Calling in sick....feeling worst after the call!

[TeresaB930]

I woke up this morning feeling awful....GI stuff. I was scheduled to work at 2:30 So, I took my shower and got dressed for work, you know....just trudging on. Had a miserable episode where I became diaphoretic and white as a sheet.

So, I called work, told my DNS I wasn't going to make it in. Her response "Absolutely not, one nurse has already called in today!"

Now, I have worked for this facility for 2 1/2 years, and I can count on ONE HAND the number of times I've called in sick.

I understand she has a facility to run, and its so difficult to get nurses to come in, its just frustrating that when you really are sick, to be treated so poorly.

Make me feel better (emotionally anyway!) share your calling in sick stories.

[imenid37]

All of the stress many of these places create makes illness more likely. Some people do call out sick for Mental health days d/t abusive environments. It is DON's job to find substitute for a sick nurse or do it herself. Maybe if the place loosens the purse strings someone could be given a bonus to come in on their day off.

[kittymom]

Gee -- now that's a heck of a way to promote retention of good staff!

As nurses, we're all ingrained with taking care of everyone else except ourselves. Sometimes you just have to be sick; human bodies do that! Don't beat yourself up over calling in. You know that you're sick, and if you call in that rarely then your coworkers know you're sick, too.

Now, go to bed and get some rest. Sounds like you need it!

[WickedRedRN, BSN, RN]

When I was pregnant, I went through all the paperwork I needed to plan for maternity leave. I was told when I was ready to be off, I had to call in the first 5 days, then my leave would kick in. Anyway, I go into labor, we go to hospital, in the craziness of everything, I realize I need to let work know. I asked hubby to call in and let my manager know where we were. I am in midcontraction and I hear him talking to the scheduler who says he cannot take the call from my husband, he had to speak to me! Hubby says "I dont think you want to do that", tells me scheduler needs to hear from me and holds phone up to my head...I was yelling "I am in LAAAAAABBBOOOORRRR" at the phone, along with some other choice words. Now the whole thing is funny, but at the time I was SO PO'd. After I had the baby, I called my mgr to complain and was apologized to furiously. Mgr even made the scheduler call me and leave a message apologizing!

Don't feel a bit bad at calling off. When you are sick, you are sick. I hope you feel much better soon!

[P_RN, ADN, RN]

If you are contagious or too sick to hold your head up you need to call in. That's it. If you are sick, you are sick. I am always amazed that health-care facilities don't seem to recognise that people get sick.

On the other hand when I am in charge and am the one who has already called the whole world and not found a replacement for the person who called in just before you did......sometimes I just want to scream.....I don't but, I really want to !

[flashpoint]

We are lucky enough to be just slightly overstaffed. So...if someone calls in and can't find a replacement, we just mandate someone to stay late, mandate someone to come in early, and are usually in good shape. No one likes being mandated, but everyone appreciates it when they don't end up short for the entire shift...and we pay time and a half for the hours you are mandated. It works well!

We also have department heads and managers who are willing to pitch in on the floor. We can work all of the overtime we want on the floor...but we don't dare work overtime in the office, so its a nice way to pick up some extra $$$ and the staff on the floor respect us more than the managers who don't work the floor.

[Scrubby]

I don't feel guilty when I call in sick because if I can't do my job properly then i'm no help to anyone. We get 15 paid sick days a year for full timers.

At my workplace though we have a HUGE problem with lots of ppl calling in sick everyday. It's related to stress and because management (as per usual) has done nothing about it, we have so many ppl not wanting to come into work and even quitting. I had a couple of days off this year where the day before i was stressed out so much that i just didn't want to come in and face another day of it. Do I feel guilty? No, I'm not the one who should feel guilty about it.

[psalm, RN]

Here's my horror story. I woke up with a migraine, get one once or twice a year. So I took some pain med and went back to bed. Woke up a few hours later and worse, so called in work to say I wasn't coming in at 7p (it was about 3:30pm). Get a call a few minutes later from a super saying if I don't come in, it's my job on the line. I told her I could barely hold my head up and she just kept saying my job's on the line. So I said if I go to the Urgent Care and they deem me too sick to come in, would that save my job, and she said yes.

So husband drives me in to Urgent Care, I can barely walk, every movement makes my head throb with stabbing pain. Doc checks me out and makes me feel like I just want a doctor's excuse to be off work, I am so in pain I don't care what he thinks. He gives me a prescription for vicodin, which I have never taken before in my life. It is now about 5:30, and I ask if they have a fax machine, maybe I can fax my dr. excuse to work and save a trip in, as we still have to get my prescrilption. I call work and NM says NO! You bring it in RIGHT NOW! So my husband drives me to work and walks me in, I feel like an old woman, but the pain is unbelievable. My co-workers are staring at me with sympathy.

So I show her my dr. excuse and she's on the phone with the DON and is saying to DON, well, she CLAIMS she's in too much pain to work. So I take the phone in another room and tell the DON I am sorry I am sick but I can't take care of 28 pts., give meds and tx, bend over, I can barely walk. I've never taken vicodin before and don't know how it will affect me, and wouldn't I be impaired with it? So I go home. I am so miserable, the vicodin doesn't help much, just enuff to help me sleep thru it, but my pain is still at an 8/10 when awake.

So my headache subsides in a few days and I go to talk to the DON about my treatment from the NM that day. I want an apology from HER, not from the DON. Never got one, by the way.

I look at it this way: would I want my doctor or nurse to be assessing me and treating me if he/she had the illness I had?

[EmmaG, RN]

:angryfire

Anything I say in response to that last post would no doubt get me banned. I hope you're no longer working for that witch.

[Medic2RN, BSN, RN, EMT-P]

I completely agree with you EG. The same goes for me.

[2bNurseNik]

This thread scares me as I am an aspiring nurse. Aren't nurses allowed to get sick? It's different for those of us with desk jobs who can sit back, take motrin, and drink tea. It's another thing when you are up on your feet running around trying to start iv's and such. That's just wrong.

[Nicky30, BSN, RN]

A couple of months ago I had a particularly nasty case of food poisoning.... as in did not know whether to grab the bowl, rush for the toilet or both. It was supremely awful.

I saved the call in sick to work dilemma by getting admitted to hospital and having my colleagues look after me.

Couldn't wait to be discharged (shouldn't have been when I begged to go home). Why would I want to spend my sick days at hospital too?

Nicky.

[joyflnoyz, LPN]

we just mandate someone to stay late, mandate someone to come in early, and are usually in good shape.

Question: when you are "mandated", are you TOLD you have to work late, or is it phrased more politely? I don't understand how you can be forced to work beyond your shift...