what your hospital policy on sick days?

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in primary care, pediatrics, OB/GYN, NICU.

Had to miss work yesterday because my husband and children were horribly ill and had been up all night with them N/V etc. Got a call from my manager last night saying she "expected me in today and we would be talking about it". Now I'm worried that I'm in trouble. I'm in a new position and I like it, but I've missed 4 days over the last few months (2 due to my own illness, 2 for kids). When I'm at work I work my butt off, never make any personal calls etc...I'm doing the best I can. Our hospital puts you on notice if you miss six times in a year. I'm scared to meet with my manager now. What do you all do?

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Each hospital has its own policy about how many days you can miss. If you're allowed 6 per year and you've missed 4 in a few months, that's what she's going to talk about. That's happened to me and I've seen it happen many times to others. She will probably just reiterate the policy to you and ask what's been going on. Don't be scared.

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

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Specializes in cardiac.

Don't be scared.....As the above the poster stated, she will probably go over the policy with you and tell you that you've reached your limit of call in's for awhile. I had this problem at my last job, kids sick, I was sick, pregnancy problems, etc. I just made up my mind that, even though I need this job, my family and myself come first. That's just the way I think about these situations. My ex-manager was a tyrant. But, I didn't care, my family was more important than any job. But, that's just me.

Good Luck, and I hope everything goes well for you.:monkeydance:

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Specializes in cardiac med-surg.

3 days per six months to stay under the radar

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Specializes in PICU, surgical post-op.

are you unionized? if so, definitely take your union rep with you to the meeting. one of the girls I work with is facing the same situation: she called out 3 times in the last 3 months, and is being called in from "verbal counseling." When she told the HN that it was her sick time to use as she needed, the HN said "Yeah, that's what most people want to argue. You can just bring your rep." Now, I have a real issue with a system that is so blind to the whole picture. This girl lost 3 close family members within those three months, and still only took 3 days off! She didn't go for a funeral in the Philippines because she didn't feel comfortable taking the time. This insult comes on the heels of an even greater one, though. We all got "love notes" on our lockers, stating "FYI" and containing the total number of sick hours we used last year. Our HN had the audacity to hand deliver, with a comment about how much time was used, the note to the one nurse who lost her baby fairly late in her pregnancy.

Why does management have to be so toxic about all this? If it's our sick time, and if we're using it for genuine reasons, why do they feel the need to basically run our lives for us?

(I'm done now.)

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I don't honestly know my employer's policy. I have never in my working life come close to the "limit" but...I don't have kids. Even when married I did not call off when my wife was home sick. I have missed three days (two occurrances) with my current employer (16 months service) and not one word was said to me upon return other than "glad you're feeling better and back to work." I was glad to be back too

I won't comment on your personal situation except to say that sometimes there is a fine line between family first and commitment to your job (read work ethic).

If it's a toss up, the family wins every time. As another second career nurse posted somewhere on the board the value of "family first" is foriegn to nursing in general. I agree.

I would not be the least concerned with what negativity my manager tries to attach to my absence because I know that I called off because I knew I could no way do my job.

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We get 2 "occasions" in 3 months. That is, you can call in 2 days in a row without a dr's excuse, but it only counts toward one occurance.

3 of these in 3 months get you a verbal counseling, etc.

I think they give you so many sick hours, to be used as a bank for emergencies, but are counting on you to be there as scheduled. Having people not show up for various reasons marks them as undependable and managers don't like this uncertainty with staffing!

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All I know is that we accumulate sick time each paycheck. I very rarely miss work so I don't know what they do about frequent sickdays, if they talk to you. There ARE many of my co-workers who malinger in order to get a free day off that's paid for out of their sick time.

We had a nurses aide on days who was famous for calling in to try to get low census, then calling in sick if she didn't get it. I think they put up with a lot where I work. We are union.

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Why does management have to be so toxic about all this? If it's our sick time, and if we're using it for genuine reasons, why do they feel the need to basically run our lives for us?

(I'm done now.)

Because there are so many people out there that abuse the privilege.

Where I work it is the CNA's that abuse the sick time. The ones that abuse the system appear to come from a lower class of individuals who were never taught about personal responsibility and good work ethic by their parents. The vast majority of them are young inner city unmarried mothers from two specific ethnic groups. They seem to have the attitude "it's all about me".

It's very sad really.

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Well, I live in a mostly all white area and people do it here too.

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Specializes in cardiac.
I don't honestly know my employer's policy. I have never in my working life come close to the "limit" but...I don't have kids. Even when married I did not call off when my wife was home sick. I have missed three days (two occurrances) with my current employer (16 months service) and not one word was said to me upon return other than "glad you're feeling better and back to work." I was glad to be back too [ATTACH]5440[/ATTACH]

I won't comment on your personal situation except to say that sometimes there is a fine line between family first and commitment to your job (read work ethic).

If it's a toss up, the family wins every time. As another second career nurse posted somewhere on the board the value of "family first" is foriegn to nursing in general. I agree.

I would not be the least concerned with what negativity my manager tries to attach to my absence because I know that I called off because I knew I could no way do my job.

Have to agree with this post. Also, it's the people that abuse sick days that make it hard for one's who truly need the days off. (as stated earlier)

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Because there are so many people out there that abuse the privilege.

Where I work it is the CNA's that abuse the sick time. The ones that abuse the system appear to come from a lower class of individuals who were never taught about personal responsibility and good work ethic by their parents. Every single one of them are young inner city unmarried mothers from two specific ethnic groups. They seem to have the attitude "it's all about me".

It's very sad really.

Well, where I work, the race, economic and marital status of the CNAs and nurses is not correlated to whether someone calls out or not. White nurses and CNAs call out just as much as racial minorities call out. Many nurses call out too, and I would hardly refer to nurses as a "lower class of individual." I'm a CNA, but I have only called out of work four times in nearly two years, and I had a doctor's note for each time. I have always been part of the "lower class," meaning poor, but that doesn't mean I have a bad work ethic. I also don't see how the fact that the CNAs you work with are "unmarried" is relevant to the problem of abusing call outs.

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