Explaining Absence During Colleague's Vacation

[SilverBells, BSN]

In a couple of weeks, my colleague will be out on vacation (and deservedly so).  This means, however, my workload will basically double.  Instead of overseeing 28 patients, I'll be responsible for 56. 

I don't forsee this as going successfully.  In my opinion, they're probably better off with no manager at all than having me there.  Patients are going to need things I can't give and families are going to have questions I can't answer.  There are going to be things that come up that my colleague is better suited to handle that will ultimately fall on me.  

One example would be is that there is a Care Conference scheduled for a patient that my colleague would normally oversee.  This patient has a new urostomy; I am anticipating the patient and/or family may have questions regarding this.  However, this is not one of my areas of expertise and something someone else should address.  In my opinion, this patient and family are better off having no nurse attend at all than having someone like myself there. I am tempted to not show up to work that day as a result.  

In fact, I've thought about simply not coming in at all that week.  I simply won't be successful in managing so many patients and strongly believe my coworkers, patients and family members will be better off if I am not there.  This obviously means no manager, but it's better than having me there.  

The trick, then, is how do I pursue not coming in that week? How do you excuse yourself from work, knowing fully well someone else is on vacation? 

[chare]

39 minutes ago, SilverBells said:

[...]

The trick, then, is how do I pursue not coming in that week? How do you excuse yourself from work, knowing fully well someone else is on vacation? 

You don't, if the expectation is that you and the other manager cover each other when one is out.  As you said that this will occur "in a couple of weeks" you should have time for her or him to update you on issues you will need to address.

Best wishes.

[klone, MSN, RN]

Good luck, take care!

[caliotter3]

Well, since you admit you are not up to the job and are expressing a defeatist attitude in this post, you could always resign.  Not saying this to be snarky either.  Resigning is an option for these thought processes.

[SilverBells, BSN]

45 minutes ago, klone said:

Good luck, take care!

As always, thank you for the well wishes ??

[JBMmom, MSN, NP]

Life happens. I would imagine that if you're attending something like a care conference, a simple response like "I'm sitting in for _______, who is on vacation, so I can update them on anything that needs addressing when he/she returns. I'll happily pass along your question/concern/etc", would suffice. And I'm not really clear on what issues will arise that you are completely ill equipped to handle. 

From the tone of your posts, I really hope that you can come to a point where you accept that you are one person. You're human, you do your best for your patients, but there are finite hours in the day that are designated to work, and you can't know everything.

Good luck.  

[Nurse Beth, MSN]

The optics of calling in when you're covering for a colleague are not good, and neither is avoiding your job bc you're not the expert (which kind of makes it about you).

Instead, prep for this week as Chare and JBMmom suggested. Be ready for questions, and be comfortable with not knowing. It's OK.

You will grow and add some tools to your tool kit if you see this as an opportunity and not a threat.

[Jedrnurse, BSN, RN]

What I hear you saying is that instead of what you're anticipating to be poor management, you're proposing no management.

Think about that.

Also, if  you call in "sick" for the entire week of a co-worker's vacation (whose caseload you're supposed to support), well, take the more honorable road and resign.

[amoLucia]

On 8/21/2021 at 12:24 PM, SilverBells said:

  The trick, then, is how do I pursue not coming in that week? How do you excuse yourself from work, knowing fully well someone else is on vacation? 

My bolding.

YOU DON'T! You'd be weaseling trying to 'trick' them. REALLY professional, really!

Go ahead give your employers an excuse to terminate you.

Nothing new. There are professional ways to better handle the situation.

[Emergent, RN]

Read up on urostomies...

[SilverBells, BSN]

4 hours ago, Jedrnurse said:

What I hear you saying is that instead of what you're anticipating to be poor management, you're proposing no management.

Think about that.

Also, if  you call in "sick" for the entire week of a co-worker's vacation (whose caseload you're supposed to support), well, take the more honorable road and resign.

I guess a question might be:  Is it preferable to have (a) no manager around or (b) an unintelligent manager around? 

Thing is, I can be of good use if there is a second manager.   As a solo manager, I'm not such a good person to have around.  

[SilverBells, BSN]

4 hours ago, JBMmom said:

Life happens. I would imagine that if you're attending something like a care conference, a simple response like "I'm sitting in for _______, who is on vacation, so I can update them on anything that needs addressing when he/she returns. I'll happily pass along your question/concern/etc", would suffice. And I'm not really clear on what issues will arise that you are completely ill equipped to handle. 

 From the tone of your posts, I really hope that you can come to a point where you accept that you are one person. You're human, you do your best for your patients, but there are finite hours in the day that are designated to work, and you can't know everything.

Good luck.  

I would agree that, generally, the first statement can be helpful in certain circumstances.  Unfortunately, I don't foresee this as working during the week my colleague is gone, as I am certain that some patients/families will have questions or concerns that they aren't going to want to wait 5 days for answers to or resolution for.  More than likely, the social worker is going to identify that a patient needs education on a certain topic during that week, and it will likely be on a topic that I'm not well equipped to address.   For example, my fear is that the patient with the urostomy might end up discharging the week my colleague is gone and more than likely need urostomy education going home since it is new for them.   I do not feel comfortable providing this education and, in normal circumstances, would have my colleague do it.   Not showing up to work would ensure that I have no involvement with this task.   I am not sure who would address it, but this would force them to find someone better equipped to do so.   

Basically, my fear is that clinical issues will present themselves that I am not familiar with.  In such circumstances, my colleague has proven to do a much better job in resolving such instances as he is very knowledgeable.  However, I won't have him around as a resource during this week and I'm not sure I can resolve any of them on my own.