Does anybody else feel guilty about calling off?

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I was wondering if anybody else on here has call off guilt, my husband says I am crazy because of it. I am on light duty and had called off 2 days after sustaining a back injury moving a patient. My manager is great is accommodating with my restrictions so I am one day back to work and now I have 2 sick kids at home with what looks like strep throat, so obviously I will be taking them to the doc tomorrow. Is it ingrained in us in nursing school to feel guilty when missing work or is it just me?

Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
Ours is broken down into sick and pto. Obviously you can't use vacation time when you're sick since one is preplanned and the other is short notice. I'm impressed with the amount of time off you get!
a lot of places have combined vacation and sick time into one....actually you get less time all together....but the days of buying out excessive sick time accrued it is better to just get it up front.
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And as I've said calling off when YOU are sick is appropriate. Calling off to take care of people who are 100% able to care for themselves, well you'll have to make that decision and live with the consequences. I don't know where everyone works, but the hospitals I've worked at you only get 3 sick days a year. After that it's write ups, suspensions then termination.

Oh and in your OP you said you had to take them to the doctors (which if they'd been sick for four days prob could have been done on a non work day). Then you railed on me about leaving your kids "ill and unattended"!!! So it wasn't just taking them to the doc, especially with urgent cares open till 10 pm or later in some places. This was about you not wanting to go to work. Bottom line.

I have never called in sick. I am lucky to not get sick (so far). I have kids. If they were ill I would not hesitate to call out to take them to their pediatrician that has been their doctor since birth if their father was not able to take them. I Would not take them to a random urgent care at 9pm if their personal physician was available to see them the next day-the office has always fit me in when needed.

Maybe the OP's husband also has a job where people rely on him. Maybe they take turns and 6 months ago he took a day off to care for a sick kid and now its the OP's turn. There is absolutely nothing wrong with missing work to care for a sick child. As a parent they are your biggest responsibility after all. If one of my kids was sick I am not sure I would have them stay home alone for a 12-hour shift to fend for themselves.

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Yes, I make my job a high priority, and make many personal sacrifices for work. But if my family needs me, I call off and do not feel an ounce of guilt about it, nor do I owe anyone an explanation.

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Yes the workmans comp team automatically files FMLA for my injury ..this has been the perfect storm of a terrible week. My normal schedule is 7p-7a which allows me to be home during the day with the kids. with my injury the work they have me doing is training staff on whatever competency needs done and quality meetings from 7a to 7p. I am hoping everything gets back to normal next week so I do not have anymore issues to worry about.

Codeblue, What an awful week! I hope everyone is feeling better soon!

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The hospital where my mother used to work gave "not using sick time" incentives. If you didn't call in sick during the year, you got a bonus.

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Specializes in Community Health/School Nursing.
Well I'm sorry you only get 3 sick days we have 7 sick days per year for ourselves and 4 sick days that cover family sick in addition to personal days and vacation time as well as an extended sick bank. And for you to say I do not want to go to work is ridiculous if it was me simply not wanting to go to work I sure would have saved that call off for something more enjoyable to do. I also think to continue to leave kids home sick unattended when at this point it was obvious what was going on is not viral is irresponsible. And I am assuming you don't have children because while a 12 and 13 year old are very self sufficient I would disagree that they are 100% able to take care of themselves. They know nothing about what to take for their symptoms or how much to take....maybe I should have them fill out job applications and find an apartment since they really don't need me to take care of them anymore.

My first thought at this age is febrile seizures. I am a school nurse and when kids that age are running a fever like that then they are probably lethargic and not getting up to drink fluids. Plus, they are still children. If something was to happen while you were at work due to sickness that ended up in a 911 call....that's medical neglect right there if someone wanted to push it. Kids come first and job second in this situation. Hope they feel better.

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Specializes in med-surg, mother-baby, teaching, peds.

If you are sick you are sick and state of mind when ill is altered but not in a good way. So yes by all means stay home. If your kids are that ill, it will be hard for you to concentrate while at work which could lead to a med error, slower work, or not picking up on assessment accurately. Again,

this is what the Family Medical leave act is all about, taking leave when there are health related issues within the family unit. Besides, is it really ethical to come in sick or be a carrier from your kids illness and bring such pathogens to your clients- a rhetorical question of course; as nurses we have to take care of ourselves before we can take care of others. To not be supported in this is abuse (horizontal violence) between one nurse and another.

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Specializes in Emergency, Trauma, Critical Care.

With state jobs you can't cash out your sick time. I tend to very rarely call in, I sometimes work with small colds and just mask up. S I tend to have a lot of sick accrual. When I left my first state job, I had 10 days sick time accrued. My work actually told me, "you should use it because otherwise you lose it." So I did. In a similar situation again. :/

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Specializes in Emergency, Trauma, Critical Care.

Wow, my jobs have all had 8 to 12 days a year. I average one sick day every 3 months. So I'm usually way ahead.

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I answered her question and she didn't like it. I'm not going to change my answer to suit her needs. That's what happens when you post questions in a public forum, you don't always get the answers you want.

wow, you sound really angry.

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Specializes in SICU, trauma, neuro.
I'll probably get flamed for this but unless you're sick I don't know why you're calling off. Is your husband unable to take the kids to the doctors while you're at work? No one in healthcare should work when sick, but I think calling off when you aren't is unfair to your coworkers.

Not a flame, I promise--just a different perspective. One can't just assume that her husband is able to care for the kids. Maybe he's in an equally difficult position for call-offs...an RN himself, or a police officer, or a firefighter on a 24 hour call shift at the station?

Once I had to call in with very little notice; I was getting ready for work and my toddler woke up crying. She had been feeling fine when she went to bed, and when I picked her up she was burning up. I think her fever was over 103 if I remember correctly... My husband is the CFO of his company and that day was going to fly to another state to have meetings w/ clients. Not that what he does is more important than what I do, but my unit has dozens of RNs, plus the hospital has a float pool. He's the only one at his company who does what he does...and what he does THAT day happened to be a thousand miles away.

A sick child can't go to daycare. Daycare will think nothing of calling an RN-parent in the middle of their shift and saying "Your child has a fever. You need to come get her." And clearly, a sick two-year-old cannot stay home by herself and take care of herself the way a teenager with the same illness could.

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Quote from SionainnRN

I'll probably get flamed for this but unless you're sick I don't know why you're calling off. Is your husband unable to take the kids to the doctors while you're at work? No one in healthcare should work when sick, but I think calling off when you aren't is unfair to your coworkers.

So what is she supposed to do? Leave the kids alone to fend for themselves? Really??? Send them to school or daycare sick and infect everyone else? Love how supportive you are of other nurses. Let me guess? You don't have children? So you're an expert. riiiight. 'I might get flamed…' yeah, you might. you should.

Great example of nurses supporting one another. Not. And btw Flamer, she has EVERY RIGHT to stay home and take care of her sick children. There are laws that protect that right.

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