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.
ACLS and PALS are probably 2 day classes anywhere, but that's still 2/3 of a week where I'm not expected to do anything outside my restrictions.
My hospital is particular about the meds. I might be allowed to give meds I was able to give on the floor, but from talking with current workers on that floor, it's generally not done. New orientees just watch for a couple of weeks. They get the med education about drips and differences in floor med uses vs critical care uses, then at the 2 week point they take a med test to ensure they've grasped the education, and then they're allowed to start giving meds. It was the same way when I started on the floor; technically I was only restricted (by hospital policy) in giving IV medicines. In reality, my preceptors did not allow me to give any meds at all until I passed the basic med exam.
I asked in the interview about the code stuff because I've never even seen a code on my med-surg floor (lucky me!). They basically told me that until I have ACLS under my belt, I will not be participating in a code. Even after that, they'd prefer I be there observing but let the experienced nurses handle the codes until I get a familiarity with them, and then get into helping with the codes as I felt comfortable. They have a code team and a rapid response team, and they're very good. They're not understaffed the way that my med-surg floor constantly is, and the manager is very supportive of her staff.
I am familiar with what orienting is like. I did a lot of research before ever applying for the critical care position, especially regarding orientation. It's a huge part of having a successful move to a new floor, especially one at a higher acuity level. That's why I know that the first half of the orientation contains a lot of classroom education. It just so happens that ACLS and PALS were being taught toward the beginning of my orientation.. That would've been fortuitous had I been allowed to start. With all of that in mind, I didn't think it would be perfect, but I did think I could be accommodated without too much trouble. And I've already said I understand fully why the CC NM didn't want to take the risk with that. It turns out she was right not to.
I don't like the replies accusing me of lying to manipulate others and cheat my workplace, because they aren't true. Even in your post, you accuse me of embellishing. Embellishment is defined as, "making (a statement or story) more interesting or entertaining by adding extra details, especially ones that are not true." I'm not adding details that aren't true. I'm clarifying. I have reasons for the thoughts I've expressed here, and I'm giving them. Helpful is, "I know you're trying to do x but it's coming across as y for z reasons", not "You're lying about things and making excuses and your employer is right to fire you".
I was given the opportunity to do desk work and then took it upon myself not to show up one day because I was told I could pick whatever schedule I wanted. It was a situation where I could've done better, and I have acknowledged that. It is not a situation where I blatantly skipped work as a no-call no-show when I had been told to be there, which is what so many here are making it out to be.
I'm not concerned about the critical care manager rescinding the job offer. Even if that were to happen, I have numerous contacts throughout the hospital and could find a department to join once I'm healed, and I'm confident I could once again get on the path to becoming a critical care nurse. I am concerned that I'm now on administration's cost-cutting radar because injuries cost a hospital money and mine is being slow to heal, and like others said, there is a possibility that I could be reinjured more easily.
I don't think anyone is out to get me, but I also don't think everyone believes what I'm saying, and if that's the case, it's fine. I don't believe everything I read on the internet. I took the insinuations and accusations with a grain of salt at first. I've seen what you guys do to people who get emotional and upset when they get bad responses to their threads. Truthfully though, I don't need people in my thread accusing me of manipulating my workplace to get out of things or into things or whatever. It's not helpful. If users really believe I'm not being honest, the interaction is probably not going to be beneficial for either of us.
As said above, I did not think I'd have 6 weeks of lighter duty. I thought I'd have at least two, maybe three, and potentially even four, and there was a good chance they could be grouped. It's not so far-fetched if you read what I've written about the orientation for a new critical care nurse. In fact, I got the idea when I read a post online about a nurse who managed to do exactly what I tried to do.
I'm absolutely going to contact the CC NM and talk with her about the plan going forward. I think it'll be a salvage-able situation, and I'm pretty sure she'll accept my apology and understand.
Regardless of whether or not your ICU orientation will be comprised of mostly "light duty" (and I suspect it's not going to be nearly as light as you are assuming), you have now hurt your back. My experience with back injuries is that you are never really the same afterwards-you will always be at risk for another injury.
