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.
Well, I've been a nurse since 1870, and we were taught right back then. I was top of my class in mustard plasters and turpentine enemas. You youngsters are weaklings!
You can always move to Texas. We don't have snow days.
Not true. We don't have them very often, but we have them. Even worse is ice.
When I worked at a hospital, I lived very close, so I would often volunteer to work for nurses who lived really far away when we had snow. I just drove very very slowly. My normal 4 minute drive took about 10 minutes.
Yeah hon, I was born before 1970, way before 1970 so I have been a nurse longer than YOU have been alive. You are absolutely hilarious thinking you are old because you were born in 1970.
I believe she was saying she has been a nurse since 1970.
First, in all the years I have been with the hospital, do you know how many times I have missed for snow?
ZERO. In fact, I usually go in for others that are not there. So before you claim I don't prepare I absolutely do.
I guess you missed the part where my vehicle slid off the driveway into the yard.
I called a tow to get me out. They said that they were so backed up that unless it was on a road or someone was inside they would not come.
I don't work in the city I live in. The snow came in two waves...the first wave already came, the second that was supposed to hit here did not come on the day it was supposed to. I was off that day the snow came where I worked. We got snow TWO DAYS prior to my scheduled shift to the tune of about 6 inches. That's a large fall where I live.
The day before my shift do you know how much snow we received? NONE.
The day of my shift we were supposed to only get 2 additional inches. We ended up getting 10. The roads were clear enough. Even the radar that I pulled up throughout the night did now show we were getting that much.
So would you travel to a hotel two days in advance, pay for two nights at roughly $80 a night in my area, for two inches of predicted snow (the large snowfall had already hit and roads scraped). No, you would not. Two inches is no big deal.
You can drive on scraped roads if you go slow. You cannot drive in 10 inches of freshly fallen snow. I also live in a mountainous area. You can't even get up an incline when it's like that.
It takes me 45 minutes to get to work. I got up in time to allow for 90 minutes for me to get there.
My point is that some nurses do try and get there and cannot besides all efforts. I even called a tow truck that refused to come!!! I can only go by the weather report. I got gas in advance and had my car swept off to make sure it would not freeze.
Short of bringing a magic wand and pixie dust I don't know what else I could have done.
I am with you. You made the effort to go in but you got stuck in the snow. End of story. I understand that we are emergency personnel but we have to make sure that we aren't another casualty as well. No one will care but your family and friends. Nurses have to stop thinking that we are all the personnel that hospital has... we aren't. Doctors, Surgeons, RT, PT they are all staff as well. But guess what? When it comes to bad weather except for interns, physicians and nurses....most others are gone. Staffing is not a nurses responsibility. It is the hospitals responsibility to staff properly, make adequate arrangements for their staff to come in and have appropriate relief when the time comes. I live in FL, come hurricane time the hospital is on high alert and arrangements are being made across the board. We have to stop this savior mentality. As if anyone cares.
If you can't care properly for your staff how are you going to care properly for patients?
Now would I have cared if I got paid or not for that day, maybe not. Unless it's written in the contract you signed or it's on the employee website or something. She needs to get paid. End of story. Hospitals have the uncanny habit of making their own laws when it suits them without the employee knowing ahead of time. I am not talking about certain events that are unforeseen.
