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.
Bad weather requires a different approach, if you can safely get to work then by all means go but if your safety is at risk stay home. It is those in management, responsibility to plan for inclement weather and it should and can be done without putting anyone's life or property at risk. There should be a plan in place at each organization how they will staff if no one can come in. Most storms are predicted so staffing should be verified ahead of time with possible scenarios if relief staff cannot come in.
Specializes in Med/Surg, OR, Peds, Patient Education.
I Really think you should rethink your communicable illness†thought process, nurses work every day with and around co-workers, public, patients with communicable illness.
As far as personal job choices, everyone is responsible for their own choices they make.
I am not referring to a simple cold, where the care giver could wear a mask, I was speaking of Type A Influenza, which would certainly put both patients and staff at risk for contracting this highly communicable illness. The decision made by the manager put patients in jeopardy. Would you wish your mother to be a patient on the unit where the ill nurse was present?
Apparently, the supervisor/manager had been informed and was aware of the nurse's status of testing positive for Type A Flu. In spite of this fact the manager/supervisor still insisted that the nurse report to work, but to "stay away from patients and staff." Do you really call this an intelligent response on behalf of the manager/supervisor? What was this very ill nurse supposed to do once she/he arrived at work, if she/he could not either care for patients or interact with staff? However, from the note on this site, if the nurse failed to report to duty, she/he would be be sanctioned.
At my job 10 people were fired because they could not make it to work in 30 inches of snow. I understand we need to care for our patient but 4 wheel vehicals were not even requested.
I personally know of a nurse who died in an accident trying to get to work because she was threatened with her job! There is a big difference between a couple of inches and a blizard.
I almost thought your post was one of understanding until I read the last sentence. Do you advise your patients to suck it up as well? Ha!
It never ceases to amaze me at how 'compassioNot' nightingales have become.
Interesting one... suck it up.....
Once again, children:
Responses in this forum, that have nothing to do with any actual patients we may be taking care of on any given day, have NOTHING to do with how compassionate we are with said patients.
Just because someone disagrees with you doesn't make them a terrible nurse. It just makes them a stranger in a public forum who doesn't feel the way you do about a certain topic. They also probably don't really care how special you've been told you are your whole life, so they don't feel the need to sugar-coat their replies.
But once again, the way people respond in a public forum does not have a direct relationship to the quality of their nursing care. The rules and boundaries we apply in the work world don't necessarily apply here.
And, please, stop shoving Flo in our faces. Read up on her a bit. The "Lady With a Lamp" most likely believed in TOTAL bedside care...
For some reason I would not want a nurse caring for me who told me to suck it up. I would be reporting that nurse. I don't care how good they might be at taking vital signs, etc. Patients don't deserve that kind of disrespect. That is rude and unethical and bad nursing.
Good news! I don't tell my patients to suck it up. So no reason to report me to your boss:)
And, please, stop shoving Flo in our faces. Read up on her a bit. The "Lady With a Lamp" most likely believed in TOTAL bedside care...
And she was a tough taskmaster who knew how to kick butt and take names. I remember reading years ago, in researching her for a presentation I was putting together, that, in her first position as director of nursing in a London hospital, there was 100% staff turnover in the first three months -- everyone she didn't fire, quit. I doubt she had much patience with excuses from her staff. :)
I'm sure they would, and that they would never want to have her as their nurse. :)
Maybe she would change her ways. Victorians were good at dressing up their hostility in smarmy, insincere compliments and using "good manners" to silence disagreement. All the while whispering little asides to each other about their target's mental problems and moral turpitude.
After all, isn't that why she ran her nursing services like convents - to convince the world that her nurses were "nice"?
Specializes in Med/Surg, OR, Peds, Patient Education.
Yes, I totally agree with you. I cannot believe the rudeness displayed by some of the posters. I feel sorry for them that they do not have any social skills or manners. Maybe that should be a course in nursing school curricula.
I have been retired for ten years. I noticed rudeness displayed by some who posted on the site. I found this same attitude when I was working, especially the last ten or fifteen years. It was usually directed at newly hired personnel. This was true whether they were experienced RNs, coming from another area or facility, or nurses who were recent graduates, and needed a preceptor or mentor.
The attitude was that the recently hired person had to "prove him or herself," before "being accepted." This is not professional behavior and belongs in a high school setting, not a hospital when it is essential to work together for the sake of vulnerable patients.
Perhaps this is due to the fact that nurses are treated with such disrespect by the hospital administration, and expect nurses to work in dangerously understaffed situations.
Corporations, and hospitals are corporations, that treat their employees well and with respect, usually find that the employees treat each other well and the patients or customers are the beneficiaries of the collegiality.
ActualNurse
382 Posts
Totally.