Being forced to work while sick

[phosphorus]

The place I work (oncology nonetheless) threatens people who call out. They don't care if you have documentation of being ill and the MD ordering you not come in. I get a cold a couple times a year, and won't come in if I'm febrile, coughing, etc. I was wondering if others have experience with this harassment and things people have done to fight it. Beyond it being stupid and reckless, it must be illegal in some fashion.

[General E. Speaking, RN, RN]

Right to work state here. Our "sick time" is PTO which you have to accrue. Our sick policy goes by the last time you called in too (meaning you don't get a clean slate with a new calendar year). 3 days out and you have to have a doc note.

Calling in is frowned upon but then again so is working sick. Guess the only solution is to not get sick...

[ozoneranger]

In one facility where I worked they hired a director to our unit who told us to" take tylenol & come on in."

I asked her if tylenol had some magic power I wasn't aware of? Does tylenol actually nullify the spread of infectious disease AND reduce my fever? Cause, like wow, they need to be advertising that right on the bottle!!

That woman had no sense of humor.

Neither did my physician.

I called him & we discussed the fact that even with a contagious disease, I was expected to go take care of his patients in that facility. (is there a 'not cool' emocon here, I can't find one).

He had me return to his office, and call my manager again, he listened on another phone to our continued conversation where she openly stated "our policy will not allow personnel with direct patient care responsibilities to be on duty with a fever, so take some tyleonl & come on in tonight."

My physician announced his presence on the line & told her to meet him in our VP's office post haste. Then he turned a shade of red/purple/orange I've never seen in a living organism & stormed out the door.

He threatened to write letters to congressmen & national newspapers regarding the callous disregard this facility had for its staff & patients. He also threatened to move all his patients to another competing facility, along with all his partners.

News of this situation spread through the medical community like (pardon the pun, or don;t....it's up to you) like a contagious fever. There were board of directors meetings, doctors who hated each other even held meetings worried that if this news got out they, along with the hospital could be sued for wreckless endangerment or some other big legal wording for "we couldn't care less about anybody involved here."

I wish I could tell you that it made a hill of beans difference. They did fire the humorless director as a show of faith to the doctors, but nothing changed.

Until the powers that be fear for their jobs for this sort of callous, thoughtless and completely ridiculous treatment of THE PATIENTS WE MIGHT INFECT & THE LEGAL CONSEQUENCES HENCE FORTH....

Ain't nothing gonna change.

[Yosemite, RN, ASN, EMT-I]

sweet story, ozoneranger! it renews my faith in the laws of karma. of course, the director got fired for getting caught, not for his/her actions.

my experiences have been that small facilities are much worse than larger facilities. my last job used peer pressure... if someone called in sick for the next shift and you couldn't find someone to work (like i had time to spend 45 minutes or more calling/begging staff to come in and work on short notice!), you had to stay (leaving would be abandoning your patient as there would not be a licensed staff memeber on duty). sometime it worked, some time it didn't, overall, it just created bad morale and animosity amongst licensed staff.

the real issue is that administrators will always tell you that staffing is the single largest factor in overhead/costs. heaven forbid that the facility/corporation has a paid "on-call" staff member in the wings or a "float" staff to cover such contingencies. doing so, would drastically cut into the top administrators' bonuses and bloated pay.

we were told such things as diarrhea? take immodium and come into work; good teamwork will allow extra trips to the bathroom. fever? take tylenol, wear a facemask(s) for the shift and pay extra attention to handwashing. sore throat? same as fever. open wound? dressing changes between handwashings. yet, administration in one job took 1/2 to a day off almost every week for "personal matters." heaven forbid they get off their computer and e-mail and actually do some work. skip a meeting? yeah, right.

[star77, MSN, RN]

wow yosemite! you just shattered my california idealism. i guess i'm lucky here where i work - when we're sick, we're sick, although if we call in more than once in a three month period, we are subject to management's scrutiny and will have to produce a note- if it's 3 days in a row or more, it counts as one time, but should you call in twice then try to go to work and call in the next week, you're twice in a three month period.

hmm.

other than that, they're ok with people being sick, but i have to say, i always wonder if they actually believe me.

sweet story, ozoneranger! it renews my faith in the laws of karma. of course, the director got fired for getting caught, not for his/her actions.

my experiences have been that small facilities are much worse than larger facilities. my last job used peer pressure... if someone called in sick for the next shift and you couldn't find someone to work (like i had time to spend 45 minutes or more calling/begging staff to come in and work on short notice!), you had to stay (leaving would be abandoning your patient as there would not be a licensed staff memeber on duty). sometime it worked, some time it didn't, overall, it just created bad morale and animosity amongst licensed staff.

the real issue is that administrators will always tell you that staffing is the single largest factor in overhead/costs. heaven forbid that the facility/corporation has a paid "on-call" staff member in the wings or a "float" staff to cover such contingencies. doing so, would drastically cut into the top administrators' bonuses and bloated pay.

we were told such things as diarrhea? take immodium and come into work; good teamwork will allow extra trips to the bathroom. fever? take tylenol, wear a facemask(s) for the shift and pay extra attention to handwashing. sore throat? same as fever. open wound? dressing changes between handwashings. yet, administration in one job took 1/2 to a day off almost every week for "personal matters." heaven forbid they get off their computer and e-mail and actually do some work. skip a meeting? yeah, right.

[Anne36, LPN]

I would love to know of the Nurses here who were forced to work sick, does your employer also force you to get a flu vaccine or lose your job?

Im sure those same employers would not want to expose any immunocompromised patients to an illness, correct?

[Popwhizbangz, LPN]

Where I work they let you stay home sick. Forced work while sick sounds to me not only quite totally wrong, but also like a big scandal someday, just a matter of time....

[lindarn]

Perhap an anonymous call to the local paper, or TV station? Make sure you keep any and all memos referring to the hospital sick leave policy as evidence.

Have you tried to Board of Health, or whoever licenses your facility. The State Facility and Licensing Division is the state agency who licenses medical facilities. The might be interested in the skewed policy regarding sick time.

JMHO and my NY $0.02.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN

Somwhere in the PACNW

[Chico David, BSN, RN]

It's my ongoing theme, but this is another one of those cases where the backing of a union and contract make all the difference.

Managers still may try to use guilt trips on you, but we can blunt the worst of it.