If you're sick...please just call in...please...

Nurses General Nursing

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Hi all,

Boy did I have a night from hell lastnight!!!!! I worked my usual 11p to 7a and and the other nurse on with me did a 3p to 3a and then her replacement came in at 3a...obviously. Well...the 3a nurse came in sicker then a dog. It was clear to me that she was going to be worthless from the get-go. Anyways....she had 6 patients and I had 7. Well...immediately after report, she just sat down at the desk and said "I feel like I'm going to pass out"...I'm thinking, this is great!! Next..the house sup. comes around and says..."I think you need to lay down"...so she does....until 5:30am...then she gets up and sits back at the desk...holding her head...then she calls her bf and tells him how sick she feels. Meanwhile I'm running my orifice' off..trying to take care of my patients...plus hers. A load of 13 which includes 5 fresh surgicals, one going to surgery, two in isolation, one needy, crabby lady on the light every second, one that needs to be d/c'd asap so she can get to an appt. in another city, etc,etc...you get the picture. It was very stressful. Luckily the sup. stayed around and helped a lot...but still....it's like geeeeeeesssshhhh. I know that I've gone in too when I shouldn't have but man....I never just sat at the desk whining about how sick i was. Either call in or come in and expect to have to do the work.... I guess that's the moral of the story. It just makes it so much harder on your co-workers when you come in as "a fraction" of a nurse. Ok..I'm done...just really,really needed to vent on that one!!!!

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Specializes in ICU, CCU, Trauma, neuro, Geriatrics.

Ditto on what IloveSnoopy said

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

calling in is best. but as you can see here in some of the threads, some DONs' and managers make it nearly impossible and even in some cases, threaten people w/jobs when they do. It's not always that simple. In a perfect world, NO ONE would work sick.

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I like that...fraction of a nurse comment.... :chuckle

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.

:chair: True story here. Yesterday I woke up at 5:00 feeling drained and tired to the bone, a little achy but I thought it was from a hard workout at the gym the day prior. I'd been a little run down from school work etc. About 6:00pm I got real hot knowing I was getting a fever out of the blue. It's like that with me when I get flu like symptoms, tired, achy joints and a fever, but it's only happened once or twice before in my life.

Anyway, long story short, no way I was going to call in sick 45 minutes prior to my shift. So I showed up, took my temperature 101.8 (one hour after tylenol), and told them I needed to leave at 11pm. People were kind and supportive.

Yeah it would have been better if I would have called in sick at noon or much earlier. As it was I gave four hours notice to go home at 11:00 and they couldn't find a replacement. I wasn't useless, I found whatever strength was left in me to give at least the best I could while I was there.

Sick calls or people showing up sick upsets the apple cart in many ways. I used to too get angry at sick people showing up for work. But sometimes I think we just sleep too late and don't realize we're that sick until we're up and going. So I'll pass on the judgement. But agree, it's better to call in sick when you're sick. Or if you decide to work sick, as I did, be prepared to work.

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I agree, CALL IN.

I had a similar Friday 2 weeks ago. On Friday's one of the staff nurses work as charge nurse without a pt load. The nurse that was to be in charge that day had been up all night pucking and still drags herself into work. One hour into shift she is laying on a stretcher sick as a dog. The unit manager is standing over her saying "don't do this to me", I looked at him knowing for sure that this would have no affect on him what so ever. The sick nurse goes home, I take charge and care for my 6 patients also. I see the manager once during the day, and that was when he was telling me bye. I pulled a 15 hour day..........it was hell.

Not only stay home so a replacement can be found for you, but also-esp my unit with immunosupp transplant pts-for the safety of your patients who are sick enough already.

3rdShift--you are lucky to have a supportive team. Things do happen beyond our control like getting sick mid shift or too late to call in, and that is a different story.

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calling in is best. but as you can see here in some of the threads, some dons' and managers make it nearly impossible and even in some cases, threaten people w/jobs when they do. it's not always that simple. in a perfect world, no one would work sick.

agree 100%!

it depends who picks up the phone at the scheduling office.

i always bring my manager a medical excuse as proof whether she/he requests one one or not.

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Ya, calling in is a smart idea if ur feeling that horrible, except it could look bad on ur yearly evaluation(depending how ur facility deals with this).

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The company I worked for previously would make you feel horrible for calling in. It always made me so angry. Because is was a LTC where these poor people don't need to be exposed to sickness. :angryfire

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You really hit me where I live with that one. I came down with the flu half way through a shift. I had no idea I was getting ill. It came so suddenly. I made it six hours into the shift and had to be sent home. I feel terrible because the other RN had to finish the last two hours of the shift without me. It musta been pretty difficult. I am going to buy her roses or something. At about 6 pm when I first got sick she told me to go home. At the time I said "oh no, I am just starting to get ill I can make it till the end of the shift." It got bad so fast I had to leave at 9:30. By the way, I covered three extra shifts the week before when she was the first nurse on the unit to get the bug. One person was actually worked up for it and it turned out to be influenza B.

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Well I'm glad to see some feel that way. I had to call in week before last. On the first day I actually called the day before, I was feeling pretty cruddy and was fairly certain I wouldn't be good.....which I wasn't. I made a good call and gave lots of notice. For the second day I waited until about 3 a.m. to decide, made the call well in advance of our deadline. No one seemed to mind.

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The company I worked for previously would make you feel horrible for calling in. It always made me so angry. Because is was a LTC where these poor people don't need to be exposed to sickness. :angryfire

I spent 20+ years in hi tech. I did a fair amount of contracting during that time, meaning, no work, no pay. During one 9 month contract there were a couple of weekends that, on that Monday, I called in sick--because I was not feeling well.

Even still, though, my manager made snide comments about me being sick on Mondays, as though I hadn't been...

What did she think? I didn't want to make money? I guess maybe she thought I was taking unofficial 3-day weekends--but I hardly go anywhere...

NurseFirst

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