How to get to work in a snowstorm?

Nurses General Nursing

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Hi. I was wondering what your hospitals policy is on snowdays? Ours doesn't have one and I live 1 1/2 hours from work. The highway was actually closed and I was still expected to come in?

Specializes in Cardiac, ER.

I live in Missouri,..if you've seen the news we recently had a huge ice storm, national disaster area,.I was personally w/out electricity for 12 days,.I transfered to ER a week before the storm,..ER was in "disaster mode",..I got a call from my supervisor,..pack a bag,.bring my family if I need to, but get to work,..if I couldn't make it they would send someone to pick me up,(I live 45 miles out of town in the middle of nowhere),...I had a room, food, a shower etc,..FEMA showed up on day 3 to allow some of use to sleep and man the emergency shelters,..we are in the process of evaluating how our "disaster" plan actually worked,.they are even considering a plan for employees w/pets,...OOHHH they even offered to do everyones laundry!! All in all it wasn't so horrible,..this doesn't happen often around here (last one in 1986) and I really didn't expect my hospital to step up to the plate,..they did,.I was impressed,..one of our ER DR's even gave one of our techs $100 and sent them to Wally World (when they finally opened) to buy everyone toothbrushes and underwear!!!...it was this type of attitude that made this tolerable,.we were all in it together.

I will say this,..we all feel like family now;)

My hospital has a similar disaster plan, Cardiac. Last year they made a map to everyone's house, and they have a childcare plan in place for families. If for some reason people couldn't make it, they have a plan to pick everyone up.

Specializes in ER.

if we have to work 12 hours for any reason the facility feeds us,

Ahhhh, if it were only so....;)

I have been a nurse for 27 years...I have never not been able to get to work because of weather. I rarely call in for any reason. In the last 17 years have only been out only 5 days usually with sick kids. That said here are a few of my experiences. Once I was at the hospital when the snow hit...policy said they could hold us for until next shift arrived. I worked 16 hours ...hospital refused to feed us because the patient cafeteria couldn't figure out how to charge us...patients were giving us food off their trays...worked 24 hours like this until staff revolted and someone called a local radio station that shamed the hospital into feeding us. Worked 16 hours/day for 3 days...we were allowed 8 hour off to sleep and shower ...after 3 days when I was told I could leave the floor I went to my car, put on boots and walked 4.5 miles home. Once EMS brought us into the hospital ...stayed 2 days working 16 hours/day...hospital refused to get us home ...had to pay a cab. Hospital required those who didn't have enough money to sign IOU"s for meals from cafeteria. Once I went in on Friday ahead of the storm and got a hotel room with 3 other nurses (150.00 for 2 days split between 4 of us) Worked 16 hours for 2 days. All Administrators and physicians were reimbursed for the hotel but not nurses. 4 nurses for 2 days for $150.00 seemed like a bargin to me...won't do that again. Once was involved in a wreck with a new car when someone slid into me while coming to work to help out (on my day off ) because people further away couldn't make it in ...car badly damaged...2 weeks in the body shop ...$500.00 deductible...won't do that again either . Ever notice that nurses are expected to be on the job but ...all "non essential personnel" are not expected to come ie, laundry, housekeeping, secretaries, operators... are exempt. Often Administrators are not even required to come...they should be required to come and pick up the slack for all the non-essential people they have allowed to stay home...answering phones , getting laundry , passing meal trays.....after all if we don't need them then why do we hire them... For me these are all lessons learned...I will probably still continue to come but I expect the hospital not taking good care of me while I am there... Our administration learned the hard way that if you need to treat staff well because it snows every year and if you don't take care of your staff they won't make the effort to come in ....lkast year administration was in cooking breakfast and putting pizza on the corporate credit card (they struck a deal with local Papa Johns). I have learned "you get what you settle for" They expect me to come.I expect to have plenty of food, supplies, and someone besides me to answer the phone...I also expect the folks that make the big decisions and the big bucks to be on the sinking ship with me.

My plan: I keep blankets, boots, bottled water and plenty of snack food in my car. I pack an overnight bag with shampoo, hairdryer, clothes as well as extra scrubs. If they pick me up I get the name of the administrator who is going to see that I get home. I work in the ER...there is nothing I can't or won't do. I let them know I am always available for staffing issues but if it is not safe to drive, they have to get me there , feed me and get me home...this is non negotiable. And for the record, you can not be fired for abandonment if you have not assumed the care of the patient.

I would have to be pretty hard up for a job to continue to work for a hospital that would treat me that poorly.

Specializes in NICU.

I work in the Midwest at a large hospital and what really bugs me is that they DON'T allow us to sleep there or pay for us to sleep at a nearby hotel. We're expected to drive to and from work, as scheduled, no matter what the weather. Now, if I was scheduled for 3 12's in a row, and it was going to be a horrible week of snowstorms, then it would make sense for them to offer me a bed to sleep in between shifts, no? Instead I'm expected to drive home in the blizzard, no matter how long it takes, and drive back again in the same blizzard. This might leave me with only a couple of hours to actually sleep! I always said if they allowed us to sleep in house, and especially if they fed us, that soooo many more people would stay. When I was single and childfree, I'd have TOTALLY stayed for several days if it was bad outside. I'd work 16 hours, sleep for 8, then work another 16, etc. Imagine all the overtime and bonus pay!!! Many of the nurses I know would do the same - it's safer to be inside than outside, and if it means making a ton more money...it might actually be worth it to stay over!

I did call in this past November during a snowstorm. However, I was 7-1/2months pregnant and already working shorter shifts becuase of my increasing blood pressue, so the last thing I should've done was squeezed my huge belly behind a steering wheel and spent the next few hours white-knuckling my way to work. They understood. What would've happened if I'd gone into labor out there??? Under normal circumstances I'd have been there, for sure.

