I hate fake call outs.

Nurses General Nursing

Published

I am a nurse.

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.

I'm just ranting as you guys can see.

My hospital requires all weekends to be made up. You schedule a vacation that includes your regular weekend? You get scheduled for a weekend you would otherwise be off. You call out (for illness or any other reason), you make up those weekend shifts on weekends.

A month or two ago, I was working with a colleague who was starting to feel sick. She strategically took off Friday to rest up in the hopes of being well enough to power through the weekend because she didn't want to have to make up her weekend.

If my summer vacation includes taking off a weekend, I try to schedule myself for an extra weekend before I leave so I don't have to pay those shifts back afterwards.

2 Votes

Your hospital sounds like they mean business, and is practicing the:

"we are grown adults here. let's not leave room for toddler behavior."

1 Votes
Specializes in Geriatric, Acute, Rehab, Psychiatry.

...in addition, those nurses that the same grandmother always dies monthly. I see you

1 Votes
On 4/27/2019 at 12:05 PM, KonichiwaRN said:

Thank you for your kind words.

I just wanted to rant such a thing. I'm putting in threes and my rest days are important for me to re energize.

I hope that nurse's words will come true for her. She did claim she was "sick."

And I've graduated from toddler university awhile ago so it boggles my mind how someone can know that they will be sick on a Saturday and through Sunday while placing a call on Friday afternoon.

Sorry this is so lengthy, but I think there are some worthwhile points:

That probably felt good to get off your chest. I can understand the frustration. There are nurses who call off way too much where it needs to be addressed by management with whether or not the nurse should even continue working there, or cut hours.

That being said, I think we blame the wrong people. We blame the nurse instead of the facility who should have proper backup in place. Call offs are an absolute given, and every work place should be prepared for them.

In my mind, if a nurse who is *usually reliable* calls in "sick" and you just kinda know they aren't, I give them the benefit of the doubt. Not that they're sick but that SOMETHING is happening in their life that we have no clue about.

- abusive home

- depression with serious symptoms

- panic attacks/anxiety

- bad problems with their kids

- chronic severe insomnia

- severe marital issues being dealt with

- flat out needing a mental health day (that SHOULD just be a given) I personally need one so badly right now. I work FT, have worked 8 months at my job and only have accrued 9 hours PTO.

Just some examples I can think of.

"She did claim she was sick." Well, was she supposed to say...

"I just right now found out my husband is cheating on me."

"I'm feeling borderline suicidal and checking myself in somewhere probably for a few days."

"My insomnia is so severe I have not slept AT ALL in 4 days."

I'm not talking about heavy life stressors that we all manage to just push through (with the exception of the mental health day.) I'm talking about acute life situations that NEED to be dealt with immediately.

Management/scheduling should have their crap together. Have some sort of system. In your example, I'm sorry, but you were technically on call. When on call one should be mentally prepared that there is a chance they will have to work. Having an on call is a great system.

If a facility doesn't have on call, then too bad DON. You know it's your job. It sucks, but put your scrubs on and pitch in. I've worked at facilities where the DONs and ADONs pitched in no problem. I've also worked at places where hell would freeze over before they worked the floor. But you bet they're on your tail about some charting nonsense that can be dealt with later while you're busy taking care of extra patients on top of your already ridiculously heavy load.

Sheesh, I guess I needed to vent too lol. And I haven't even worked bedside in 2 years. And you'll NEVER guess why....eye roll.....STAFFING

Cheers! Welcome to AN

5 Votes
Specializes in HIV.

You sound toxic.

Also, I'm glad your life is where it can allow you to get completely rested on every single one of your days off. Good for you. You're blessed, really.

Some people don't have that luxury and just because they are a nurse or a physician doesn't make them a god.

That being said, some people do abuse the system, but others legitimately need a day off sometimes (even if they're not "sick").

1 Votes
Specializes in HIV.
9 hours ago, turtlesRcool said:

You schedule a vacation that includes your regular weekend? You get scheduled for a weekend you would otherwise be off.

That's ridiculous. You earned the time off. People are so willing to bend over backwards for employers who would have their job posting on indeed.com within 5 minutes of them dying on the hospital floor.

3 Votes
On 4/30/2019 at 5:27 AM, Orion81RN said:

Sheesh, I guess I needed to vent too lol. And I haven't even worked bedside in 2 years. And you'll NEVER guess why....eye roll.....STAFFING

Cheers! Welcome to AN

We all need to vent. ?

That's why in Japan, there are those places where you get to just smash dinner plates.

1 Votes
Specializes in ICU; Telephone Triage Nurse.

I work with a gentleman who calls in often with "a touch of something" . Hmmm ... that sounds legitimate. The rest of us don't look forward to be pounded into the dirt the numerous times this happens, and it has caused a lot of resentment amongst the rest of the staff that shows up to work when scheduled.

3 Votes
8 hours ago, mushyrn said:

That's ridiculous. You earned the time off. People are so willing to bend over backwards for employers who would have their job posting on indeed.com within 5 minutes of them dying on the hospital floor.

Sure, I earned the time off. And I get paid for it. I'm not bending over backwards for my employer. I'm honoring my contract and not leaving my colleagues and patients with unsafe ratios.

The plain fact is that most people like to have weekends off to spend with their families and friends, but in a hospital, patients need 24/7/365 care. When I'm working, I prefer not to be short staffed because someone else is calling out for nice weather.

I also want to clarify that the make-up weekends are not additional hours. If I'm adding in a Saturday, I'm subtracting a weekday, so I end up with my normal control hours.

2 Votes

So really why do you need to work an extra weekend when you take vacation? It is a 24/7/365 operation. I worked at a place where we got no weekend diff. We always had to cover our weekend off, even though we were paid on Sat like it was Tuesday! I get fake call outs. They are annoying. Truly you don’t always know why a person calls off. Do they have a sick kid and not get excused for that? Did their spouse beat them up? You really just don’t know. Many times a nurse gets no lunch or bathroom break while at work. That type of situation makes it easy to justify wanting off for some people. If the hospital and the coworkers are always just and considerate, you are right to be angry. Otherwise maybe you have to realize this is life and it happens in every job/ industry. For some nursing is a magnificent profession and for others it is simply a job. Most people fall somewhere in between. If people are consistently treated like professionals , then most will act that way. Does your unit not have prn people who can be scheduled to work on a weekend so regular staff can be off without having to make up time off that they have earned?

1 Votes
On 4/30/2019 at 4:38 PM, turtlesRcool said:

The plain fact is that most people like to have weekends off to spend with their families and friends, but in a hospital, patients need 24/7/365 care. When I'm working, I prefer not to be short staffed because someone else is calling out for nice weather.

1) You are assuming that's why grown adults are calling off. Get off your high horse. They are honoring their contract as well if they have the amount of days allowed.

2) Staffing is administrations/managements problem. You aren't working short staffed bc of your coworkers. You are doing so bc of an administration that isn't prepared for anticipated call offs. (Anticipated meaning management KNOWS call offs WILL happen.)

2 Votes
Specializes in Army Nurse, CEN.

Our hospital also does the multiple days out in a row only = 1 absence. It's crap. We have one nurse who now has been approved for FMLA for migraines and so every time she calls out sick, she claims to have a migraine. This doesn't count against her absence total and so she can never be fired.

Never mind the fact that these nurses who consistently call out are the first ones to be upset and complain when someone calls out during their on shift! Ridiculous. ?

2 Votes
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