Bad Weather--Hospitals could care less about your safety

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Well, I want to say first that I fully understand that hospitals expect you to be at work no matter what the weather.

I always go. I go for other people. That's why I have a four wheel drive. However, sometimes there is bad timing. Such as major snow that falls heavily and rapidly.

I got up, took a shower, got in the car to go to work. I swept it off the night before, got gas the night before, washed my uniform and had it pressed in case the power went out.

I warmed up the car, went off my driveway...moved about 15 feet and it slid into the yard.

The vehicle would not move.

So for the first time in years...I don't call in sick but maybe once a year. Never for weather.

I have PTO right? Lots of it because I never call in.

Get this...hospital is not allowing me to use my PTO for that day.

Freaking ridiculous. So if anyone else makes an attempt and wrecks. Call the news right after the tow truck. The general public should know that hospitals don't care about the safety of their employees. So this crappie about the fact they do? They can stick it as far as I'm concerned.

A lot of folks overestimate the ability of AWD to save them from lousy driving.

Exactly. I often see AWD and 4WD vehicles equipped with substandard tires that are stuck or involuntarily off the road. A 2WD (RWD or FWD) vehicle with decent tires and some reasonable driving skills can go most anywhere within reason. The trick is to know one's own skills, improving those skills as necessary, and to plan ahead.

Specializes in ER.
Exactly. I often see AWD and 4WD vehicles equipped with substandard tires that are stuck or involuntarily off the road. A 2WD (RWD or FWD) vehicle with decent tires and some reasonable driving skills can go most anywhere within reason. The trick is to know one's own skills, improving those skills as necessary, and to plan ahead.

The secret to driving in snow is to:

1) Accelerate and decelerate gradually.

2) Put on brakes gingerly.

3) Ease into turns and accelerate only when turn is completed.

5) Studded tires or chains for front wheel drive, CHAINS for rear wheel drive!

6) LEAVE PLENTY OF TIME!

Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.
The secret to driving in snow is to:

1) Accelerate and decelerate gradually.

2) Put on brakes gingerly.

3) Ease into turns and accelerate only when turn is completed.

5) Studded tires or chains for front wheel drive, CHAINS for rear wheel drive!

6) LEAVE PLENTY OF TIME!

And don't drive with flat, under-inflated or bald tires as quite a few found out last weekend.

Don't slam breaks on frozen snow unless you are trying to skid without stopping. All things do stop eventually

Good to know about chain placement but I was told tire chains are now illegal in my state but destroying roadways and parking lots with uneven snow plow blades is not...

You can always move to Texas. We don't have snow days.

We do get nasty weather on occasion. I remember some 2-3 hour commutes to and from the hospital (30 miles one way) when the roads were completely iced over. That was scary!

Not sure what's up this winter. It's been in the 70's where I live. I must be getting old because I'm actually enjoying it. 😁

Specializes in orthopedic/trauma, Informatics, diabetes.

I live 40 miles away from work, in the South, where they don't have equipment. I did not go in the nght before b/c the roads were worse than there were in the morning and a couple of had hotel rooms night/day shift shared. I ended up not needing it. We do get a premium pay differential for working during the "weather alert" time period. Both my husband and I are considered "essential personnel" and expected to be at work. We had no power the night before (which means we could not monitor both T1 kids' CGMs) Hubby was able to get the day off b/c the airport was closed.

I worked with horses before I got into nursing. I am used to going to work no matter what. If I didn't go feed them, they did not eat or drink. It was not an option. I look at nursing the same way. Gotta go!

Specializes in NICU, PICU, educator.

We only get off without penalty if the hospital declares a snow day...all roads are a level 3 and X percentage of call offs. Otherwise we get a sweet letter in the intranet postings saying thanks for coming, the rest of you get attendance points.

Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
My issue is either the PTO is yours to use or its not. To me, having a job where management picks and chooses when to pay out PTO makes it a worthless benefit.
You will find if you look that ALL PTO is up to the discretion of the manager/facility/administration/unit needs. While you "earn it"....it is not really "yours". If the called a limited plan D or snow emergency they have every right to withhold your pay, in the absence of a written union contract. If it is such a worthless benefit....go per diem they do not accrue time.

Does it "blow"? Yes.

Can they do it? Yes.

Does that suck? Yes.

You talk about other employees doing things...how do you know how they have and have not been punished? Based on what they say? Well, people lie.

You are angry....you have made that abundantly clear, that is a given. I'm really sorry you are going through this. It is a valuable lesson.

