Working while sick!

banditrn · Nov 28, 2006

That is horrible! I can't believe she did that.
I posted this in another thread, but when my brother was in a horrible car accident (at the time my father called me we still didn't know if he was alive or dead), I went on to work instead of calling them and told them I had to leave right away and drive 5 hours back home to be with my father.
They told me it was my brother, not me, and she told me to start working and to wait. I went straight ever her head to her boss, I just walked away, didn't even continue the conversation and I told her what happened and said, "My father lost his wife of 52 years just last year, and I need to be there for my father, I have to go, and I'll call you next week to see if I still have a job." ...and I just kept walking and left the building.
They fussed about it when I got back, but I still had my job. I stayed gone for a week because my brother had a business we had to figure out how to run, and the hospital was over an hour from where we lived, so somebody, had to be at the house.
You get people that call out over a paper cut, and when a true emergency happens, they flip out over it.

That's rotten, and instead of the support and compassion you needed, all you got was a bunch of crap. Something similar happened to a co-worker - she was at work when she got the call about her father - the admin was there, who was a nurse, but she didn't want the nurse to leave - instead she wanted HER to call around and try to get someone to come in to replace her. She didn't do it.

ebony2 · Nov 29, 2006

I just don't know why the use of these strong arm tactics continue to exist in LTC. There is no respect for the people working on the floor from nurse to CNA. You don't get support from supervisors to DON. Maybe it's because as a group we have no representation. No clout. No one seems interested in US as a integral part of the work force. Many moons ago when I first started to practice nursing, EVERY NURSE KNEW, you don't leave unless your replacement relieves you. In LTC this is a dirty word. When your 8 or 12 is over many nurses are out the door and who is left to cover the floor is up to someone else. Nurses are not vested in helping out. Maybe it's because of these kinds of reponses when they are in need, "Its your problem", "Find your own replacement" and "Wear an incontinent brief but get your a__ in here, for God's sake. Until we can give respect to others and receive it in return, facilities will continue to reap what they sow. For the DON who solves the problem by using a broad brush approach to evaluate the problems of a few, instead of addressing the frequent callers individually, will continue to wonder who has a beach day concern vs. a real illness. Job or no job, nurses like all other professions get sick, and I for one refuse to subject frail, elderly residents with health problems that could heve been avoided. My approach will continue to be I am ill and cannot report to work today.

Medic/Nurse, BSN, RN · Nov 29, 2006

WAIT JUST A MINUTE!

Let put a big STOP on nursing co-dependent behaviors in the profession.

You are staff. You do primary care for the patient at the bedside. Now, You are sick. Your entitled to "miss work"/call off. But, to have to make 50+ calls when you feel rotten - well, it just a rotten practice. Refuse or ask for written policy that dictates this mandate.

Management, as a rule, does NO patient care. They handle the administrative tasks including scheduling. So this is part of their job.

Bottom line: He/she who owns the problem steps up to find the solution.(Fundamental factor in elimination of those co-dependency behaviors) :)

Your PROBLEM: Can NOT go to work --- SICK. Call out per policy and rest and take care of yourself.

Their PROBLEM: They have had a nurse call out and now we need to replace her. (We can hope that they have planned for this occasion)

Bottom line, advocate for yourself. I'm not sure if this a is labor/OSHA/CDC thing, but coming to work sick is just not considerate - for you, patients, all.

Now, will this ruffle administrations feathers - maybe? But unless there is a written mandate that you must find your own replacement, I'M JUST NOT GOING TO "PLAY" THAT WAY!

Good Luck and

Practice SAFE

ns lpn · Nov 29, 2006

I tend not to go if I'm sick. They are short staffed and I'm a good nurse, they are not going to fire me. Besides if I go in I know I wont be able to leave b/c they wont let me with out a replacement.

Gennaver, MSN · Nov 29, 2006

This is gnawing at me and I don't know what to do!
There is a policy at our LTCF that if you're sick, you have to find your own replacement. I was sick one nite a couple of months ago and ended up working because I could find no replacement.
Well, a week or so ago, I came in for my 11-7 shift, and the evening shift nurse was sick with an URI. She sounded awful, and her face was hot and flushed. I found out later that she'd tried to find someone else to come in and couldn't and the DON told her 'too bad, it's your problem'!
Well since then, some of the residents have come down with an URI, and one had to be hospitalized with pneumonia. Don't know if there is a connection or not.
This same DON will come in to work as a cna if they're short, but she will not do the nursing. It's not like it's been years since she practiced either - she's been a DON for 6 months - before that, she worked med-surg at the hospital.
This doesn't seem right to me - I've decided that if she ever insists that I work sick again, she'll get my resignation on the spot.

While the DON may sat too bad I wonder what your facility's infection control nurse says about this. Have you approached Epidemiology?

Recently when I was exposed to the Mumps at my previous place of employment I found out later that they patient had it, well, the same day I felt a sore throat and wanted to wear a mask, "just in case" and one of my nurses told me to "take that off it is against policy". Also, I was waiting around to be "told" to go for bloodwork and I had volunteered to go home but, nothing happened until a couple of days later when I just really thought something must be wrong, so I left for sick leave.

Turns out, I "did" have the mumps. Not only did the CDC tell me that I should've went home regardless of waiting to be told, (as my nurse initially told me to wait for the word) but, the facility's epidemiology Nurse told me that the nurse who demanded I take off my mask was wrong. There was indeed a policy to wear a mask if we were sick rather than to expose a patient. Matter of fact, since I removed my mask, they ask every patient I was near after I took off my mask. All of my coworkers AND the 40 patients that night had to be put on quartantine...so, before you take the DON's word I highly suggest you find the policy that Epidemiology suggests and tell them what you wrote above.

Good luck,

Gen

squeakykitty · Dec 28, 2006

We should be able to call in sick rather than expose the residents to being sick. I had to call in sick, and I wasn't going to spread these URI germs to an elderly man on my station who was on O2 and had a lot of SOB. I figure if he came down with what I had, it would put him in the hospital, and might even cause him to die. I didn't want to be responsible for that.