ICU is very very physical. You are constantly having to lift people who are bed bound. Turning them and pulling them up in bed is a is a constant struggle. You have to travel with your patients when they go to CT or MRI or other places. Pushing them around in a bed or stretcher is hard on your body. You can be just as stressed out with your 2 assignments as you were with 6. Don't even get me started with the amount of time you will spend wiping poop off bottoms, cleaning up vomit, and dealing with other nasty secretions.
ICU is no piece of cake, and you are going to have to be VERY aware of body mechanics while working there. You can probably count on the fact that you will injure yourself again at some point in the future. I'd had back issues long before I became a nurse, but I believe my neck issues (have already had one surgery) are directly related to the physical work required in the ICU.
That's something I've had to seriously consider. I do know it's not any less physical on a critical care floor even if the patients you have are fewer. The only real benefit might be that at least most of the total cares have foleys, but even then, it's not as easy to turn and bathe and manage them while they're hooked up to a million drips and potentially on a breathing machine.
One actual benefit though, and it's a big one for me, is that the critical care floors in my hospital are staffed much better than the med surg floors are. The manager has been there for 10 years. The employees are generally happy and supported. That could change. It changed on my floor. My own NM had been there over a decade, and I loved her. It was the whole reason why I chose that floor to start on. If she'd stayed, I probably wouldn't have left for a loooong time. That saying "People don't quit jobs, they quit managers" is just about 100% true IMO. I was leaving my floor because for the past 9 months, it's been hell. Ratios went from 4-5 to 5-7. We were asked to do more and more and given less and less staff. The result: massive turnover, and then even worse conditions.
I've decided not to rule out critical care yet, and to stay optimistic about my ability to heal from this. If I end up needing to go a different direction, I'll take it in stride. For now, I'm keeping my eyes set on the goal.
I recently had a minor injury (shoulder strain) on a Med/Surg floor while I was training for the unit. Because it was minor, I think I received quite a bit of grief for it. I had to leave my patients with my preceptor and go to the ER for thhe examination. The charge nurse seemed displeased like I intentionally hurt myself. I followed everything exactly as I was instructed to do. A couple weeks into being off duty completely, the scheduler caalled me to tell me how short staffed they are and how I should try to talk the doctor into saying I am well enough to come in just to do assignments at the beginning of the shift. For me, assessments include rolling my patients which would exacerbate my injury. The whole situation was appalling so I can relate to the situation above. I have been a nurse for 7 years and would expect my managers to communicate but as I read the thread that viewpoint does sound misguided. Sometimes starting over elsewhere is the best thing... perhaps where there isn't heavy lifting
Your own words "As for manipulating the critical care situation, I absolutely did. I know for a fact there's a lot of sit-down education (PALS and ACLS just for starters, then additional med exams and equipment education) that the new critical care nurses have to do. And the difference between it and the med surg floor I'm already on is that I would have had at least 6 weeks where I was not doing direct patient care on my own"
but you don't want us to accuse you of manipulating when you say yourself that's exactly what you did.
I agree with others, who feel while your intentions were not self-centered or out to screw your employer/be paid something for nothing, I could see how managers could take your actions thus far that way. I think, like myself, you are somewhat naive to how your actions may come across to others, when you only have the best of intentions.
Maybe your facility doesn't have one, but what about occupational health department/nurse? Are they under the same office as the risk management? I only ask, because, similar to you, I hurt my back after being a nurse less than one year. And the occupational nurse was vital to my long WC issues.
I agree with those who have said to contact an attorney. Most attorneys (in any specialty/type of case) will offer a free phone/initial consultation. I think that would be a wise idea, even if you don't see things going that way. It's best to be prepared & not need it, than not be prepared & need it (thank you girl scouts!!!). Even if you are not getting a negative/'they're out to fire me' vibe from any number of these managers, with a back injury & your somewhat questionable actions, you no doubt have a bullseye on your back now. Of course, they cannot terminate you FOR the WC injury, but I would imagine you're HR folder might start seeing petty complaints/write-ups etc.
I learned the hard way, to document & save EVERYTHING communicated to ANYBODY regarding your injury. Not just your doctor/provider. Emails, textx, etc. If you have a verbal conversation, you write down the date/time, whom you're speaking to and the gist of your convo and any plans moving forward (ie, await results of CT scan, '2 more weeks modified duty' etc).
I am truly sorry for your luck, but please consult an legal representative and then cease posting further occurrences regarding this injury online. Best of luck to you.
