My manager lies, lies, lies

[RN1982]

My friend has been out of work because of her high risk pregnancy. She had the baby last week. Her manager called and asked when she was coming back because she was posting her position next week. Sometimes, the ethics in this country suck. Asking a woman to come back to work a week after she had a c-section is deplorable.

[Belfegor]

The minute that you have to start keeping a diary for self protection is the time to start seeking another position. It is a key indicator of a sick workplace....

I couldn't agree more!

It is deplorable that our profession could attract so many back stabbing personalities!

Management position are regularly given to people with border-line-personality disorders, go figure! Just something I have noticed quite frequently in my career (I don't consider myself management by the way- just "support staff").

Likewise, nurses eat their young, or anyone who is perceived as "different" as a matter of fact.

Tell me ladies, do you think it's related to being predominantly a "female" profession? Or is it something else? like the level of stress, the nature of the job? Just curious to have the ladies point of view....

[Belfegor]

It's awful, the treatment this country allows of pregnant women. ZERO protection whatsoever. twelve weeks is not enough time to take care of a problem pregnancy plus and adequate recovery period. Why don't we value our people more?

That is the problem of our country as well as our profession. Only mass action brings enough attention to start things in the right direction. Since there is such a lack of cohesive action (because no cohesive attitude and support amongst nurses) that nothing will ever get done until all the nurses (no pun intended) really agree to support each other and move together.

You are absolutely right in essence!

Neighboring countries like Canada have 12 months of maternity leave paid 85 (for the duration of the maternity leave itself) to 60% (additional "parental leave" beyond the first 3 months after birth) of their best income-year I believe.

The ER,ICU and any other high risk areas (like XRay or toxic meds exposure) send their nurses on maternity leave as soon as they learn that they are pregnant!

Travel nurses from Canada are running back home ASAP when health issues or pregnancies come up. I wonder why.......

[NotReady4PrimeTime, RN]

Neighboring countries like Canada have 12 months of maternity leave paid 85 (for the duration of the maternity leave itself) to 60% (additional "parental leave" beyond the first 3 months after birth) of their best income-year I believe.

Actually maternity leave is 15 weeks, to start no earlier than 6 weeks prior to the delivery, except in premature deliveries. The additional leave is called parental leave, is for up to 35 weeks and can be taken by one parent or the other, or divided up between both. Payments are 55 % of your earnings for the preceding 26 weeks, to a maximum of $447 a week. It's all taxable. You ahve to show that your regular earnings have been decreased by at least 40% and must have worked a minimum of 600 insured hours in the alst 52 weeks or since your last claim.

The ER,ICU and any other high risk areas (like XRay or toxic meds exposure) send their nurses on maternity leave as soon as they learn that they are pregnant!

That's not true everywhere in Canada. I work in an ICU and we have pregnant women working until days (or in one case hours) before delivery. We just limit their exposure to xrays and cytotoxics.

Travel nurses from Canada are running back home ASAP when health issues or pregnancies come up. I wonder why.......

Could it be because we're unionized and have universal health care?

[Belfegor]

Actually maternity leave is 15 weeks, to start no earlier than 6 weeks prior to the delivery, except in premature deliveries. The additional leave is called parental leave, is for up to 35 weeks and can be taken by one parent or the other, or divided up between both. Payments are 55 % of your earnings for the preceding 26 weeks, to a maximum of $447 a week. It's all taxable. You ahve to show that your regular earnings have been decreased by at least 40% and must have worked a minimum of 600 insured hours in the alst 52 weeks or since your last claim.

That's not true everywhere in Canada. I work in an ICU and we have pregnant women working until days (or in one case hours) before delivery. We just limit their exposure to xrays and cytotoxics.

Could it be because we're unionized and have universal health care?

I was very surprised by your post janfrn,

I have worked in only 2 provinces (Quebec and Ontario) and didn't realize that it

might be different in other provinces!

I'm sorry if my post was not accurate....

let's say that it was accurate to the best of my knowledge i.e: in place X at a time T....

I remember my first job in the US: I was working mostly nights and this very nice woman came to work one night with an abdomen quite evidently full of life. So much so that she probably couldn't see her own feet.

