what your hospital policy on sick days?

vamedic4, EMT-P · Jan 12, 2007

Had to miss work yesterday because my husband and children were horribly ill and had been up all night with them N/V etc. Got a call from my manager last night saying she "expected me in today and we would be talking about it". Now I'm worried that I'm in trouble. I'm in a new position and I like it, but I've missed 4 days over the last few months (2 due to my own illness, 2 for kids). When I'm at work I work my butt off, never make any personal calls etc...I'm doing the best I can. Our hospital puts you on notice if you miss six times in a year. I'm scared to meet with my manager now. What do you all do?

lannisz....The answer is that you do what you have to do, hospital policy be damned. Policies are made to prevent abuse of the system, this is true. And there are occasions where the "law abiding" employee is made to feel the pressure to not call in, especially given the crucial nature of a nurse's job. But the bottom line is that if you're sick, or if you have to take care of those who are sick because no one else can, you call in. Period.

Never, ever forget that your health and the health of your family come first.

vamedic4

RunnerRN, BSN, RN · Jan 12, 2007

I have always wondered why admin "gives" sick time if you aren't allowed to use it. In my facility, we have a bank of "time off" and a separate bank of "sick time." If you call in sick, you cannot use your sick time until you have been out for 40 hours, so you sacrifice your vacation time for your illness. Besides that, if you call in sick, you can't make overtime for picked up shifts that same week....so for me, a sick day can cost over $400. And I still get flack when I call in ill.....

SEOBowhntr · Jan 12, 2007

I may be able to take the "CAKE" here, our facility has a rolling calendar year call-off policy, and 3 gets you informal, 4 gets you a formal (which equals a black mark on your record if you try to transfer units), 5 gets you a written warning and no raise, and 6 gets you FIRED!!!!! Doctors excuses are admissible at the judgement of management, and can be turned into personal leave IF they feel like approving it. Otherwise, you may be given your pink slip, at 6 call-offs in a rolling year.

GardenDove · Jan 12, 2007

Gee, I've never heard about these punitive measures for sickly people. I'll have to ask around at work since I'm so healthy. Wouldn't that violate the Americans with Disability Act?

jimthorp · Jan 12, 2007

Well, where I work, the race, economic and marital status of the CNAs and nurses is not correlated to whether someone calls out or not. White nurses and CNAs call out just as much as racial minorities call out. Many nurses call out too, and I would hardly refer to nurses as a "lower class of individual." I'm a CNA, but I have only called out of work four times in nearly two years, and I had a doctor's note for each time. I have always been part of the "lower class," meaning poor, but that doesn't mean I have a bad work ethic. I also don't see how the fact that the CNAs you work with are "unmarried" is relevant to the problem of abusing call outs.

First off I made a correction in my original post as one of the abusers is married with children and seems to get sick a lot on weekends. She is the rare abuser that when at work she is an outstanding CNA.

I should have been more clear in my post. I am not forming any opinion but mearly making an observation that can be proven true.

If you re-read my post you will notice I did not mention socioeconomic status. I do not know these sick time abusers well enough to make that connection.

One definition of class is; "a division or rating based on grade or quality." By "lower class of indivudual" I meant a lower quality individual. Those that abuse the sick time are the same ones that do as little as possible and try to "just get by", and have no respect for authority.

Nowhere in my post did I infer cause and effect. I don't know whether or not being unmarried plays a role. I suspect in and of itself it is not a determinant. I made a simple observation.

Now back on-topic: it may be the abusers that cause management to come down on people for reporting in sick but I'm sure there are dictatorships out there too.

I earn my sick time per hour worked but I'm not sure of the rate. If it goes unused we are paid for it at the end of the year.

jimthorp · Jan 12, 2007

I have always wondered why admin "gives" sick time if you aren't allowed to use it. In my facility, we have a bank of "time off" and a separate bank of "sick time." If you call in sick, you cannot use your sick time until you have been out for 40 hours, so you sacrifice your vacation time for your illness. Besides that, if you call in sick, you can't make overtime for picked up shifts that same week....so for me, a sick day can cost over $400. And I still get flack when I call in ill.....

