On my off days, I make sure that I am getting plenty of rest, because I am a nurse and my duties at the floor requires my full attention.
So when I have to come in during my "off days" so that one of you who mysteriously calls out sick for the entire weekend, placing a call on Friday afternoon saying that you will be sick on Saturday and Sunday..
have no doubt that you have caused ill feelings and I hope that your words will come true for you. ?
I'm just not mean enough to place a "sick call" on the day that you're scheduled to be "on call." Maybe I would, but no..I'm not that mean. Although, it would be sweet. To see a cluster of your "off days," and placing a sick call just to get even with you.
But I live with a honor system. So what do I do? I join Allnurses to rant my feelings here.
It's hard when you are sick to be able to gauge how long it will last, and you know it's worse the less time you give as a warning. So is it better to call out for two days in a row when you think you might be really knocked down, or to call off one day, wait until it's the last minute again and call off?
Personally, I'm not so worried about the occasional weekend call off-I'm talking about long-term patterns-i.e. consistently calling off at least one time (often more), week after week, month after month, year after year...
Fake call outs, like the co-worker that recently called out and posted pictures on Facebook less than four hours later out horseback riding? Or the one that recently called out and was posting all over Facebook pictures from some party she was attending? If you are here reading this you know who you are and believe me it was noticed and was a big topic of conversation among your co-workers that worked short because of you. Unless management is totally oblivious they are probably fully aware what you were really doing instead of working as scheduled. Hopefully it will come back to haunt you, but if not know at least you are probably never getting any favors from your co-workers that know darn well you were nowhere near sick. Maybe in the future if you decide to fake call out you'd be wise to at least not post your fun time on social media for all your "friend" co-workers to see.
Specializes in Pediatrics, Pediatric Float, PICU, NICU.
At my facility, PTO and "sick" call outs all get lumped together into the same time bank. One occurrence counts as either as calling off for one shift, or calling off for three consecutive shifts in a week.
So in a given rolling calendar year, you get 4 "free" occurrences (meaning no consequences), your 5th occurrences you get a written warning, your 6th occurrence is a write up, and your 7th occurrence is termination.
That being said, I don't care why anyone calls off as long as this system is being followed. I don't know what they have going on, I don't know about their personal health, etc. I don't even care if they take it for non-sick reasons - I myself have called off because management would not give me a requested day off to fly back home which was pre-planned and paid for. Most nurses I know tend to use their call offs for more personal/mental health breaks than they do for actual sickness, and I'm okay with that as long as they are following the rules.
It is not my business and at the end of the day I truly don't care. My hospital has a large per diem / float pool staff to make up for the short staffing (which I am apart of so hey, job security), I have purposely never worked a job that required on-call requirements because of this very reason, and I'm not wasting my energy on something like that. Plus, I'm a big believer in work-life balance and unfortunately not all hospitals put emphasis on that so sometimes people have to take things into their own hands.
The real issue here shouldn't be with the individual staff members - although of course there is some accountability there. But as others have mentioned, the real issue is that the facility and management doesn't care enough to combat issues like this because that would actually cost money. Having an adequate per diem staff for the floor, having a hospital wide float staff, paying incentive pay for people to actually want to come in, etc.
I'm the type that will come for the duties, should I be the person "on call." I am "on call" that day, so since that "suspect nurse" called out sick..I will cover for that "suspected human scum of the earth that is faking a illness to get a entire weekend off."
I get that there are fake call outs. I hate it and I can honestly say that I have never once called out when I wasn’t truly hacking up a lung or spewing scary stuff up out of my mouth or uncontrollable WOW! kind of diarrhea is THIS coming out my back end-or tested positive for influenza A and literally couldn’t walk straight and had a 104F fever and wheezing with my asthma.