Also, while some responses are not as pleasant, I think you have received honest input, regarding the info you posted. Take all input with a grain of salt, and try to remove yourself from the situation and place yourself in the managers shoes. I think you may find how some of your actions are somewhat questionable.
Good luck & hoping you are able to heal as fully as possible.
Your own words "As for manipulating the critical care situation, I absolutely did. I know for a fact there's a lot of sit-down education (PALS and ACLS just for starters, then additional med exams and equipment education) that the new critical care nurses have to do. And the difference between it and the med surg floor I'm already on is that I would have had at least 6 weeks where I was not doing direct patient care on my own"
but you don't want us to accuse you of manipulating when you say yourself that's exactly what you did.
Taken out of context, a quote can look like a lot of things it was never meant to.
The context for this one was that I was being accused of manipulating it because I just didn't want to do the med surg work. There is a big difference between taking 5-7 med surg patients on my own on a floor that's already understaffed and sometimes doesn't even have a CNA to help, vs. doing orientation for a new floor for six weeks minimum, where I'm not going to be left to my own devices to sink or swim. I am 100% sure I would have sunk being put back on med surg. I was just as sure that I would have swum if I'd been able to start the new position. I likely would have been wrong about that, which I've admitted to.
Manipulation in and of itself isn't a horrible thing. It's the fact that people use it to take advantage of others to their benefit that makes it awful. I'm being accused of doing that. I'm pointing out I wasn't doing that. It was my idea to resource so I could still work and help on my med surg floor. That ended up straining me after a couple of shifts. It's demoralizing. It doesn't make me a crook.
See an attorney. You can't go to your new department with any work restrictions Period. Sounds like you need some qualified legal advice. Embellishment also means "adding to" by the way.
I think they caught you trying to manipulate a sensitive issue.
You should have just taken the consecutive short phone shifts without trying to make it work it better for you.
You shouldn't have had this fleeting improvement in order to not miss your ICU transfer, but then have your pain worsen once it appeared the ICU gig wasn't going to happen.
And you really shouldn't have shown your attempt to roll this into a coveted case mgmt or informatics position.
Not for a non career ending strain only one year in.
Someome more informed will have to respond to the legal aspects.
It sounds like you (and lots of others here) are accusing her of being untruthful about relapsing.
She is new, might not realize how hard it is to come by Informatics and Case Management jobs, desk jobs in Nursing, but I didn't assume she was being manipulative or telling lies. I guess I am way too naive. Sigh.
I agree that it's a shame she didn't know not to try to be efficient while doing those short shifts.
amnesty Have you asked the ACLS instructor if they allow students to take the course while they are on restricted duties? The instructor and hospital may not want students with existing injuries to perform ACLS skills because it may risk aggravating their injuries and be a liability risk. Employer's often consider nurses with a back injuries 'hot potato employees' and do not always treat them fairly. Your employer may be reluctant to provide orientation for a position that may result in re-injury, as the money spent on orientation will be wasted.
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.
Im so sorry to hear of your injury Amnesty.
Years ago in a far off land I injured my back. Since then Ive had 7 surgeries and Im full of titanium pins plates and screws. I take a fair amount of pain meds and almost literally cannot walk 5 or 10 minutes without extreme pain. I was forced into a different job almost 18 years ago now and little did I know how Id come to love it. I dont relish the pain I have to deal with every day but so far I AM able to live a somewhat normal life. True, I cant go shopping anymore, my dancing days are over, I do minimal housework because of the pain which then affects my breathing (mold / mycotoxin / popcorn lung thing) but...I manage to go to work...in a relatively big office at a relatively small desk (LOL)
Dont give up. Just start looking for something less taxing on your back....it's out there. I wish you much luck and success and less pain. Sorry for babbling.
She is new, might not realize how hard it is to come by Informatics and Case Management jobs, but I didn't assume she was being manipulative or telling lies.
This is the major difference. Some of the people in the thread assumed I was doing this. One even blatantly stated I was faking the injury/the severity of the injury because I worked through a weekend after sustaining the injury. When I clarify my points, I'm accused of embellishing. When I show that I was trying to advocate for myself in a bad situation, I'm a manipulator trying to take advantage of my hospital. There is great advice to be gleaned, and I'm definitely taking it. I've looked up a lawyer and will be making an appointment this week. I have plans to talk with my managers. I'm starting now with documenting everything, printing out all the emails, etc.
