How often do you play hooky?

Published

  1. How often do you play hooky?

    • 105
      Never or rarely (less than once a year): It violates my work ethic
    • 26
      Never or rarely (less than once a year): We are too understaffed
    • 82
      1-3 times a year
    • 43
      3 or more times a year

256 members have participated

Or, to put a better spin on it, how often do you take a mental health day? That is, use one of your sick days for something other than being ill or taking care of an ill family member?

I love to take a day off when spring comes and the garden needs turned, get the hubby to take a day and go buy a truck load of plants. Just have to do it for my mental health! But, I always ask for the day off ahead, so its not really hooky. Other that that I call off only when Im sick. Hey Mercy, maybe if the steelers are in the next super bowl again( oh and lets hope they kick butt again) we can take off to go see them win! Oh yeah, hanging out in Miami...oooolala........

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Tinderbox, I won't argue with you on this EXCEPT... As the DON, staffing is something I am constantly dealing with. In the past 3 weeks, I have literally fired 7 people.. ALL for attendance issues. Staff complain about working short, then call in.

I agree, we all need a mental health day, but sit down with your DON, Manager, scheduler...who ever does your schedule and PLAN the day, so it doesnt end up affecting everyone else!!

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First nurses, nurses-2b, etc.....being "sick" does not always imply something is "physically" ailing you.

Being "sick" may be due to emotional and mental stress as well as physical ailments one suffers.

I have taken "mental health" days when I need them. If I need to be the patient who needs nursed, I do not feel guilty in doing so.

That said, I rarely have called in to work. If I do, I'm truly sick...physically, or emotionally/mentally stressed to the max. :nurse:

I checked "1 to 3 times per year" on the poll.

Agreed. The mental health of a nurse should not be discounted, or considered "hooky." Your mental health is a large part of your overall wellbeing.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Telephone Triage, ED, Trauma.

We have been very short since the beginning of the year, and I have been working 4 twelves a week. This past week it got the best of me, so I am having my first mental health break in a while. The best part of it is, when I called out, I was honest and told them I had some personal stuff going on and it was not that big a deal. Our Unit is great, so we cover for each other when stuff like this comes up.

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Specializes in Peds,ER, Management, Critical Care.

I've taken the old mental health day. Sometimes you just need to do what is right for you. It's an unspoken right of passage.

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Specializes in home health, peds, case management.

my employer doesn't distinguish between sick vs personal days, only planned vs unplanned pto. i can usually get a day off the day before i want to take it, so if i feel a "crash" coming on, i will take the next day off.

i don't see a problem using sick days for mental health reasons...i think there is little point in going in to work "just to be there." if i can't go to work and be productive, i just stay home. i have no problem supporting colleagues so they can do the same (but it is a little different for me since i'm not in direct care)

besides, i consider "spring fever" to be a legitimate illness!!!!!

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The last day I called in was the day after I was the victim of an assault. I figured finger marks around my neck, the inability to swallow, and the inability to talk above a whisper warranted a day off. The nursing office still gave me a hard time.

Seriously though, I wish I had called in sick my last night of 3 in a row this week. The past 2 nights had been hades. Not enough help on the floor, confused patients, patients with psych issues, patients with pain issues, patients who were on the call light every 15 minutes all night long. . . .we've all had nights like that. I had been fighting a headache all night on night #2, and was seriously thinking about taking a mental health day. When I woke up with a feeling of impending doom I should have gone ahead and called. Instead, I had night #3 in a row of pure hell. Confused patient became agitated, crawled out of bed and tried to run down the hall, became violent when placed in restraints, managed to kick me in the head and stomach, got out of his restraints twice, (thank god we initiated a one on one) was verbally abusive to all staff, and spent the next 4 hours screaming and keeping all other patients on the unit awake. (Which of course didn't make the night any easier.) Patient w/ psych issues was better because of increased xanax dose, however her transplanted kidney (from several years ago) was failing, and her only IV Access was her dialysis catheter. Not in itself an awful thing, but time consuming, and an infection worry. Patient who had been formerly okay was terribly confused and fell out of bed. However, apparently he got back into bed and never said anything about it to anyone (including me when I was chatting with him for a half hour while his family was there) until he apparently fell a second time the next afternoon. My Post Op Day 1 patient kept trying to spike a fever on me.

I didn't call in because I didn't want my fellow staff to suffer.

But the next time I wake up with a feeling of impending doom? I'm gonna listen to it and go back to bed.

*grin*

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Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.

I won't say I never have, but I haven't in quite a while.

With my schedule the way it is, I really don't need to. Plus, if I call in now (since I work 24 & get paid for 40) I get 20 hours PDO taken out even if I only miss 12. So I prefer to make it count. Most recent call ins for me were when I sprained a shoulder (1 night) and when I stabbed myself in my LFA (2 nights). I've usually been fortunate (or unfortunate, depending on perspective) to be sick on my days off.

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Specializes in Onc/Neuro/Med-Surg.

Everytime I say that I am gonna call out..just to be off I feel guilty and never do it. I can only recall one day about 3 yrs ago when i just called out to call out. I was hanging with some friends the evening before and was like "i don't feel like going to work tomorrow" and called out 30 minutes later.

Since then I have only called out because of illness. I am such a punk! LOL

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Specializes in OB, M/S, HH, Medical Imaging RN.

I have taken 1 or 2 mental health days over the past 5 years but since I really needed them I didn't consider it playing hooky. I was far too stressed to work and that's what I told them.

Back years and years ago I used to occasionally play hooky. I knew I had something special to do with the kids and knew if I didn't get the day off I couldn't then call in sick to I just called in instead of asking off. That was the fault of the nurse manager. When she was replaced with a reasonable woman I didn't do it anymore.

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Specializes in ER.

I have played hooky once but I just could not risk my licensure. I work in a town with a population of around 250K, For many Saturdays in a row, I was staffed as the only RN in the ER. I kept asking and pleading and explaining how dangerous this was. Then of all things my boss called me at the end of the week and told me to expect to stay over due to the weather (which never effects travel in this area), if not I could face pt abandonment issues, as if my situation wasnt bad enough already. I finally called it quits and magically our hospital was allowed to employ agency again - something we greatly need because they cant keep regular staff. They were in such a bad predicament with no RN for the ER and no one to float, they finally had to make a decent decision and I have never had to work this way again. If we are understaffed now, we close down some of our rooms for real emergencies, it has certainly motivated the hospital without drastic measures and a bad pt outcome. Calling in can be a good thing. It shows the employer that you are inevitably on the front line and they need to provide a safe environment, I also turned them in to thier corporate office, our staffing has been much better since I finally got fed up and solved the problem. That is my only time playing hooky.

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Specializes in ER Occ Health Urgent Care.

Never! The job I'm in now for the last 15 months I've called in once and that was to take care of my 77yo father. My last job of 11 yrs I called in twice once when I was vomiting and once when I had an abscessed tooth (I went to work with the dental pain) had to see the edontist for a root canal.

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