Politely refusing

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Specializes in Critical Care, Quality Imp, Education.

The director of nursing of the hospital called my house and left a message begging me to come in on Saturday night to work the floor. This is a big thing since this is my nurse manager's boss and I want to make sure I use the right words to politely decline her offer for me to come in. It would be overtime, but, I'm exhausted from just coming off of 3 12 hour night shifts in a row. However, in my 3 years of working at my hospital, the director of nursing has never called me. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

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Specializes in Maternal - Child Health.
The director of nursing of the hospital called my house and left a message begging me to come in on Saturday night to work the floor. This is a big thing since this is my nurse manager's boss and I want to make sure I use the right words to politely decline her offer for me to come in. It would be overtime, but, I'm exhausted from just coming off of 3 12 hour night shifts in a row. However, in my 3 years of working at my hospital, the director of nursing has never called me. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

I would wait until after 5pm to return her call, so that you get her answering machine and won't risk "giving in". Leave a message thanking her for thinking of you, but state that you won't be able to pick up the extra shift. Period.

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Specializes in OB.

All you really need to say is "I'm sorry, I'm unable to do that." If you want to give a reason, you can do so - "I have an appointment" or "No sitter" or whatever, but that simply opens the door for them to come up with ways for you to do it anyway.

If you really want to help them and feel that you can trust them to do so, you may want to offer "I can't work the whole shift, but I can come in for X number of hours if you can find someone to cover the rest of the shift.

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Specializes in DIALYSIS, ICU/CCU, ONCOLOGY, CORRECTIONS.

Ignore it. You are not under any obligation to come in and are not on call. You have a life outside of work. Live it.

It is not your responsibility to staff the hospital, it is management's.

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I would wait until after 5pm to return her call, so that you get her answering machine and won't risk "giving in". Leave a message thanking her for thinking of you, but state that you won't be able to pick up the extra shift. Period.

agree with above.

leslie

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I would wait until after 5pm to return her call, so that you get her answering machine and won't risk "giving in". Leave a message thanking her for thinking of you, but state that you won't be able to pick up the extra shift. Period.

agree with the above post.

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Specializes in Med/Surge, Private Duty Peds.

Politely decline and if they ask why, be honest, tell them you are extremely tired and you would not be able to provide proper care.

Leave it at that!

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Specializes in Trauma acute surgery, surgical ICU, PACU.

"Sorry, I'm not available that night."

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Specializes in neuro, med/surg/, cardiac care.

I have been in that position many times also and have used the "no sitter available" line many times, but ultimately I have realized I am just one person and cannot solve the hospital's daily staffing issues. I refuse to fatigue myself and turn into supercrab at home for the sake of a few extra bucks and appeasing a manager!

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Specializes in Critical Care, Quality Imp, Education.

Thanks for everyone's help. Maybe I was making more out of this issue than I should have.

Here was my email reply:

I received your phone message. Thank you for thinking of me. Unfortunately, I am unable to work this weekend.

Her reply back was:

Thanks I had to try have a good weekend

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Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

I looooove Caller ID for this reason. But typically if i'm getting called to come in when i'm not on call, it's in the middle of the night for an emergency and they need a few more people, and i almost always go. One of the benefits of that is that i get the next day off :D

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I'm glad it worked out.

I agree that you are not even obligated to return the phone message. The phone is an intrusion into our family life enough as it is - that is why I love answering machines.

As to staffing issues - I had a conversation with a doc when I first started in nursing about feeling guilty and giving in all the time for short staffing days. I was working way too much overtime. He said "you aren't the answer to the hospital's staffing problems".

If this was a simple case of occasional staffing problems in a well-staffed unit, I would pitch in more often. I don't always say no.

But I can't fix the staffing problems with working overtime.

steph

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