This post makes me so upset that I actually logged on to reply--I cannot believe there are nurses who really think the hospital is against them because they expect you to show up in a storm.

We just had a blizzard that we were warned about for 5 days, the hospitals made sure nurses who had to work were offered accomadations (mine even had a cheap rate agreement with a nearby hotel) and nurses are saying they were unfairly treated for not being able to use PTO? What about the nurses who were mandated to stay because their coworkers called out? What about patient safety?

We *all* knew this going in--we don't get snow days, holidays, weekends....we arent bankers. You know, I'm absolutely a novice nurse with only 1.5 years of experience in acute care (I work on a half med surg/half stepdown floor of a city hospital), but maybe because I'm also a US Marine, I understand the importance of NOT calling out in a time of emergency. This makes me very sad to see.

Yes its its unfortunate this happened to you. But we all knew what that blizzard would be, and we all knew the risks of being nurses. I'm sure the patients don't want to be there either, without friends and family even being able to come see them. But we cannot be angry that the hospitals are choosing to penalize people who, with serious notice, still found a way to call out.

Specializes in ACHPN.

Some institutions have policies requiring employees to call of within a specified time period prior to the start of their shift in order to receive PTO. Given the circumstances of this call off, perhaps this is the reason the OP was denied PTO.

I've been a nurse for probably longer than you've been alive, unless you were born before 1970. I worked the three day weekend of the "blizzard". I was at work for three days during Hurricane Sandy. I came to work prepared to stay for the duration, but was lucky enough to be able to get home (very late) and sleep in my bed for a few hours each night before returning to work, thanks to public transportation. My big complaint was that the hospital didn't shovel and salt the entrances, so it was a very treacherous return to work in worst the storm, but at least I got to go home.

When you become a nurse, this is what you sign on for. You make contingency plans. You find a way to get to work, even if you're two hours late because you had to dig yourself out. It sounds as if you made pretty good plans in advance. Not getting paid PTO isn't a big deal., in the big scheme of things. Annoying, but not a tragedy. It is part of how hospitals avoid some of the call outs from people who don't even make the effort. It's a shame that you did at least make the effort, but did you continue to try after the initial slide into the yard. You might have been fine if you had gotten on the road, and lots of police, fire and tow folks are happy to help a nurse get to work. Three of our nurses drove across the bridge to NYC together in a travel ban with a cop following them to relieve people stuck at work. Just some thoughts. One day's pay is not going to kill you. You won't even feel it as much as you think you will because of lower taxes. Take a breath and go back to work and continue to be the best you can be.

Well, it all depends. How is PTO defined to be used at your hospital? There should be written weather policy on it because we all have and will continue to experience poor weather conditions. I don't see where others claim, you stated that not paying you PTO is impairing your safety. But I understand your point that the hospital not willing to pay you would maybe entice you to come in, although it was clearly not safe to drive. Reminds me of the Ohio nurse who worked a bunch of OT and then died driving home one morning completely exhausted. The judge or arbitrator ruled against her husband when he went after the hospital for "working her to death". If you can't honestly drive safely what's the point?

At my hospital, we have 2 days that are called Emergency Free Days (EFD). You can use for just those issues. It is not linked to our sick or vacation time, like PTO. Because guess what? Stuff happens in everyone's life, nurse or not, no matter how prepared you are. We all have experienced last minute or unexpected life issues out of our control. This last storm was unprecedented, the drifts I experienced were impressive early (6 am) in the storm - and that was in NYC! Yes, many nurses worked 24 hours and without a break because people could not get in. It wasn't fair or safe. Those areas should have been overstaffed knowing there was a big storm coming; incentives should have been offered to get people on-site early.

One thing many business people have not figured out about nurses is if you take two minutes to think and care about us, we will go beyond the extra mile for you, without a second thought. There's a difference between running a business and running a 24/7 business with good leadership.

Just wondering, did anyone from management at your hospital show up to run your institution and make sure all was well during the storm? Was your manager or director rounding on the units and checking in on patients? Was there adequate planning, extra staffing and reminding people to prepare at home, in regards to the storm? Did the hospital offer sleeping options, pickup service or alternatives for meals if local delivery services, commonly used by staff and patient's families, were not running?

Specializes in Med/surg,orthopedics,emergency room,.

Okay, get this one. My job "said" that they would come and get us. Well when I called they told me they couldn't come and get me, and that came from the DON's mouth! I can pretty much drive in any type of precipitation, but if I don't feel safe to drive, I'm not going. There are plenty of folk that live near to the facility than I do, and that should be a contingency. The fact that I didn't go doesn't make me any less dedicated than anyone else.

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