Are you going to work tommorow in the big storm?

streetbob66 · Feb 4, 2011

I live in Illinois and have worked at the same hospital for almost 16 years, this is the first time that I was scheduled to work when a storm was going to hit. I have driven in bad weather many times to get to work and made it just fine, never with 4WD, you just have to be careful. This was however much worse, Tuesday am when I got to work I had a bag packed and knew that I could get stuck at the hospital. The hospital was good enough to pay anyone $100 for staying and I was worried about getting stuck there without any coverage to relieve me so how could I go home and do to the other nurses what I was afraid was going to happen to me. They also feed us for free the entire time I was there. I was at the hospital from Tuesday 7am until Wednesday 2pm and there was enough of us that stayed that I had 12 hours off to sleep and then work 11 hours and go home. There were people calling off for the PM shift the day I drove home and it only took me 15 minutes longer to get home than it normally would. I understand when the roads are bad most if not all the major highways and the interstates were closed but on Wednesday if I can get home there is no reason for others that live in the same area that I do to call off but to take the day off. I have kids and pets and I am lucky that my fiancee was at home to take care of them as he works for CAT and they closed the building that he works in and he would not have made it to work anyway. I would have rather have been at home with my family but I think as a nurse you have a responsiblity to your patients and need to help out you co-workers. There were 6 of us that work on the psych unit that spent the night and with the few people that could make it in that lived in town we were able to cover the unit and keep the patients safe and offer support to each other. It is when times are at there worse when you learn who you can count on and who you can't, who do you think I will help out down the road the ones that stayed home the 2nd day just because they wanted the day off or those that took turns sleeping at the hospital?

**canoehead, BSN, RN** · Feb 7, 2011

We got 40" overnight. I worked through it, drove home, and came back again. My little Corolla has wicked snow tires, and I only had trouble getting out of the driveway. Darn snowplow guy had built up quite a bank, and the snow had blown under the car and packed in. Quite a bit of shovelling and cursing to get out. I kept my shovel and salt in the car for the drive back home, but didn't need it.