This is long! I tried to be as concise as possible but there's a lot that's happened.
I hurt my back 5 weeks ago while working with a patient. I immediately reported it for workers comp purposes. I worked out the rest of my week and then when it didn't feel better after a few days off, I sought treatment via the workers comp panel. I was diagnosed with a lumbar ligament strain and given 10 days of work restrictions stating I couldn't walk any more than 15 minutes every hour. This meant I couldn't work at the bedside. My manager said she couldn't accommodate me, the risk manager said nobody else in the hospital could either, so I sat at home for the 10 days.
Returned to the doctor, basically felt the same. So I got another 14 days with those same restrictions. With WC, unless you miss 21 days, the first 7 days are not paid through WC. You have to use your PTO for it. It looked like I was going to be out more than 21 days, but then my employer called me a couple days after I notified them about the 14 day add-on and said they found accommodation. I was to report to ER to do phone surveys.
The ER manager assured me this was nearly a full-time job and that she had told the risk manager it was always here because the surveys piled up so easily. My first thought (which I kept to myself) was, "Oh, so this has been here all along and they just didn't care until it was their dime I was sitting at home on, not my own." I reported in a few days later, got training, and started. It was not a full time job. It took me 3-4 hours a day. The manager said she didn't care when I did it or how I set my hours, but when I skipped a day, she emailed me to ask if I was coming in or if she should have someone else do it. That was weird to me, because she knew it didn't take me long, and why not have a day off after I'd worked 3 days prior, and then just work 6-7 hours the next day? I explained my plan and asked for advice on advantageously grouping the days. She ignored that. I figured she wanted me to come in every day, so I came in every day. After doing it for about a week and a half, it was time for my follow-up appointment at the doctor (this was on Monday of this week).
Now before all of this, I was supposed to be transferring from my med surg floor to a critical care floor. My medsurg manager had told me near the beginning she'd speak with my critical care manager and let her know what was going on. I'd heard nothing back, so I assumed we were still on track. My transfer date was only a week away, so when I went to the doctor, I told them I felt a little better (I did) and begged them to lift the walking restrictions so I could go to my new floor. I assured them there would be plenty of new orientee education I'd have to do so I could take it a little easy at first. The doc relented but warned me to rest plenty and stop if it was straining me.
I happily gave the new manager a call and let her know I could walk 45 of every 60 minutes now. She had never heard a word about my back injury. She said I'd have to talk to the risk manager about it. I said I had been in contact with her for weeks and she'd already directed me to my nurse managers. She said she'd call me back. She didn't, not on Monday or Tuesday (and she said she would by Tuesday). Wednesday I got an e-mail from another person in that department saying I needed to call the risk manager.
Side insert: I had called my med surg manager Monday to let her know about the new lighter restrictions, and she'd tried to put me back on the floor. I said that wasn't possible since I couldn't sit 15 minutes of any of the hours between 7p-12a (the shift is just too busy) and couldn't ask another nurse to do all of my heavy work for me, and compromised saying I'd come in to help during the busy hours but not take patients. She agreed to this.
So I called the risk manager Wednesday after getting the email from the critical care department, and she informed me that my new department couldn't use me and my current one wouldn't be keeping me either. After this week, I'd be department-less. She also said that since I was working on my med-surg floor, I didn't need to do the ER surveys. I tried to explain that I'd like to do both because it gave me nearly full-time hours if I did, but she said ER didn't need me. (What? How did they go from a huge backup to not needing me in 9 days? And why didn't the ER manager tell me?)
What's worse is that after two nights of doing the resourcing, I noticed my back hurting worse. I've had to back out of that. So now I'm doing nothing again. I've got 4 different managers who can't tell me a damn thing. I've got a back that feels about as bad as it did in the beginning after doing just 5 hours on two different nights of walking around more often. I have no idea if it's going to get better. The risk manager is supposed to call me tomorrow and tell me what I'm doing next week, but she's said she was going to do that before and ended up telling me to stay home. I'm very scared that she's going to tell me I'm fired.