Here is what I will say about this posting and nothing else. Far too many nurses whine, moan, and complain about their work situation. We all need to realize that we are a "highly valuable" commodity and begin to act like it. If your facility doesn't fit your needs, go somewhere else. if you are an excellent nurse with good skills and abilities you can go almost anywhere and work. If you don't like the atmosphere in your facility leave and find one that has an atmosphere you do like. Don't threaten to leave...just leave and find work elsewhere. I am a travel nurse and can unequivocally tell you that there are hospital based nursing jobs everywhere in every state in the union. If we voted with our feet, more and more places would be far less likely to try to push us around. Many in managerial positions would be extremely hard pressed to fill our shoes if push comes to shove and know it whether they would admit it or not. We all have reasons why we can't, won't or shouldn't move or look for that elusive "other job" but the fact is we would do more for nursing and nurse by doing so then allowing facilities to play games with our heads about how "altruistic" their values are and how much patients mean to them. We let them push us into corners by believing their lies about "we care about you and our patients" when in fact CEO's CNO's, CFO's and the like make triple what we do and only care about HCAP scores because they translate into how much reimbursement the facility receives. Stop pretending we are different than them, we all work for money and while we do care about patients and helping others if the pay was not there neither would we be. If you want to help you patients in the long run stop letting yourselves be run over by management. Stand up and say NO, I will take my skills and abilities and go somewhere else. If the small little hometown hospitals knew we would not tolerate it, and we would stop taking their guff and come in anyway it would be immensely better for us all. Staffing ratios would be better, patient outcomes would be better, and nurse satisfaction would be better as well. I would far rather work for a place that was honest with me and others about why we are there... i.e. making money then all the namby pamby we are caring for others. To the original poster I do think it's incredibly unfair for you to have a check that is short when you clearly tried to make it in,but do something more then whine and look for commiseration on a message board for nurses. Go find a new job and tell them why you are leaving, let the cost of having to train a new nurse eat into their facility bottom line and maybe help change things for nurses who will follow after you there. Trust me I have worked staff positions as well as travel assignments and know the power of leaving when you let them know. It won't get your PTO at that moment but it can help stem the tide of poor nurse treatment. I'll leave you all with one thought which I was told a long long time ago...Patients die despite our very best efforts and patients live despite our very worst efforts. We can and do make a difference but life and death isn't anymore in our hands then it is the arrogant, self centered surgeons or "name your Physician here" who believes it does. Stop all the bull about sharing and caring and holding hands to sing "Kumbaya" You are a professional nurse and lets stand up and insist we be treated as such rather than being ran over and treated like children who can't be trusted to know when to come in out of the rain. Physicians garner far more respect and proper treatment because they unequivocally refuse to be treated that way and so should we.
I am sure several will jump on this and tell me I am a terrible nurse and person and do not belong in the profession but I do belong and will continue to also, but I will not coddle or pamper professionals who can't or won't stand up and be what we should be in today's healthcare world. So don't bother attacking me because I know the truth and you will only be wasting your time and fingers typing back. And I most certainly do not care to respond and engage in your tirades. For its senseless drivel like what I am most sure will spring forth from my comments that have allowed nursing to continue to be the only healthcare profession that remains bundled in the cost of the room in payment to the facility, OT, SLP, PT etc they bill for their services and can directly prove their value to a $ driven world called healthcare. We remain where we are because we have buried our head in the sand of "oh we are nurses and we care about the patient" So much so that we fail to document and give credit to what it is that we do. We have made our beds in which we lie, but I am just saying.."it doesn't have to be that way." Yet alas it does not come without a cost. I ask who is willing to join me to pay now so that the profession is improved and in the long run patients are truly cared for as they should be and can?
I realize this thread is about Bad Weather - Hospitals couldn't care less... (edited for correctness) but honestly isn't it really about nurses being treated as professionals? Never gonna happen until we pull up our big boy/girl pants and play with the adults as adults rather than whiney children... (just my 2 cents!)
My friend you said it all....we are the backbones of any facility, Hospital, office...Act like it! but nope most of us get pushed around, terrorized and even ostracized by other nurses when we try to stand up. My hospital has a union, boy it's not the greatest but it helps a whole lot!
If there is one word I would take away from nursing is Advocate....tell me the last time a physician has said that word? Do they care any less for their patients then we do? This altruistic mind set is what is killing nursing and nurses period. I correct a nurse every time someone couldn't come in and they had to stay a couple of hours....people start getting mad at the nurse as if she is responsible for staffing and miss the big freaking picture. Bottom line as this poster said, no one would be on a floor if it was for free. Just like every other professional in the hospital.
