bereavement policy?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

i have a question for everyone. what is your employer's policy on bereavement time?

my grandma lives up north, about a 4 hour flight away. she has terminal lung CA and is on hospice care. my dad called me the other day and said she has taken a turn for the worse.

my boss is not helpful. when i said i might need to take time off for a funeral, she said i needed to either use my vacation time or call in sick and take it unpaid... they dont give bereavement time. i thought employers had to give you atleast one bereavement day?

i am so frustrated! :angryfire

Specializes in CT ,ICU,CCU,Tele,ED,Hospice.

in my hospital it depends on the relation .i was very close to my aunt who died in june 07 but i could only get 1 day bereavement and it had to be the funeral .though i had a good boss who let me take a vacation day for the wake .my brother in law died 11/07 and i got 1 day bereavement for funeral .now is more complicated because my mom fell 11/29 and was in hospital then st rehab was to come home thurs.11/20 so i was taking a 3 week fmla to care for her however last mon 12/24 she went to er and died 12/29 i had to call my boss and tell her its now a stress leave and i will get 3 days bereavement .

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Specializes in ER.

I am truly sorry about your grandma. As far as bereavement pay .. my grandma was brought to my ER as a full arrest on the only day i was not working, I dont remember much but i had the next three days off on my schedule anyways and when i returned to work I noticed on my next check they had put me down for 2 full days of bereavement pay as well . I had no idea and thanked my manager, I guess it is all what place you work for.

Take care in your time of need, Wishing you and your family peace

Nicole

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Specializes in Med/Surge, Private Duty Peds.

Sorry to hear about your grandmother, we get 2 paid days for bereavement.

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in my hospital it depends on the relation .i was very close to my aunt who died in june 07 but i could only get 1 day bereavement and it had to be the funeral .though i had a good boss who let me take a vacation day for the wake .my brother in law died 11/07 and i got 1 day bereavement for funeral .now is more complicated because my mom fell 11/29 and was in hospital then st rehab was to come home thurs.11/20 so i was taking a 3 week fmla to care for her however last mon 12/24 she went to er and died 12/29 i had to call my boss and tell her its now a stress leave and i will get 3 days bereavement .

i am so sorry for what you have been thru, entirely too much in such a short period of time. Please know that it will take time and seek out help if/when you need it.....

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Specializes in Emergency/Trauma/Education.
this kind of thing here is why nurses leave the profession...total disrespect. .. however, i had to bring in the funeral pamphlet and her obit. some people are just morbid.

(part of txspadequeen's post deleted by me)

i don't think this is about disrespect specific to the nursing profession. bereavement policies i'm sure vary for nurses, 7-11 clerks, and everyone else.

and the reason for having to "prove" the death? because some folks have tried to claim bereavement pay for the same family member multiple times. (i've seen it done.) it goes right along with the reason that hairdryers have a tag that say "don't use in the bathtub"...know what i mean? ;)

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So sorry you are even having to face this. I pray your grandma goes peacefully and pain free.

I have no advice to offer on the bereavement policy, other than every place I worked at it was 3 days for immediate family (sibling, parent, grandparent, child) and 2 days for other family member.

Also, when my grandfather passed away I had to fly home to take care of all the arrangements and my travel agent saved me hundreds on the flight as they do have discounts for this sort of thing. It was a long time ago, but I think the agent got me a better deal than directly with the airline- she knew the fare codes better or something.

Take care, prayers are with you and your family.

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I am sorry about your Grandma. As far as the bereavement policy, it is totally up to the employer. We only give 3 days with proof of death from the Red Cross. Even though some people may be sincere, many are not. People do lie about deaths in the family. Some employers don't give you anytime at all.

This just underscores the importance of having a good relationship with your employer. If you are very dependable and get along with your employer then they may go the extra mile for you. If you are one of those employees that are always calling out or causing some sort of problem the employer probably could care less. Another thing to consider is that many facilities are owned by corporations which will limit the actual number of hours you can be paid for.

While I can't change the number of hours someone in my facility receives, I can give them however much time I need. That said, with about half of my employees I will only give them the 3 days and nothing else. With my good, dependable employees, I will give them however much time they need.

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Specializes in Geriatric and now peds!!!!.

My facilitys policy is 3 paid days. In fact I am using one of them today. My mil passed away on Dec 23rd and her funeral is today. I have a sneaky feeling since we are short staffed on nurses, that I may get a phone call begging me to come into work this afternoon. If that is the case, the answer will be "Oh hell no" and my DON will have my resignation on her desk first thing Monday morning. When she was told of my mil passing, she asked 'You will be coming into work, right?" .... um no

Wendy

LPN

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