It's valuable to see yourself through the eyes of others, but only if those others are open to changing information and perspectives. Having to pick through a minefield of people who probably aren't going to believe me even when I do respond doesn't seem like a particularly useful exercise for either party involved.
Amnesty
170 Posts
@Dances with Wool
I'll address a few things:
ACLS and PALS are probably 2 day classes anywhere, but that's still 2/3 of a week where I'm not expected to do anything outside my restrictions.
My hospital is particular about the meds. I might be allowed to give meds I was able to give on the floor, but from talking with current workers on that floor, it's generally not done. New orientees just watch for a couple of weeks. They get the med education about drips and differences in floor med uses vs critical care uses, then at the 2 week point they take a med test to ensure they've grasped the education, and then they're allowed to start giving meds. It was the same way when I started on the floor; technically I was only restricted (by hospital policy) in giving IV medicines. In reality, my preceptors did not allow me to give any meds at all until I passed the basic med exam.
I asked in the interview about the code stuff because I've never even seen a code on my med-surg floor (lucky me!). They basically told me that until I have ACLS under my belt, I will not be participating in a code. Even after that, they'd prefer I be there observing but let the experienced nurses handle the codes until I get a familiarity with them, and then get into helping with the codes as I felt comfortable. They have a code team and a rapid response team, and they're very good. They're not understaffed the way that my med-surg floor constantly is, and the manager is very supportive of her staff.
I am familiar with what orienting is like. I did a lot of research before ever applying for the critical care position, especially regarding orientation. It's a huge part of having a successful move to a new floor, especially one at a higher acuity level. That's why I know that the first half of the orientation contains a lot of classroom education. It just so happens that ACLS and PALS were being taught toward the beginning of my orientation.. That would've been fortuitous had I been allowed to start. With all of that in mind, I didn't think it would be perfect, but I did think I could be accommodated without too much trouble. And I've already said I understand fully why the CC NM didn't want to take the risk with that. It turns out she was right not to.
I don't like the replies accusing me of lying to manipulate others and cheat my workplace, because they aren't true. Even in your post, you accuse me of embellishing. Embellishment is defined as, "making (a statement or story) more interesting or entertaining by adding extra details, especially ones that are not true." I'm not adding details that aren't true. I'm clarifying. I have reasons for the thoughts I've expressed here, and I'm giving them. Helpful is, "I know you're trying to do x but it's coming across as y for z reasons", not "You're lying about things and making excuses and your employer is right to fire you".
I was given the opportunity to do desk work and then took it upon myself not to show up one day because I was told I could pick whatever schedule I wanted. It was a situation where I could've done better, and I have acknowledged that. It is not a situation where I blatantly skipped work as a no-call no-show when I had been told to be there, which is what so many here are making it out to be.
I'm not concerned about the critical care manager rescinding the job offer. Even if that were to happen, I have numerous contacts throughout the hospital and could find a department to join once I'm healed, and I'm confident I could once again get on the path to becoming a critical care nurse. I am concerned that I'm now on administration's cost-cutting radar because injuries cost a hospital money and mine is being slow to heal, and like others said, there is a possibility that I could be reinjured more easily.
I don't think anyone is out to get me, but I also don't think everyone believes what I'm saying, and if that's the case, it's fine. I don't believe everything I read on the internet. I took the insinuations and accusations with a grain of salt at first. I've seen what you guys do to people who get emotional and upset when they get bad responses to their threads. Truthfully though, I don't need people in my thread accusing me of manipulating my workplace to get out of things or into things or whatever. It's not helpful. If users really believe I'm not being honest, the interaction is probably not going to be beneficial for either of us.
As said above, I did not think I'd have 6 weeks of lighter duty. I thought I'd have at least two, maybe three, and potentially even four, and there was a good chance they could be grouped. It's not so far-fetched if you read what I've written about the orientation for a new critical care nurse. In fact, I got the idea when I read a post online about a nurse who managed to do exactly what I tried to do.
I'm absolutely going to contact the CC NM and talk with her about the plan going forward. I think it'll be a salvage-able situation, and I'm pretty sure she'll accept my apology and understand.