Is anyones facility so short staffed that they feel guilty calling in sick?

legsmalone, RN · Oct 18, 2002

Originally posted by dhogan
I have worked with bronchitis and an inhaler in my pocket. Also got sick a few times but couldn't leave cause there was no one to take my pts. I will call in now if I feel what I have is contagious but like most I don't want to leave the floor short. Very hard to find others to work on our floor. Even now I have waited 5 months to see an ortho doc for a possible rotator tear in my shoulder. Worried about having to stay out for surgery. My appt is tomorrow and I finally realized it wasn't my responsibility to worry about staffing if I was out a few weeks.

Good luck, I hope you don't have to undergo surgical repair of the cuff....I've strained my right cuff playing sports a few times and even that can kill, I feel your pain and am AMAZED you were able to keep on keepin' on with work.

Vsummer1 · Oct 18, 2002

LEGSMALONE -- you go to Bakersfield? Are you going to their campus or a satellite campus? How is their program? I was actually thinking of looking into it, but ended up in an ADN program... dh is stationed at Edwards and I didn't think there were options in this "armpit".

legsmalone, RN · Oct 18, 2002

Originally posted by Vsummer1
LEGSMALONE -- you go to Bakersfield? Are you going to their campus or a satellite campus? How is their program? I was actually thinking of looking into it, but ended up in an ADN program... dh is stationed at Edwards and I didn't think there were options in this "armpit".

I am actually on campus, but I know the options at the satellite campuses for nursing classes are pretty good, one of the classes I am in now is closed circuted to College of the Sequoias and Antelope valley. I am very happy with the program here, if you can, I would really suggest looking into the RN to BSN program they have here, besides the BSN, you also get a certificate in Public Health which is great to have if you are interested in working out in community health clinincs and the like.

Yeah, I moved from San Diego to come to school here.......long story, but I heard all sorts of good things about the program here down south from nurses my Mom worked with who had worked with graduates from this program. I had the same type of reaction, "What??? Bakersfield????" but I do love the program. We are about to go through a BRN visit and hope to be certified by them so you could add that to the list of good things too!

OK, I am done being a commercial.......:)

jennirn · Oct 18, 2002

you're working with patients, wose immune systems are compromised...call in if you're sick. I think your co-workers are pitiful for calling in with hangovers. Also if you're going in sick with something contagious you are not helping the call-in problem either as you are exposing your co-workers. I only call in when sick and I don't feel guilty about it. If you're sick, you're sick.

Marty1 · Oct 18, 2002

I can't say I feel guilty when I call in sick

I used to long ago but not now

I realized that by going in sick it often caused other

to get sick and that wasn't good plus I just wasn't good

for my patients when I was feeling ill myself

I try not to abuse my sick time though and only use it

if I truly am sick

Riseupandnurse · Oct 22, 2002

How do nurses feel about calling in sick? This is partly a generational thing. The older group (of which I am one, actually, being in my 50s) tends to hate calling in sick. We also respond more to staffing requests to work extra, stay over, and do without. I missed my grandfather's, my grandmother's, and my uncle's funerals because the hospital "really needed me". I never saw either of my two children perform in their grade school Christmas pageants. The younger crowd of nurses are more apt to think of their job as a job, and to put their lives and families first.

Even though I'm in the older group, I now have no problem with calling in sick. While I still think nursing is a very special calling, and I would do almost anything for my patients, I also believe that I am valuable too, and that my own life has meaning and importance. We nurses have allowed ourselves to be taken advantage of for far too long, because of our dedication to our patients and our profession. We cannot give to others when we have nothing left to give. We need to let the adminstrators find ways to make nursing jobs more attractive, so that we have more nurses to draw from, rather than continuing to give up our lives and our health to delay an eventual coming to terms with reality.

tattooednursie, LVN · Jun 26, 2003

Well, you all will be proud of me. Yesterday I called in!!! About 6 months ago I had to take 10 days off due to pnemonia! I am definantly getting burned out, and I think that is what made me sick yesterday.

LOL, just going through old posts.

tattooednursie, LVN · Jun 3, 2007

Bottom line: In 5 or 20 years, will you really feel as if coming in ill was the best thing for you to do? Or will you be dead because you worked yourself to death for those greedy bas8ards?

OMG . . . I am sitting here looking through all my old posts from about 5 years ago . . . Yes, its been 5 years later . . . A bit of advice for any newbies . . . although alot of this was a little overbearing . . . some good advice here . . . I did get burned out. So now . . . I REFUSE to work when I am I'll, and refuse to come in when I get the rare day off and they try to call me in. . . .