Disciplined For Helping With Disaster

[Blue_Elder]

I was scheduled to work the night a tornado hit the next town taking the town totally apart. A friend of mine who is a state police officer notified me of the disaster because he knew I had been a firefighter before I became a nurse and asked me to help. I called the LTC facility I work at and the ADON said I would have to find my own coverage. I couldn't believe she didn't say ok and try to cover my shift for me or the management cover for me as there way to help. I understand every nurse should not just drop everything and fly to the disaster but my skill set is a little different than most nurses with my firefighting experience. I tried to get it covered myself but the girl I asked said she would if she could get her child picked up by another family member. I don't know why she did not call back, it could have very well been because of lines down, towers down, and electric down. When I didn't get an answer within fifteen minutes or so I left for the tornado victims. The next week they wrote me up for attendance and said I put the the residents at the facility in danger by not having adequate staff. Please...this certainly was not the first time the facility would have been short staffed as anyone who works in LTC can tell you. Tell me what you think. Should it have counted against me?

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

you made a choice.. go to work.. or go assist in a disaster.

i would think that your facility could go above and beyond their little box ..and let you go to where your skills would help people in a disastrous situation.

they did not. now you know how selfish and narrow minded they are.

i personally, applaud your decision and your guts.

it is neither selfish nor narrow minded to expect an employee who is scheduled to work to show up to work.

whether or not the facility itself was in the disaster area, surely the families of the residents and staff were. there may have been many other employees who couldn't show up to work that night because their house had been destroyed and they or their children were missing, injured or even killed. here's an able bodied employee who wasn't injured and didn't need to spend the evening searching through the debris with a flashlight to find his dog or his grandmother or his child who just up and decided not to come to work so he could "help out" with the disaster. that is selfish and narrow minded.