Call in sick, or risk getting patients sick?

[stelarRN]

My boss reamed me for calling in sick for my shift tonight. I had the flu last week (called in 2 shifts), felt better, went back to work, and now have a respiratory thing going on, so I called in. My thought process is, why put a sick nurse on the floor if there can be a replacement who is healthy and won't be coughing, fever, congestion, etc. all over the place.

What would you do? I still think I did the right thing. Seems like a no-brainer to me, but now I feel guilty.

[Nurse ABC]

This is ridiculous! Getting in trouble for missing when you're sick! They act like everyone is little kids trying to play hooky all the time! We had one employee that had been there only a few months and had to miss like 3 weeks because she had an emergency appendectomy and they wanted to fire her. Luckily the manager talked them out of it! There are many times I get sick more than 4X/yr and heaven forbid your child gets sick too-you better not stay home to take care of them! Teachers here get 15 sick days a year and 3 personal days a year for whatever they want. This is in addition to their entire summer off. No one bats an eye if they say they're child is sick so they're staying home. Almost all the nurses I know have gotten a verbal warning for being sick 4X/yr-even if they have dr excuses for every single one. How dare we be human! Then the hospital management wonders why they have such problem with employee retention!!

[tainted1972, ASN, RN]

Personally, I cannot stand it when nurses; or any other staff for that matter, come into work sick. ( my definition of sick.. you have a fever, cold symptoms cannot be reduced with otc meds, vomiting, or anything that prevents you from doing your work) I do not want to get sick because someone else felt guilty about calling in. Stay home please :)

[Orion81RN]

I thought about going in and letting them send me home. I should have just done that.

In other fields this would be easier to do. In nursing its harder to find someone last minute so that you can leave. In a recent post, someone went to work sick, supervisor said she should leave, then the nurse ended up being accused of patient abandonment. That being said if I have a fever, I'd stay home. And you said you had slight chills? That's NOT safe to be working. I'm jaded and have the belief management doesn't give a crap if we have fever, chills and vomiting, they are going to be mad. Upper respiratory, no fever, I go to work. Its embarrassing though when patients look at you like "ughh, you're sick, I don't want you as my nurse."

[EricJRN, MSN, RN]

This is always going to be an issue that involves some judgment, interpretation, and unfortunately, some second-guessing. In most places I've worked, management gets a little irritated by having to replace a nurse who has come in to prove a point. I also know that that's a reality for people who are trying not to violate an attendance policy.

[NicuGal, MSN, RN]

Even if we get sent home we still get sick points. I love that they punish us for being legit sick with docs notes that we had the flu.

[RNJill]

This can be so tricky sometimes. Right at this moment, I have practically no voice-can literally say two words before I'm forced to whisper. Other than this, I feel okay. Part of me really wants to call off for tomorrow-haven't taken a sick day in over 2 yrs, it's obviously going to be annoying/difficult to whisper all day, and of course there is the issue of me exposing patients/coworkers to this virus that I probably have. On the other hand, I DO hate to call in sick, especially when I don't feel like death warmed over. And our unit doesn't decide to send people home in the middle of the shift, so if I'm there, I'm there.

At this point I'm leaning toward going in. Maybe the voice will be better overnight-or else, I'll just wake up with it the same (or worse!) tomorrow.

[ChiTownRN5]

Hi all!

Advice needed. Been at my job for a little over a year, and hadn't had to call off that whole year. Got the flu in November (and I do all my 12s back to back to back) so ended up having to call off 3 days. Still didn't feel that great coming back, but I hate calling off. Fast forward, I'm now home sick with pneumonia (great luck right?). I've called off twice (which apparently counts as one so long as it's consecutive), but I'm still feeling terrible. When I called off today, the nurse manager gave me the long sigh and really? tone. I've only been a nurse for 2 1/2 years total, but new at this hospital, but I don't call off like this. I'm going to play it by ear tomorrow and see how I feel, but I feel like I'm going dirty looks if I call off again. Suggestions/comments??

[martymoose, BSN, RN]

where I am they just hand you a mask and say "here- wear it"

if one calls out , they work short. We rarely get float nurses.

Did everyone forget we are expendable?

[ceccia]

i really don't get what is so enormously difficult about using PRNs when someone is sick! almost all of us want the hours and know that changing plans and coming in last-minute is part of the job description. i get woken up by "we had a call out, can you work today?" texts at 5, 6 am about once a week and i come in! problem solved! there are plenty of nurses out there; there is NO reason why every facility cannot maintain an adequate PRN pool, and/or use agency nurses. oh they might have to pay an extra few dollars an hour for a PRN; sorry i forgot these places literally worship their profit margin.

if you're calling out sick and your mgr starts giving you attitude, honestly, hang up. The call is over, you've relayed the information and said what needed to be said; there's no reason to subject yourself to even a minute of passive-aggressive huffing/sighing/"reeeeally are you kidding me?" nonsense. Just hang up.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

I am reading over this now because i'm having a sick-dilema. I am a new nurse on orientation on a labor and delivery unit. I have strep throat and feel that it is not right to work with newborn babies while i'm sick. Trying to figure out what to do!!? Guess i'll go in tomorrow and see what they want me to do!! I didnt realize it was such a problem for sick nurses- sounds terrible!

I know this is an old thread, but still. As an aside about your dilemma: Lots of people (including nurses who should know better) think "strep throat" means "really bad sore throat." Most of those are viral, not actual strep(tococcus). You can't call it strep(tococcus) unless you had the rapid-test for strep done. And if you did, you have data to support your being out. Not to say you shouldn't be out with a bad viral sore throat, but let's be accurate about this.

[anon456, BSN, RN]

We are so short handed I will go in sick if I am able to function. I ask for contact/droplet patients and wear a mask at all times during the shift and wash my hands a ton, excuse myself to go cough/sneeze in the bathroom, and sanitize my work area before I leave. Unfortunately we get a bad mark for calling off sick. :-(

[adamRn79, BSN, RN]

NA, HUC, PT call in suck and we pick up their slack, management calls in and there's no problem. We have every right to call of