotyping CNAs as call out abusers, which is not the case in my personal experience. I took offense as a CNA who rarely calls out (and on behalf of many of my coworker CNAs who don't constantly call out) so I'm sorry that I made an assumption, and I'm glad for the clarification.

Back to the main topic, the sick policy where I work states that doctor's notes are required for call outs on weekend days, and for holidays. However, doctor's notes can be required if the DON feels that sick days are being patterned with days off, or if someone calls out more than 15 days a year. (This is the limit to our paid sick days.)

newbiern2006 · Jan 16, 2007

Keep in mind it's incidents per year, not days per year. If you are out for two weeks straight, that's one incident.

Not in my hospital - it's five days per year, period. I used up all of mine this past fall - I have asthma and allergies and get bronchitis easily in warm, wet weather, and if it happens to be Fall, with all its moldy leaves, it's even worse. My manage could not care less, and all she does is insist I do "better" - which means she wants me to come in sick, which I absolutely refuse to do. I can't be a good nurse if I can't think straight, and I sure as heck can't spread my germs to all those already-very sick patients, not to mention my coworkers. Last week, one of our long-time nurses came to work so sick she could barely talk, and ignored a patient who complained loudly of stomach pain all night long. She gave him Maalox, but that was it. When she did try to get the night intern to come, the intern refused, and she was just too sick and exhausted to fight about it. The nsg supervisor did nothing to back up this poor nurse (not an unusual occurrence - only one of our supervisors ever backs us up). It turned out the patient hadn't had a bowel movement in days, and on the day shift was finally able to get up to the commode and move his bowels, after which he was just fine. This nurse didn't call in sick because she'd called in sick two weeks before, and knew what our manager is like. Needless to say, this is just one more reason I'm not staying with this hospital. The VA in West Haven just 15 minutes away not only has better tuition reimbursement and health insurance, they have 13 sick days a year, a fabulous computerized documentation system, and they pay better.