I was finishing my first of 3 shifts. Snow was coming and it was going to hit hard in some areas. I asked to stay in the hospital so I could attend work the following day as who knows what was to come. I was told it was for patients only. I drove home that night (hour commute) taking my time as it started snowing heavily at the half way mark. Total drive time 3 hours. At my house there was already 18" of snow. I went to bed. I woke up at 3 am and checked on things outside. Another 18" or more had fallen. Knowing that even if I had started shoveling the lane way (500 feet worth) I would not make it to work on time. Walking out to the road, there was no plows since I had driven home 4 hours prior. The road was covered in snow 3 inches from the bottom of the mail box. I obviously called into work stating I was not going to make it and despite the efforts to stay at the hospital last night. I was safe at home.
I kid you not. I got 3 phone calls throughout the day to come in. Had we gotten out yet that I was needed. The roads in this area were still covered until 3pm. So no I was still not going to work. They do not care for nurses safety one bit. This happened in SW Ontario. And with the lake effect snow, you never know whats going to fall and where.
Needless to say after this experience. I called my recruiter and moved someplace "warm"
For what it's worth--companies CAN and WILL make the determination as to when you can use your PTO. This is *not* hospital specific, and happens in *every* sector. PTO is not "yours to use how you wish," and if it was you wouldn't have to have vacations approved and there wouldn't be holiday black out dates.
Exactly. Every place I've worked in 30+ years in nursing, I've had to request PTO in advance and get it approved by my manager in order to be able to be off. If too many other people had already asked for those days off, too bad for me. Yes, I earned the time, but I can't use whenever I choose and I can't just choose unilaterally to not show up for work and expect to use PTO for that. How is this any different? Management has made a determination that it can't afford to spare any people during a bad storm. Management can do that.
Exactly. Every place I've worked in 30+ years in nursing, I've had to request PTO in advance and get it approved by my manager in order to be able to be off. If too many other people had already asked for those days off, too bad for me. Yes, I earned the time, but I can't use whenever I choose and I can't just choose unilaterally to not show up for work and expect to use PTO for that. How is this any different? Management has made a determination that it can't afford to spare any people during a bad storm. Management can do that.
There are even companies who require a note prior to you even being able to use designated sick time. Which really sucks if you have an illness where you really don't need a doc, but do need to miss work (stomach viruses, etc).
Specializes in SNF, Home Health & Hospice, L&D, Peds.
Not only do they not care they don't even take precaution's around the facilities employee entrances, no sand, no salt. I was just taken to the hospital via ambulance after I slipped, fell and took the entire brunt of the fall on my face/head on the pavement black ice that they knew about(I didn't and others had fallen in the same spot) and didn't even make the effort to sat/sand.
We had many tried to call out for weather, what did my hospital do? Well they sent the security staff in SUVs and picked nurses up from home and drove them to the hospital.
I worked in a small town hospital in Tennessee. They had the sheriff's department and local police pick up nurses who lived in the city and county. If you lived in another county, as I did, and couldn't get in, which I couldn't once, then so be it. That happened to me once. Also, the weather is very capricious there; it could be flurries in one area and blizzard conditions 10 miles away. So you might be the one getting stuck at work the next time.
We signed up for it by working in a hospital. This is the same policy as every hospital I have worked at. I know several employees who dont even make an attempt to come in and use the bad weather as an excuse, even when everybody knows it's coming. Plan ahead. One coworker was walking distance from the hospital and went out to dinner ...and then said she couldnt come in! Not sure how she got away with that. One hospital picked up employees on snowmobiles to get them to work and relieve the exhausted people already there.
I dont see how you can expect the hospital to pay people pto; it would be abused and many would not show up.
NurseCocoBSN, BSN
35 Posts
The poster said they've been a NURSE since 1970. Not that they were born in 1970.