What is your sick call policy?

Nurses General Nursing

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Our unit is having a huge problem with sick calls. We have a few select employee's that are calling in sick on average once or twice a week. One even calls in to find out if it is busy and if it is she says that she is sick. We have been trying to come up with a better sick-call policy. The only policy that we currently have is that you must call in to the charge nurse and the dept manager, but if the manager is not in, they can just leave a message on voice mail.

So, any ideas??? Thanks!!!!!!

Specializes in LTC, sub-acute, urology, gastro.

At my facility you must call in at least 2 hours before your shift starts, 3 or more days out requires a Dr.'s note. However, we also have a problem with the same group of staff who call in repeatedly (Mondays are a very popular call in day). Staff is supposed to receive verbal warnings then written then suspension (although I've yet to see this happen)!

Hi

We have a rather strict policy.

1. You must speak with the Charge Nurse to call in & it must be more then 4 hrs. before the shift starts. If is less, you are given a "late"call & you don't get paid.

2. If you call in on a weekend, you need to make up that day on t he next weekend (which would have been your weekend off).

3. We get 6 sick days a year. After two incidents of call ins, you get a written warning. I think you get 3 warnings & you are OUT!!

4. You notice I say incidents-- that is not the same as number of days.

For instance if you are sick on Monday & call in & you are still sick on Tues & Wed & call in, that is all ONE incident, but 3 sick days.

5. If you are off more then 2 days in a row, you need a MD note to come back.

Some Managers--like mine-- are very strict about these, others are rather lax. Not fair, but what can you do. Someday, someone will file a grivience!!

Mary Ann

This is very similar to ours. We also have policy of 1/2 incident for tardy which begins 1 min pass 0645, 2 tardys are equal of missing 1 12 hour shift. dont know how 2min= 12 hours but at our facility it does...We dont get people late to work though!! In a busy ED, there is nothing worst than those who are habitualy sick! I have heard some of the worst call ins, " I worked out to hard yesterday and now I'm sore!" :rotfl:

Specializes in NICU, PICU, educator.

We have a point system....for a rolling year you accumulate points if you call in, one point for every hour. You get warnings at certain points and then at 120 hours you take a walk to human resources and will most likely be fired unless you have documentation from a doctor that you were truely sick on some of those days. That includes sick kids.

We also have to make up any call ins on a rotated day, on a weekend day on the next time posted. We don't get paid our holiday pay if we call in the day before, the day of or the day after a paid holiday. If you bring in a doctor's note for a holiday call in, they will pay you, but give you double points.

We aren't questioned as to why we call in and we don't have to tell, this is a no fault call in system, but if you call in and then they see you out somewhere like a ballgame, at a party, they can suspend you for abuse of sick time.

It has cut down on call ins, but we still have people that have FMLA excuses and they do abuse those by using it to call in on weekends. They have cut down on that by telling them that they have to make up weekends on an intermittant FMLA.

The points come off on the anniversary of that call in date.

I just got called in to my manager's office so she could tell me I have 5 sick calls. If I get a 6th, then I get a LEVEL I warning. I asked her when the sick calls were made. She told me since 5/10/2010 I have called in sick 5 times. Which means 5 times in 8 months. Which is 2% of the days. What gives?!

Why is it that the ones who need to stay home with their runny noses, coughs, and sore throats, why is it that we have to continue to come to work b/c we'll get warnings and Level I write-ups? Can someone please shed some light on this? Thanks!

Oh, and BTW, probably 75% of my floor (20 RNs and around 35 PCTs) all have accelerated warnings or Level Is or Level IIs.

Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.

Administration doesn't really see it as "sick" time but as absenteeism and their policies aren't called "sick time" policies but "attendance" policies. They seem not to understand that we provide intensely personal care to SICK people and it is inevitable that once in a while despite every precaution we too will become SICK. They don't stop to realize that many of us are in situations where we're at high risk for injury due to the lack of help for repositioning, turning and lifting, to say nothing of crowded environments, hazardous equipment and fatigue from shift work. They also don't see the double standard of expecting us to professionally assess our patients' health status but don't trust us to assess our own. On one hand we have infection control posting signs all over the hospital requesting that visitors stay home if they have signs of illness, and on the other, administration insisting that unless we're dead we must come to work. We're darned if we do and darned if we don't. So people come in wheezing, dripping snot, sneezing and coughing on every surface because they don't want that Level 1 warning. It also forces us to waste precious health care resources by causing us to seek out those CYA doctors' notes that say, "Please excuse Suzy from work on January 24 as she was home sick with conjunctivitis/a cold/the flu/back strain/gastro/whatever." Unfortunately there isn't a whole lot we can do about it in most cases.

Specializes in Med Surg.

Our attendance policy is prety much open to interpretation and usually the interpretation is pretty liberal.

My former job was a different matter. We had a "no fault" policy where an absence was an absence, the reason didn't matter. Only things like leaves of absence, FMLA, jury duty, death in the family (which required proof you actually went to the funeral), or military service were excused.

An occurance was an absence or consecutive days absent.

Three lates, whether one minute or four hours, equaled one absence.

Five occurances in twelve months got an informal warning.

The sixth occurance in twelve months got a formal warning.

Number seven was a final warning.

Number eight resulted in termination. No appeal, no exceptions.

The policy was harsh but it was applied evenly across the board, salaried and hourly. It was ridiculous the number of people who lost their jobs because they thought they were special and could game the system. BTW, I think it was the years I spent under this that makes me so intolerant of people on the oncoming shift who are constantly ten or fifteen minutes late.

Specializes in Telemetry/Cardiac Floor.
We have to call in to the charge nurse a minimum of 2 hours before the shift starts. More than 5 call in's in 6 months warrants Dr.'s excuses for the next 6 months.

This is a good policy...ours is more than 3 in 6 months with or without an excuse is a verbal warning #4 is a write up and no raise, #5 write up...#6 they let you go, depending on manager's comments.....all physician's excuse or not. This is good for those who are not sick, but bad for those who really are.....:twocents:

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