The weirdest part is every other person I've known who got on-the-job back injuries (they're not exactly uncommon on an understaffed med surg floor) got put in an office doing chart audits. I don't know why this wasn't offered to me. But at this point, I've been jerked around so much that I have to doubt my employer will even offer to train me for another position like case management or clinical informatics.
I've looked around for other jobs, but I just graduated last June, so I only have a year and some change under my belt. It's not enough for any of the away-from-the-bedside jobs I've seen posted in other places. It's not even enough to transfer to the non-bedside positions in my own hospital.
Is there anything I can do? Even if they do fire me, I don't think they're stepping outside their legal bounds, so it's not like I have any kind of legal recourse. I feel like I literally busted my hump working 3 years for this place (I worked through nursing school on the floor I was leaving) and I've been tossed by the wayside as just another busted nurse nobody has any place for. It hurts to know I got hurt taking care of other people and now my employer won't even take care of me.
I didn't ask her to talk to my new manager. She just said she had, and I trusted that. It was my mistake for thinking she'd handled it.
The ER manager should have known I was there that weekend because she had at least two emails saying I'd worked Saturday and Sunday and hadn't needed to take a lunch those days due to the hours being short enough, and the queue only had the Monday calls. If I had been told that I needed to keep the ER manager closely updated on what I was doing, I would have sent an additional email explaining it. What I was told was that I could work whenever I wanted as long as the calls got done between 8 am and 8 pm. She even mentioned making it a M-F type of thing. When it seemed like she wanted them done every single day, I came in every single day.
I feel like I've done everything I've been asked to do and tried to communicate within the bounds I was given and got nothing back. There's plenty of documentation of this via the emails and texts to and from my med-surg manager. I don't think they have a leg to stand on if they want to try to deny me benefits for manipulating worker's comp, which there's no indication that they do. I'm not trying to manipulate the system to get money for nothing. I'm hurt. My back constantly aches. I'm trying to actually work and make a living while it's healing. It's driving me nuts being away from my patients and sitting down when normally I'm doing 36-48 hours a week of very active patient care. Is this really so foreign to you all that you'd accuse me of trying to manipulate my hospital for worker's comp money?
Anyway, I got a call today and I'll be doing some office work for another department next week. It's amazing how relieving it is to know I'm okay for another week.
What i am saying is it looks like that to your hospital. Your lack of communication and by your own words, skipping a day, is awful. Skipping a day is the same as a, no call, no show, no matter what the job is. You did not communicate directly that you were not coming in. Emails don't count. It doesn't matter how much work "you feel" there is. It is considered a no call, no show. Your employer finds you work to do and you don't show up. So yes, your lack of communication makes it look like you are manipulating the system.
You have multiole people you should be calling and communicating with. If I was the CC manager and you didn't bother to tell me what was going on, I would be upset. You are walking on thin ice if you don't start calling and communucatimg eith your company.
Well, for PALS and ACLS they usually have to have certified instructors meaning they would have to pay for a class and then have you do an instruction.
Oh I know this. I didn't think they'd do a class specially for me. They already have pre-scheduled PALS and ACLS course sign-ups. One is coming up next week, and now I'm not sure if I'll be allowed to do that or not. I'm pretty sure I'll still have a job on the critical care floor once this is all said and done. I just have to power through it and navigate the waters along the way. With no spinal bone involvement suspected, I can't see this being something that sidelines me forever, just maybe for a while longer than I originally thought :x.
And also when you say it seemed like she wanted it to be everyday but a Monday thru Friday thing, why did you not verbally verify what she wanted? Why did you go in on Saturday and Sunday if you thought it might just be Monday thru Friday? Then you don't show up on Monday?
Another example of you lacking thorough communication.
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I am sorry this is happening to you. In a way, I totally see where you are coming from. Any of us in your place would do what we could to work things to our advantage and find a way around such an injury. I would be in tight and close communication with my boss to ensure I was doing things by the book, however to keep my job, if I were you.