I'm lucky that my husband has the kind of job where no one would go in during a blizzard, so if necessary, he'd be home with the children so I could concentrate on work.

Again, I just really wish my hospital would offer us room and board one of these days...

When I was doing a clinical rotation at a local hosp my preceptor got to sleep in a cleared out area of the hosp. She was doing the reverse commute from me. I commuted 60 mi one way to attend nrsg school, she did the reverse to work. She and several others got to sleep on an entire floor that was empty d/t renovation for future use. The hosp did this as a favor to itself cuz the nurses were doing 12 hr shifts and they were nice and avail if they slept in these beds. The only bad part of it, if some doc intern resident or whatever, had need for one of the beds, a nurse would get booted and have to go somewhere else to hang out until her scheduled shift. My preceptor saved tons of money on gas and upkeep on her car doing this. She stayed down there for her 4 or 5 shifts, then traveled home to be with her family for her weekends. I would think that hosp in snow areas would have provisions for people to sleep or snooze somewhere. I would rather curl up in the morgue or on the floor of the waiting rooms than have to drive back and forth in bad conditions.

Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

don't let my profile fool you. i was born and lived many years in ohio and missouri. i know snow and snowstorms and how to drive in them. my brothers are truck drivers and this is the advice they gave me many years ago about driving in the snow. first of all, don't depend on the freeways being open. know at least one or more alternative routes to get to work (and back home). the roads that the truckers and the busses take are usually chosen because they are kept cleared. leave early--plenty early--if the weather is really bad. if it's snowing and/or the roads are snow covered, put your car in first or second gear and drive at 15 or 20 mph if that is what it's going to take to get you to your destination safely. you have a lot of control over your car when it is in first gear although you are driving slowly. enjoy the scenery. plan on spending your time after you work your shift either at the facility where you work or at a motel rather than driving back home, so take an extra change of clothes. if you do end up working an extra shift at the hospital you will get paid overtime.

the only time i missed a day of work because of snow was when my car was in the shop and i had to depend on the city busses. the busses actually couldn't get through! that was a very rare thing. i had to be at work at 11pm. i was standing out at the bus stop at 9pm and would have gotten to work around 10pm. by 2am i finally abandoned waiting for a bus to come and went back home and called the hospital. the wind chills were at something like 30 below zero and i was nearly frozen to death.

One of the hotels near my hospital offers a discounted rate for hospital employees. If there is a snowstorm or ice storm predicted and you are scheduled to work, the hotel offers an even bigger discount. The hotel has a shuttle and will take you between the hospital and the hotel. A lot of times a day nurse and a night nurse will share the room to save even more money. I have stayed at the hotel a few times through the years and it is a nice arrangement.

My hospital does allow employees to sleep in empty rooms if we have enough extra rooms. For me, it is worth the $25.00 cost of a hotel room to get out of the hospital for a few hours.

As far as food goes, a few years ago during a particularly bad snowstorm, the kitchen sent up sandwiches and chips/pretzels for lunch or dinner and cold cereal and danishes for breakfast. While it wasn't a feast, it was edible and it was free. The kitchen was short staffed due to the storm and really didn't have the manpower to deal with preparing hot meals for the patients and all of the staff so their focus had to be on the patients first. Driving in the snow this time of year is just a fact of life here. I think when you work somewhere open 24/7 you need to plan ahead. My hospital has a list of volunteers with 4WD vehicles willing to transport employees to the hospital if the employee requests transportation.

As far as the actual attendance policy for a snow emergency, the employee is expected to make every effort to get to work. The employee is expected to plan ahead to make arrangements for childcare prior to the snow emergency. The policy also recognizes the fact that sometimes other arrangements can't be made and if the employee must call in, it is considered an excused absence.

That is our policy. What the policy doesn't cover is the fact that co-workers notice who plans ahead and who calls in every time a snowflake is predicted to drop.

It may not work foryou but I worked nights too and I had ordered a taxi but it didn't show so I called the Ambulance service, non emergency line, to see if they had a trip going by my house.The crew was at the hospital and knew that every nurse was needed so they came and picked me up. You could also try Law inforcement and Fire Dept. as they too, understand how staffing shortages in bad weather complicates things.

Specializes in Public Health, DEI.

I grew up in an area that had blizzards, and small crappy cars just would never have made it to the hospitals. It is true that hospitals don't close due to weather, but if roads are impassable, they're impassable. All setting out for the hospital in those conditions would would have accomplished would have been to be stuck on the road in your small crappy car in the middle of the blizzard. And when the roads were closed, you'd be cited for driving on them anyway.

That said, we were expected to plan ahead whenever possible, and leave for the hospital before weather got bad. The operative word is "possible". Sometimes the weather took an ugly turn without warning and the staff already at the hospital was stuck staying. In theory, at least, it all balanced out.

Depends if the road was closed due to "snow emergency "or just closed because of an accident or something.: If it was the latter, I probably would have attempted. I also live 2 hours away from work. If the roads arn't closes by the state then we're expected to come in. As a nurse who has been stuck at work because there are nurses who won't come in when it blows a little, I feel nurses should give it their best attempt. I also remember times that the national gaurd would pick up nurses in bad storms but only within a certain distance. They wouldn't drive 2 hours away.

You just have to make an honest effort. I know it's very dangerous and I know it's very hard when kids and sitters, lack of are involved. You leave home early, take stuff for overnight in case you don't get relieved.

Maybe Security or someone else from your job would get you there and back home next day.

It's a balancing act. Family vs. work. The older I get, the less I am inclined to let the job win out.

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