I am a new grad who started working this past December at a correctional facility for part time nights. I haven't had time scheduled this week but they called me last night to ask if I can work tomorrow for day short, but we have a snow blizzard warning and expected to get 8-16 inches of snow here....I asked my parents and they said that I can't bc of the snow and all...I had to decline...
I feel really guilty...I wasn't scheduled for day shift or anything but...my question is...I know nurses don't have "snow days" so was it wrong of me to decline? I did ask for more time but it sucks that they offered it during such a time when it is dangerous for me to drive out there...I know if you're scheduled though basically you have to go in. Was it unprofessional of me to say no? Are all the nurses going to talk badly of me now? ...
Your safety is also important. Also, if you're not on schedule to work today, then you're not. If they call you and you want to pick up that extra shift or help out, that's fine. If not, that should be fine too.
yep, obviously I didn't think about it. Probably because where I live, we don't get snow, and I'm trying to find a job in the part of the country that's getting a blizzard right now; so this is just another aspect of it I hadn't thought about.
While you should never have to feel guilty for what you can't help, I think we do have a duty to do what we can. I drive a Ford Escape with all-wheel-drive, in part because I like it, but I did think as I was buying it that I'm a nurse, now, and need something that can get me to work in bad weather. Where I live, we typically get maybe one bad storm a year. This year, we've had a few. I have good snow tires all around, too, and haven't felt in any particular danger commuting to work.
As another poster observed, we're in a similar position to cops and firefighters. I wouldn't risk banging up my nice little car so my employer can make a buck, but I'll undertake a reasonable risk so my patients can be cared for. But, again, I can't help them if I'm being Life-flighted to the ED. Sometimes the best you can do is not add to the patient load--similar to deciding whether to call in sick.
Last year, I was looking at an ad for a Hummer H3T pickup, and it occured to me that if I worked home health in our rural area on the edge of the snow belt, it would be a perfect excuse to buy one. But I can't afford one on what I make, now, and home health pays less. Plus, fuel ain't getting any cheaper.
And my radio/cassette player is stuck - I was listening to Pink Floyd, quite spooky and surreal in a snow storm.
Carolina the "Snowbelle"
i bet its spooky but it had to be good!
for whatever reason, i am driving an old cutlass with rear wheel drive and the only thing that kept me going tuesday morning when the snow hit was the stupid radio...even if it was creepy :)
thankfully i work night shift and have until friday off so i have been snowbound here in ohio.
music helps lots though.
to the OP, dont feel guilty.
part of the job of being a nurse is dealing with adverse conditions, and there are nurses dealing with that...although you are young, you still have people who love you, so thats what should come first always.
someone will be there to take care of those patients.
it might be hard (and you might be the one stuck at work next time) but someone will be there.
dont fall for the guilt trip.
it will DESTROY you!
part of being a nurse is learning how to be flexible and go with the flow (ie: do what you can with what you have)
I really like whoever posted about "reasonable risk" - and I think that's what all of us are really focusing on. At some point the risk ceases to be reasonable.
As for who was going to take care of the patients - well, sucks to be all of us sometimes. Like I said, if I'd been in Durham when they had their share of snow (and for central NC six to twelve inches IS a blizzard, so hats off to my fellow RNs further up the East Coast), I expect I would have camped out there for a couple of nights in an on-call room and would have made some hefty overtime because I lived so close - better I put out a little risk than my colleagues who lived in Raleigh, thirty or more miles away. I know I did some extra time when the floor was short - we all have to take a turn. I'd rather pull a few extra hours because someone used their heads and refused to come in than pull hours because my friend was in the hospital post-car wreck.
Everyone gets a chance in this business to have a crappy shift or two; it's part of the reasonable risk, you could say. Sucks for everyone from time to time. Personally I would have been calling up to find out if they needed me and I would have told them to tell someone who lived in Raleigh to stay the h-e-double hockey sticks home and let me go in for them. I was actually quite bummed that I wasn't there to help!
Oh, and to the OP - yes, I'd feel guilty as well, but offer to pitch in when you can and pay it forward; your coworkers will likely understand.
I am a new grad who started working this past December at a correctional facility for part time nights. I haven't had time scheduled this week but they called me last night to ask if I can work tomorrow for day short, but we have a snow blizzard warning and expected to get 8-16 inches of snow here....I asked my parents and they said that I can't bc of the snow and all...I had to decline...
I feel really guilty...I wasn't scheduled for day shift or anything but...my question is...I know nurses don't have "snow days" so was it wrong of me to decline? I did ask for more time but it sucks that they offered it during such a time when it is dangerous for me to drive out there...I know if you're scheduled though basically you have to go in. Was it unprofessional of me to say no? Are all the nurses going to talk badly of me now? ...
Thank you for taking your time to read/respond.
Nope. :) And if they do, it's because they are already miserable about their lives in general and it has nothing to do with you.
IMHO, nurses indeed DO have "snow days." How are you going to be able to care for patients if you're dead by the side of the road b/c you felt like you just "had" to drive in dangerous conditions?
For several hours, they declared a level 3 - NO vehicles permitted driving in the City, unless first responders (fire/ems), snow removal, emergency vehicles ONLY. The mayor actually asked for healthcare workers, unless absolutely necessary not to drive in.
I believe that they lift that ban this morning sometime.
Our facility has a policy that if a state of emergency is declared and we get there within 4 hours of the start of our shift and complete the shift, we get paid for the whole shift. My struggle is that within our department, and most likely others as well, we were told that if there was a chance we couldn't get there we needed to stay inhouse--even if it mean a couple of days before our shift. Then, those who were inhouse were paid straight pay during their shift, and call pay the rest of the time. I guess that is a compromise, but I kind of feel like, the hospital gets the credit when we are there and take care of the patients, shouldn't they take the financial hit for it as well and pay us while we are there? I love my job and make it a personal goal every day to provide the best care for my patients that I can, and we know going into nursing that we are essential personnel, but does that have to mean we are agreeing to just get dumped on? They provided beds for most, but were completely full. Every bed, stretcher and reclining chair were assigned. I live, in normal conditions, 15 minutes from the hospital, but even security refused to attempt to come get me during the second bout (I went in early and stayed inhouse the weekend of the first bout,) even though I offered to walk to meet them as far as they could come. (I also feel this way about being called in to work at 2am and then being sent home early during the rest of the week so that I don't accrue overtime--I don't mind the call, painful though it is, but why do I take the hit and not the facility that gets the credit for it?) Am I alone in feeling this way? Please give me some feedback. Thanks!
My reasoning is very basic. I have one car. I only carry Liability Insurance. If I wreck my car in the snow for a shift for which I was not scheduled I am sunk. Pile onto that the cost of a wrecker....a rental.... I have missed one day in fifteen years related to weather, but the above is always a consideration when I start out in a snow storm.
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rn4ever?
686 Posts
Your safety is also important. Also, if you're not on schedule to work today, then you're not. If they call you and you want to pick up that extra shift or help out, that's fine. If not, that should be fine too.