I injured my knee badly a few years ago and I have a very physical job. I had to be off 3 weeks and returning to work for me, meant being able to do my job as described. It was hard, but I was lucky and got through it. At least I got past it and kept my job.
At this point unless I am mistaken, you have not been fired yet. Maybe wait and see what happens. Meantime, you still could talk to an attorney who specializes in disability accomodations and the law; it can't hurt.
And also when you say it seemed like she wanted it to be everyday but a Monday thru Friday thing, why did you not verbally verify what she wanted? Why did you go in on Saturday and Sunday if you thought it might just be Monday thru Friday? Then you don't show up on Monday?
Another example of you lacking thorough communication.
I didn't say that. I said one of the possibilities she threw out while saying I could do whatever I wanted was M-F. She also threw out doing it as 6 hour shifts every single day, 4x 10's, etc. Just a bunch of different ways nurses are usually scheduled, and also stating I could go off the rails from that entirely if I wanted. She said I could let the risk manager know what I wanted to do and whatever it was, it was fine with her.
Honestly, I think what happened is that she thought there was a lot more work than there was, maybe just out of ignorance, and maybe because the admissions nurses didn't quite tell her outright that it didn't take them very long to do it either. When I was able to get through it all in 3 hours a day, it became obvious that this wasn't a job she needed a separate person for. Like I said, I get that. It just would've been nice to have been told that, instead of coming in to find the admissions nurses doing what I thought was my job, and having been ignored when I did try to communicate.
I am sorry this is happening to you. In a way, I totally see where you are coming from. Any of us in your place would do what we could to work things to our advantage and find a way around such an injury. I would be in tight and close communication with my boss to ensure I was doing things by the book, however to keep my job, if I were you.
I injured my knee badly a few years ago and I have a very physical job. I had to be off 3 weeks and returning to work for me, meant being able to do my job as described. It was hard, but I was lucky and got through it. At least I got past it and kept my job.
At this point unless I am mistaken, you have not been fired yet. Maybe wait and see what happens. Meantime, you still could talk to an attorney who specializes in disability accomodations and the law; it can't hurt.
Good luck.
Thank you. I appreciate that. I have not been fired and the risk manager is working with me, and that's all I can ask for. It still leaves me in a rough spot of not knowing what I need to do, because they could fire me and be within their legal rights to do so. I live in a small town and I'm not sure what's available, but I'm going to ask around and see if anyone knows of a place I could perhaps get a consult.
I haven't heard of a person being fired for a work injury per se, but there is usually a limited amount of time they hold your job before they let you go if you aren't able to return to your current job. Maybe some places help an injured person get an easier desk job, but that is not the experience I've seen where I work. Since it hasn't happened to me I wasn't paying attention to how many months a person was on light duty before their job was eliminated. I don't know if it's 3 months as in FMLA or 6 months or if it depends on what state you live in.
I'm not sure why people are reacting so negatively, but I suppose my interpretation is colored by my own experience. I was injured lifting a patient, tried to keep working, it got severe and I needed time off and PT. The doctor decided it was a minor injury and sent me back to work, then when I finally made enough noise for a second opinion, that doc declared that I had a permanent impairment, which meant my employer could stop paying for medical treatment. I completely understand trying to get back to a little more work to preserve your transfer to another unit.
Disability insurance does not cover worker's comp claims until after the worker's comp case is closed. That will happen when you are either fully recovered or they get someone to claim you are as recovered as you will ever be.
This is, of course, not legal advice, just things I have learned. When doc #2 declared my lifting restrictions were permanent, I was dismissed from my position and not aided with placement for weeks. This was illegal. This is one of my posts regarding that experience. In the last two replies, I included three DoL/EEOC/ADA links and quotes that helped because they directly applied to my situation.
Read those links. There is a crap ton of information, and you may find things helpful that did not apply to me.
