Does your facility encourage to work while sick?

ctmed · Oct 9, 2010

This is a really sore subject to me and one of my main complaints about work culture as a CNA. I am not a big union fan or some social justice advocate, but there is almost a double standard here.

Let me get this straight... If I get HURT or SICK I must go to a doctor AND call in with plenty of notice or risk unemployment.

Easy for management all of them make a middle class salary and have insurance. Very few places offer CNAs any insurance. Not only are you losing pay for that day, you are going to be out 100 USD to 200 USD for a doctor. That doctor, unless you go to an emergency room, WILL NOT EVEN TALK to you without that cash or insurance.

This "well, if you were really sick - you would go to the doctor" stuff is so derogatory. I am not going to the doctor with just a bad flu. I cannot afford the doctor. Most CNAs can not. And, you know what? Not all illnesses that you really can not work on is life threatening or even needs a doc. Why should I spend all day waiting miserable in some office with a flu, when I can get some OTC medicine and sleep and feel better the next day?

KimberlyRN89, BSN, RN · Oct 10, 2010

This is a really sore subject to me and one of my main complaints about work culture as a CNA. I am not a big union fan or some social justice advocate, but there is almost a double standard here.
Let me get this straight... If I get HURT or SICK I must go to a doctor AND call in with plenty of notice or risk unemployment.
Easy for management all of them make a middle class salary and have insurance. Very few places offer CNAs any insurance. Not only are you losing pay for that day, you are going to be out 100 USD to 200 USD for a doctor. That doctor, unless you go to an emergency room, WILL NOT EVEN TALK to you without that cash or insurance.
This "well, if you were really sick - you would go to the doctor" stuff is so derogatory. I am not going to the doctor with just a bad flu. I cannot afford the doctor. Most CNAs can not. And, you know what? Not all illnesses that you really can not work on is life threatening or even needs a doc. Why should I spend all day waiting miserable in some office with a flu, when I can get some OTC medicine and sleep and feel better the next day?

Exactly..instead of going to work today I spent most of the day @ the emergency center. My job doesn't offer me insurance but I'm still on my parent's plan, but my co-pay was $150, and the prescription was $45..but at least I got a doctor's note that excuses me from work :uhoh3: Idk..I guess at the end of the day management doesn't care about its employees & I shouldn't expect that they will.

Poi Dog · Oct 19, 2010

One of my coworkers got written up for getting into a car accident on her way to work! She passed out and ended up in the hospital and her parents called after they found out. The facility wrote her up because she didn't call out 4 hours in advance. *****

Wt..f? What kind of place does that? Wait...the last dump I was at would have pulled something like that.

:down:

interceptinglight, CNA · Nov 15, 2010

You better be dead before you call in sick at the LTC facility where I work, otherwise you better find another employee who'll gladly take your shift. If you don't, you're required to sign a call-out form and made to feel like an infidel. I worked with bronchitis and a bad sinus infection for weeks. Since I do not yet have medical benefits and can't afford a doctor, I used a 'poor man's antibiotic' to help me heal -- 1000 mg of apple cider vinegar three times a day until the infection cleared up.

Dorali, BSN, LPN, RN · Nov 16, 2010

This just makes me sick. No insurance, pay is so low that you can't afford it if you wanted to, yet you're supposed to go to the doctor. Maybe we could have the facility doctor come in and check me out, but, wait, I've never even seen him there to take care of his own patients so that won't work either, I guess.

Screwedno matter what.

interceptinglight, CNA · Nov 16, 2010

@ Dondie: What the....? You actually have a facility doctor? Geez, what's that? There's no doctor at this facility.

Screwed is right. I only get medical benefits if I have 2 pay periods in a row in which I work at least 32 hours a week..... I have a hard time tolerating more than 30 hours a week, so I'm screwed. Trouble is...even if I did manage to gather enough hours here to qualify for medical benefits, I want to get away from this low-grade type of care so much that I'm going to take the first job I'm offered even if it doesn't pay a lot better than this, so I won't have those benefits very long. I want out !!!

WanderingSagehen · Apr 1, 2014

She lives in snow country and has no AWD transportation? That's just not taking responsibility for your life choices.

duskyjewel · Apr 1, 2014

Thanks for posting this. It reminds me of just how blessed I really am to work where I work. We are definitely discouraged from working while sick, and whenever I e-mail staffing to let them know I am sick, I get, "Thanks for letting us know. Feel better."

KimberlyRN89, BSN, RN · Apr 1, 2014

Wow, talk about a blast from the past. I wrote this thread almost 4 yrs ago about one of the facilities I worked at when I was a CNA.

Since then, I became an LPN, and then an RN. I naively thought back when I wrote this thread that only nursing homes would treat their employees poorly and expect them to come to work sick. Wrong. Hospitals expect it too! Sigh. The grass is NOT greener on the other side, lol.

Get2theChoppa · Apr 1, 2014

Not much changes in four years. I had a bout of viral gastroenteritis, vomiting, diarrhea and all, but my work still wanted me to attend to my patients.

I just got accepted into nursing school, however, and I will quit that awful place -- well before I really need to -- and my work wonders why they have such a high turnover rate, and why they have to constantly beg their current employees if they know anyone who's looking for work.