Calling in sick, staffing issues

Specialties Geriatric

Published

Hi there!

I work in staffing for an LTC facility. I am also working on pre-reqs to get into an RN program.

What is bothering me is the frequency of nurses calling in sick. Many of our nurses call in sick once a month (or even more often!).

If you are sick or have a family emergency, by all means you need a day off! If nurses call sick every month however, I am assuming that they are not actually sick. It is disheartening to me that I am trying to get into an industry that these nurses are so..burned out?...that they will just call sick.

Is it so stressful in LTC that nurses need a day off every month? Is it harder to be sick at work, especially if you are on your feet doing med pass, etc? Are these nurses working 2 jobs and would make more money at the other facility that particular day?

:) any thoughts on the subject? thank you!!

Specializes in retired LTC.
Nursing is unforgivingif you are sick and make an error, you could hurt a patient.In other jobs you want to leave early for an appointment no problem ,nursing forget it call out it is easier.[/quote']Truer words have not been spoken.

(Did I quote this right??) Y'all know what I mean as this poster said it well.

Specializes in Pedi.
Many staff call in sick at my facility because they have tried in the past to get a day off and staffing denied. After so many denials to use personal, vacation, or holiday time, people just started to call in sick. Sometimes staffing just refuses to work with nurses and support staff and this is what happens.

I found this to be VERY true when I worked inpatient. Our "requests" were usually due for the schedule about 4-6 weeks before it came out but it happened very frequently that the schedule didn't actually come out until DAYS before it started. So, if I tell the scheduler and the manager on August 1st that I need September 15th off, the schedule comes out on September 10th and they have me on September 15th, guess what? I told you six weeks ago I needed this day off so why should I inconvenience myself to look for a switch? You knew I couldn't work and you signed me up anyway, so I feel no remorse in calling out.

I left my hospital job earlier this year and something like this basically happened... our requests for the schedule beginning either the last week of March or the first week of April were due in late Feb. At the time, I was looking for a new job but hadn't received any offers yet. After the requests were due but before the schedule was out, I gave my notice. I was nice and gave them 4 weeks (which they request) even though at the time, the schedule that started 10 days from that time wasn't done. Well, they turned around and completely screwed me on that schedule and put me on a 12 hr day shift on the ONE DAY I had requested off because of a very important doctor's appointment. My manager was fully aware of my medical conditions and the fact that I needed to see an endocrinologist q 6 months. I was mad that I was put on that day but didn't want to call out because that would have meant 12 fewer hours of PTO that I'd get paid out for after my last day. I am certain that calling out was what they wanted me to do... anything to save a dollar at that place. Rescheduling this appointment would have been a nightmare. Fortunately, my MD was directly across the street from my hospital so I went in that day and said "I'm leaving at 10:30 for an hour to go to my doctor's appointment" and that was that. But they did this to people all.the.time. which led to people calling out regularly.

My mother is not a nurse but a teacher and recently told me that her superintendent is now not allowing teachers to take personal days on Mondays or Fridays because "too many young people were calling out to get 3 day weekends." She told me this and I thought that was the most backwards reasoning I had ever heard... if people are giving you advance notice and saying "I cannot work on October 15th", you have time to find a sub. If you deny them their personal day and they call you at 5am on October 15th and say "I won't be in today", you could be up the creek without a paddle.

Service professions are crazy in that they give you a ton of time off (way more than your average business professional) but they don't ever want you to actually use it or they only want you to use it at a time that's convenient for them. My former employer would also get mad if no one wanted to use their PTO on a day when census was low... you won't let me have the one day of the month off that I requested but you want me to stay home and twiddle my thumbs on a random Tuesday?

Specializes in LTC Rehab Med/Surg.

I don't resent anyone taking a day off (calling in sick) when I do the same thing. Life happens. What I resent is my employer using that absence to save money and not call in help. That upsets me. Especially when you talk to nurses the next day that announce nobody called them to pick up an extra shift.

Specializes in Geriatrics, Med/Surg, hospice.