I regret not finding an attorney. I tried several, but the one I fully consulted with tried to pull shady stuff and I didn't have the oomph or the money to throw away on a lawyer when I was trying to recover (and thought things would be substantially less complicated than they have become). Find an attorney. The hospital doesn't care about you except to the extent you benefit them. Do what you need to to maintain workers comp coverage and employment, but don't count on them to put you in a higher acuity unit when they may now view you as broken.
Save all your injury-related correspondence with hospital staff. E-mails are permanent, objective, verifiable evidence if this situation keeps going downhill. Print everything out and keep it in one place. Find an attorney.
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Now which of you wants to get work-ready and drive to work every single day of the week for just 3 hours of work? Probably not a single one.
Speaking from experience. I fell at work a few years ago, walked into the drug room to get PRN meds and someone had mopped the floor and not dried it properly, fell flat on my back and as well as a badly sprained wrist ended up with a compression fracture of the L1
I got put off work for two weeks, by the end of the first week I was begging for the meeting with the OT and my manager to get a return to work plan in place. It took me two weeks to get back to work on very light duties for about five hours a day and I would have happily worked three hours a day in those first two weeks
There were times when I had to attend physical therapy and as long as I kept my clinical manager informed I didnt have an issue.
Your communication does not seem to have been particularly proactive
Your employer may be concerned that the back injury will reoccur and it will be difficult to accommodate you in the future. Consider making a plan B and upgrade your nursing education so that you will have career options that do not involve direct patient care. It's better to hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.
They are not going to give an employee on WC a promotion or pay for skills classes that they don't if you'll be cleared to perform.
They sure don't want you more injured and incur The costs a big settlement will bring.
Worker comp injuries are difficult for middle managers. They have to balance an already tight budget for their dept while paying you to do a non existent position. They're already caught in the middle and aggravating them isn't wise if you want to stay in their good graces.
I doubt they'll terminate you before you're cleared for work, that'll cost them as well. But they may be looking forward to it once you are cleared, and they're probably documenting your recent communication/behavior to use later.
I would have happily worked three hours a day in those first two weeks
Your communication does not seem to have been particularly proactive
I did happily work it once I assumed it was what she wanted. I don't want to say "knew" because really, I still have no idea. She didn't choose to respond to me. All I'm pointing out is that I don't get why she or anybody else is upset that I tried to group the days better. If she had clearly said, "I want this work done on this schedule," I'd have followed it to a T. Give me a little credit; when I did try to communicate, I got nothing in return.
I have been very proactive in communications with my med-surg manager and the risk manager. The ER manager acted like she really didn't care to hear about it as long as I got the work done, so I treated it that way until she indicated otherwise, and then communicated very clearly in writing about everything from there on out. Not talking to the CC manager sooner was a mistake, but I do have it in writing from the medsurg NM that she would be talking to the CC NM about it.
I know I'm not the world everybody else revolves around, but if somebody says they're going to do something, they should do it. I shouldn't have to be chasing all three of these nurse managers around to get them to follow through with what they'd said they would do, but that's what's happened. The medsurg NM said she'd talk to the CC NM; didn't happen. The CC NM said she'd call me back within 2 days; didn't happen. The ER NM said I could pick my own schedule and she was only an email away if I needed anything; didn't happen.
I could have been better with communication. That's fair enough. I own up to that mistake. But these nurse managers all could have been better as well. This is not entirely on me.
NurseGirl525, ASN, RN
3,663 Posts
What i am saying is it looks like that to your hospital. Your lack of communication and by your own words, skipping a day, is awful. Skipping a day is the same as a, no call, no show, no matter what the job is. You did not communicate directly that you were not coming in. Emails don't count. It doesn't matter how much work "you feel" there is. It is considered a no call, no show. Your employer finds you work to do and you don't show up. So yes, your lack of communication makes it look like you are manipulating the system.
You have multiole people you should be calling and communicating with. If I was the CC manager and you didn't bother to tell me what was going on, I would be upset. You are walking on thin ice if you don't start calling and communucatimg eith your company.