The last one happened coming home from out of state just before Easter Sunday. My in laws were around us for the trip, then found out two days into a for day trip they swabbed positive for influenza A. They had the vaccine. So did we (me, husband, and three year old). Thursday afternoon I spiked a temp at the airport and realized the nagging cough was the first sign of the flu from the night before. I called that evening letting them k ow there was a good chance I would not be in that sat and sun. I had a prednisone dose pack called in to keep me out of the ER and a swab scheduled the next morning with my PCP for tamiflu since I had a known exposure. My swab turned positive in less than two minutes. I was told I would be contagious and could not work until fever gone for 24 hours. People do get sick on weekends and holidays. I wasn’t going to risk killing my patients. I brought in a doctors not that included my diagnosis. Unfortunately sometimes *** happens and the call out isn’t fake-just seriously inconvenient for everyone involved. My child also got it. My husband dodged the bullet.
Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
20 hours ago, emmjayy said:
Re the bold: I am a new nurse and my schedule gets all jacked up. My requests are almost never honored. I attempt to create a balance with my schedule and wish I could balance my schedule so my work-life balance is tolerable, but at this point in time it's just not happening for me despite conversations with management. I have called out once for two days in a row with a couple of scheduled "off" days following those because I was so desperate for a few days of normal sleeping/waking/etc. Not everyone who calls off does it to be a scumbag - I literally had to do it for my own mental health because I was at the end of my rope with the two nights on, one day off, two more nights on, one day off, come in for some day shifts, have another one day off, etc. that had been going on for MONTHS.
What management doesn't realize is that they themselves are creating more call-outs. By refusing to cover call-outs with per diem staff, they tweak everyone's schedule and screw up everyone's life. And create more call-outs.
Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
This sounds perfect on the surface, but be careful what you wish for. The bean-counters will get the idea to leave positions unfilled and pay everyone a percentage of the "salary". But management is saving on medical premiums and other benefits for the missing people. It's a win for them. You're chronically working short and paying taxes on the "extra" money.
Holding people accountable to attendance is, like, the EASIEST discipline task of a manager (because it's black and white, rather than performance or personality issues, which are a lot more murky and subjective).
Keep in mind, however, that management may indeed going through the corrective action/disciplinary process with these frequent caller-outers. It's not like they can talk to you about it. It's also possible that these people may have an intermittent FMLA case that is protecting them. Again, it's not something management can share with you.
this is so true, you don't know what management can't tell you. In addition, I would like to add that there are employees who take every advantage possible and push it just to the limit to escape discipline. I have witnessed it. AND it is maddening when you just know you've got a faker and you have to work for said faker. Such is the life of a nurse.
this is so true, you don't know what management can't tell you. In addition, I would like to add that there are employees who take every advantage possible and push it just to the limit to escape discipline. I have witnessed it. AND it is maddening when you just know you've got a faker and you have to work for said faker. Such is the life of a nurse.
Take your rest when you can everyone. We really need it. Do not go partying (not saying you shouldn't) or go on raunchy adventures when you know you have a full shift coming up soon and the floor is heavy.
Specializes in Pediatrics, Pediatric Float, PICU, NICU.
On 4/29/2019 at 3:51 PM, KonichiwaRN said:
Take your rest when you can everyone. We really need it. Do not go partying (not saying you shouldn't) or go on raunchy adventures when you know you have a full shift coming up soon and the floor is heavy.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
56 minutes ago, JadedCPN said:
Lol define what you mean by raunchy adventures?
I did get a call-out once from a guy who said he couldn't come to work because he had just slept with his best friend's husband, and he was too ashamed to show his face at work.
I did get a call-out once from a guy who said he couldn't come to work because he had just slept with his best friend's husband, and he was too ashamed to show his face at work.
Specializes in Pediatrics, Pediatric Float, PICU, NICU.
40 minutes ago, Ruby Vee said:
I did get a call-out once from a guy who said he couldn't come to work because he had just slept with his best friend's husband, and he was too ashamed to show his face at work.
Oh wow! Well now that’s not something people call in for everyday!!
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Personally, I'm not so worried about the occasional weekend call off-I'm talking about long-term patterns-i.e. consistently calling off at least one time (often more), week after week, month after month, year after year...