Advice needed! Shoulder Injury - Workmans Comp

[rnak720]

Hi, so I injured my shoulder at work last month. I sprained a couple of muscles, developed a cyst from "trauma", and developed joint effusion in two of my joints. I have been on workers comp & light duty for a couple of weeks now and I still experience pain. My ROM is limited and I'm still in pain because apparently the cyst is laying on my nerves. Luckily, I'm seeing a specialist soon.

To be honest, I'm exhausted and being in pain sucks. I have asked my manager if it was possible to reduce my hours from 36 hours to 24 hours just so I can have time to rest and make it to all these appointments (I have PT appointments twice a week and weekly visits to the injury clinic). Doing all of this while trying to meet my 36 hour requirement has been difficult especially since driving isn't as easy as it used to be after my injury.

I was told that was not possible. I've talked to HR and workmans comp and was told to skip lunch breaks (eat at my desk area instead of leaving the unit) in order to gain an extra hour and to move my PT location to one closer to the hospital and not my home (I live 30-45 minutes away depending on traffic).

It honestly just seems like working is more important than healing at this point and I feel like I have no support.

At this point, I want to quit my job and leave. But will this negatively impact me at all and has anyone been in my shoes?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

If you have a note from your doctor specifying that you can only work X hours a week, your manager cannot schedule for more than X hours a week. Of course, she may also decide that she doesn't require your services any longer. I sense that you don't have a good relationship with your managers, and that is a problem.

HR doesn't understand that bedside nurses always eat lunch on the unit -- we cannot just move around our breaks to gain an extra hour or leave the facility to go to a PT appointment. Those in HR may be able to do that, but the nature of our work is different.

Healing is more important than working. You may be able to take FMLA and use short term disability to concentrate on your healing. NOT taking the time off to heal may result in a permanent disability.

[TriciaJ, RN]

At this point I'd be trying to find a way to just be off work, period. What you're doing is exacerbating your injury and not allowing it to heal. Are you completely self-supporting? Do you qualify for FMLA? Do you have disability insurance?

I'd be talking to my doctor about what's realistic. I know many people who have found "light duty" to be a misnomer. Ruby's right; you could be looking at permanent disability if you don't do the right thing now.

[serenity04]

I was injured moving a patient and I was placed on work restrictions over 11 weeks ago. However my hospital says they cannot accommodate work restrictions so they have not put me on the schedule since the date of my injury. Because of that I received a letter saying I’m getting a separation notice from the hospital if I am not put back on the schedule by July 20. I do not qualify for FMLA because I have not worked there 12 months and did not pay into short or long-term Disability. It took three weeks after my injury for Workers Comp to Family schedule me an appointments and by that time I had already started getting help for the injury myself. Was referred to an orthopedic surgeon who said I needed rotator cuff surgery. The day after that Workers Comp finally scheduled me in with a Doctor Who said I needed more time before saying I needed surgery. Finally the Workers Comp surgeon and agreed with rotator cuff surgery and at that time now my biceps tendon has torn. That was on June 20 and he said he was sending Workers Comp the verification that I did indeed need surgery. However he still has not had a chance to dictate his note or write the order for surgery. So Workers Comp sent me a letter saying that they are not approving surgery as they did not see enough supporting evidence in my medical records. But they never received this office visit note. So not only am I losing my job, about to pay out-of-pocket for cobra insurance but Workers Comp is resisting paying for treatment. I hired a lawyer a month after the injury but that has done nothing to get this process done faster. I’m still doing all the legwork and begging for my back and shoulder injury to be treated. I’ve heard from both Workers Comp doctors that it could be related to my age but have been unable to do anything since the injury. Have been an intense pain but so far Workers Comp has not written one prescription for pain or anything. The only prescription I ever received was from my primary care physician when this first happened. So I would like to know what to do also. Should I just give up on Workers Comp and just go get the surgery done myself since it was approved through my insurance? And get the epidural injections in my spine as it was already approved through my insurance through the hospital? Or just keep trying to get work ers comp and the workers comp positions to get it together and approve my surgery. The hospital will not answer my voicemails or emails since this injury , or when I finally get someone leave specialist, workforce planning, human resources they all say it’s not their department that does it. I keep hearing that the Workers Comp department was the one that was supposed to get me working on the schedule with my sedentary limitations but I guess since I have a lawyer it furthers them not wanting to assist.. It’s like since I had this injury I have been completely blackballed By the hospital. I cannot continue to be out of work and having a limiting movement because of pain. The only thing that Workers Comp has approved as physical therapy for the back. Nothing for the shoulder as they were waiting for it to I guess get better on its own. Would love to hear insight and what to do