This is exactly why I had to leave my LTC job full time after 'only' 8 months. I am now PRN there. I was initially hired as a new grad for a new program on the skilled medicare units where I was promised only 10 -12 patients tops. At first, when this was happening, I LOVED IT. I learned so much about my patients, had time to spend with them, etc. Never felt too stressed (there was always the occasionally issue) However, our company quickly diminished this program and it turned into one nurse taking TWO hallways of patients that were very acute and strangely (I thought) HUGE fall risks. I was caring for 20+ patients spread between two halls with call lights and bed alarms going off every five seconds, not to mention at least one admit everyday (plus a d'c or two) plus regular treatments. I would almost have anxiety attacks before shifts not knowing what I was going to get into that day. Some days I'd have an admit, d'c, then a fall or some other emergency. Plus I was in school. I ended up having to drop my classes for this job and now am a semester behind getting into an RN program. I never called in but I thought about it daily. This was also a facility with 8 hour shifts on a ROTATING schedule which was just the worst thing ever. I'd work 7 days with only one day off (usually work 3 off 1 work 4). I felt like I was always there. I had nightmares about work. I completely understand why nurses call in so much. Now I make sure that when they call me for PRN shifts that it is not the skilled units. I won't put myself in that much stress again. I only say ok to LTC shifts.

Additionally, this LTC facility is in a 'nice' part of town and therefore we attract residents and families with higher and more often, unrealistic expectations. I have had families chew me out for responding to an emergency with another patient when their family member needed something insignificant (fresh water does not take prescedent over a fallen patient)

Specializes in Clinical Documentation Specialist, LTC.

This is precisely why I am thrilled to pieces that the little "mom and pop" LTC home I worked at years ago, who rarely has nursing and CNA turnover, has an opening for a LPN. Someone must have retired or moved on. I am praying with everything I have in me that I get called for an interview and hired. It's not day shift but I will take it regardless if offered. It's a great place to work.

Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.

You work to get paid. You do not "deserve" to call out simply because you have accrued enough time. Sometimes we say no to a requested day off because several people working the same unit and the same shift requested the day off BEFORE you did. If that day off is granted, the rest of your co-workers will be working short. But you don't care since it's not about them or the residents....it's all about what you want.

Specializes in Med/surg, Quality & Risk.

I do enjoy when people call off and come back the next day with new hair coloring....

Specializes in Clinical Documentation Specialist, LTC.
I do enjoy when people call off and come back the next day with new hair coloring....

And/or new nails and new hair styles :sarcastic:

Specializes in LTC,Hospice/palliative care,acute care.

How fair is it to be denied use of your sick time unless you have a doctor's note? Because so many of my co-workers have a problem showing up this is now the rule for us all.I have hundreds of sick hours accrued and who the heck goes to the doctor every single time they get sinusitis or diarrhea? I see this as an administrative problem-they are not effectively disciplining the staff who repeatedly abuse the system. I haven't called off in over a year-why should I be penalized?

We also have a large pool of prn staff but have been informed that they are not there for OUR convenience and we are not to ask them to work for us so we can have a day off but rather we are to switch with a co-worker.This often makes someone work quit a stretch of days in a row and who wants to do that?

We seem to have a bunch of ridiculous arbitrary rules.Someone has decided that hooded tops are not permitted because they are un-professional but a male orderly on nightshift can walk around with a skull cap on per the adon because his head is cold.Really? How professional does that look? Whatever.The DON screams about neon scrubs,low cut shirts and low riding pants but sports clamdiggers,sandles and tats.Professional? NIMHO.

Have any of you found that most of the call-outs are from the nurses who work on the short-term rehab. units? I have worked both short-term rehab. and long term care units, and the LTC units have been by far the best units to work as far as stress and fatigue. The patients on the rehab. units are much more complex and "demanding" for lack of a better word, with tx and meds. ever changing, as well as the "revolving door" issue. Whereas the LTC units are pretty much always the same.

You nailed it! I work ft in subacute and it is nuts how busy we are:" plus we usually have the max pt load which is 20 and depending on the acuity , and charting all the time all day I always get out late. We have more issues with aids calling out then rns. Our facility staffs subacute with RN s mostly and lpns when no rns are available:( my dilemma for not wanting to go to work is more personal that patient work related. I don't see calling out to be professional unless it's necessary... Otherwise just put in for pto:) the patients do suffer and I hate running my behind off to compensate for someone who doesn't come in.

However, we did not sign up for the mental, social, and political 'extras' that cause our jobs to be so much more difficult than necessary.

Agreed. However, I still don't see this as a valid argument to call out once a month. Not to minimize the difficulty of working as a nurse in LTC, but every job has its "extras." If everyone called in sick to work once a month, no matter their profession, we'd be in some big trouble.

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