This is a pretty bad deal and just wrong. I don't think I'd hang around that place very long.

caliotter3 · Jan 12, 2007

When a new corp bought our facility, soon thereafter, as part of the "take-over", it was announced that there would be lay-offs. It was put out that poor work attendance would be an invitation to be laid off. One CNA called off; whoever wrote the note to place on the board, for the next day, stated she called off b/c "her boyfriend was sick". If any, there was very little change in the pattern of those who frequently called off. Personnel just started finding new jobs anyway. One of the reasons, overheard by those discussing, the new workplace atmosphere, "the first people they laid off had excellent, if not perfect attendance records" so it's just nothing but a free for all.

Calling in sick is always a bad subject for those who do not abuse the sick call "privilege", whether or not, there are union rules involved, or even a written policy. When you're too sick to be around pts, you're too sick to be around pts. It's as simple as that. When a good employee starts to feel threatened over something not within their control, adm is just creating and perpetuating a toxic environment. This does not pay off for them in the long run. Good employees with the ability to go anywhere, will shy away from these places with "toxic" reputations.

KellieNurse06 · Jan 12, 2007

Wow....I wish homecare had policies like hospitals....you want to see people who abuse calling in sick??? I had one nurse who used to care for my daughter and would call out sick like clock work every tuesday or every other Tuesday like clock work..it got to the point where I had to organize my life around Tuesdays because I knew she'd be calling out.....and I worked on Mon & Tues too.........I put up with that for 3 years......and then canned her......lots of other ones abused days off too...but nothing like that one......I am more dependable than them and I have a disabled child that requires 24 hr nursing care......go figure:uhoh3: I think I get my work ethic from my mother because I never call out unless it's very very serious..heck even in nursing school my child would be in ICU & I'd be at clinicals ...& go up after I got out to be with her..............:uhoh21: all the while feeling like crap but knew I had to do it due to not being allowed more than 2 call ins for school............ I actually have a nurse right now who goes away for a month every other month lately and when her hours are taken from someone else whenshe comes back she is mad about it.......go figure.....:trout:

galenight, BSN, RN · Jan 12, 2007

Sick days? what do you mean sick days? It is one of the great ironies of life that the hospital I work for does not give us paid time off for illness. We can, of course, call in sick and take our vacation time for it. In fact we have to take paid hours to make at least 72 hours in order for us to continue to get our insurance benefits. Go figure. So, if you are sick, you can forget about getting a paid vacation, but you can't take a paid vacation if you don't have hours in your bank to make 72..... do you see the problem here? Why is it that a facility whose sole purpose as a business is to treat SICK people, doesn't expect that it's employees will get sick once in a while????? Especially with all the crud we are exposed to daily. Someone please explain it to me, because the powers that be can't, they just say, "I know it doesn't make sense". GRRRRRrrrrrr!!!!

Cattitude · Jan 12, 2007

you guys are making me like my job more and more. i work for a home care agency. it is a small sattelite office of a larger agency affiliated with a major metro hospital.. my boss is great about sick days. we get 12 a year, they roll over if not used. if i need only 1 day, say for an unexpected dentist appt, lots of times she won't even dock my time but just let me make up the hours over the next few days..

the only bad thing is, when we call out for more than a day, it's really hard to get our patients covered. there's only 5 nurses covering about 120 pts weekly. we get no replacements for sick calls.

wjf00 · Jan 13, 2007

If you are having difficulty with your employer over sick time, you can protect yourself. When you call in sick, simply state that "I am calling in sick under the family medical leave act" (FMLA). Federal law prohibits any employer from taking action against you if the leave is under this act. Why are so many nurses not familiar with this?

adnstudent2007 · Jan 13, 2007

If you are having difficulty with your employer over sick time, you can protect yourself. When you call in sick, simply state that "I am calling in sick under the family medical leave act" (FMLA). Federal law prohibits any employer from taking action against you if the leave is under this act. Why are so many nurses not familiar with this?

To use FMLA you need to fill out a boatload of paperwork and have it signed by a physician that you or an immediate family member has a serious illness which requires you to miss work. It can't be used for the occasional sore throat or stomach flu that people may typically miss work for.