I remember thinking "what the H&@#!!! Tell me she works in the pharmacy at least!?!

But of course not.

She was a Nurse with "total care" ICU patients.

Although I have no idea (and will never have ) of the possible discomfort of being pregnant, It just seemed incredibly unfair to expect a woman who was walking like a penguin to turn,pull and push patients twice her weight! And for 12 sleepless hours!

8 hours into the shift, her ankles were so swollen that I had to beg her to sit down and put her feet up. But she wouldn't budge and kept taking care of her patients, her steps becoming shorter and slower and I was hurting just to watch her !

I think that I must have spent half of my assignment in that hospital worrying sick about her! Thankfully the team was quite nice and we would take turns to make sure that she always had someone to do the heavy stuff for her (although she would protest).

But I ended up loosing it all the same when the XRay techs would come around 5:30 Am and yell "X-RAY" at the very same time they pressed the button!

Fat chance she could escape with a half second notice!

It just blew me away that those ladies (the X-R techs) wouldn't even think about something as basic as not exposing a pregnant person!(OK, they shouldn't expose ANYBODY-but the patient)

And I won't even start about the "population" we cared for (Downtown University hospital... primary specialty of that ICU: Liver Tx! ) lets say that most had a drug/ETOH abuse Hx... most were confused and/or violent... most had at least Hep B or C, and often AIDS as well.

Had she been my wife (or my sister), I would have locked her up to keep her away from that unit! (no macho male power intended before you jump on my case, just safety and what I thought was common sense....I guess not after all).

Anyhow, all this to say : I don't think that a pregnant lady should work in areas where there is any kind of risk for her safety. In my culture, people in the streets, on the bus etc...go out of their way to make sure that any lady that shows the first signs of pregnancy have priority to sit down, won't have to carry her grocery bags/luggage etc...so imagine turning pt heavy with Ascites/edema, confused, combative ....UNBELIEVABLE ! UNACCEPTABLE!!!!

That's it, I'm done. Thanks for allowing me...

B-

[NotReady4PrimeTime, RN]

I was very surprised by your post janfrn,

I have worked in only 2 provinces (Quebec and Ontario) and didn't realize that it

might be different in other provinces!

I'm sorry if my post was not accurate....

let's say that it was accurate to the best of my knowledge i.e: in place X at a time T....

There's nothing wrong with explaining things as you know them. I was simply making sure that people knew that things are different depending on where you are. There are no absolutes in 99% of life as we know it, but sometimes that gets lost in the translation.

I remember my first job in the US: I was working mostly nights and this very nice woman came to work one night with an abdomen quite evidently full of life. So much so that she probably couldn't see her own feet.

I remember thinking "what the H&@#!!! Tell me she works in the pharmacy at least!?!

But of course not.

She was a Nurse with "total care" ICU patients.

Although I have no idea (and will never have ) of the possible discomfort of being pregnant, It just seemed incredibly unfair to expect a woman who was walking like a penguin to turn,pull and push patients twice her weight! And for 12 sleepless hours!

8 hours into the shift, her ankles were so swollen that I had to beg her to sit down and put her feet up. But she wouldn't budge and kept taking care of her patients, her steps becoming shorter and slower and I was hurting just to watch her !

I think that I must have spent half of my assignment in that hospital worrying sick about her! Thankfully the team was quite nice and we would take turns to make sure that she always had someone to do the heavy stuff for her (although she would protest).

But I ended up loosing it all the same when the XRay techs would come around 5:30 Am and yell "X-RAY" at the very same time they pressed the button!

Fat chance she could escape with a half second notice!

It just blew me away that those ladies (the X-R techs) wouldn't even think about something as basic as not exposing a pregnant person!(OK, they shouldn't expose ANYBODY-but the patient)

On our unit, where x-rays are done between 0600 and change of shift, the nurses and RTs who are pregnant are expected to be aware of what's happening on the unit and taking care of themselves. None of us has a problem with helping with the x-ray for someone else's patient in that situation. And it's often how we find out about someone's impending motherhood.

Had she been my wife (or my sister), I would have locked her up to keep her away from that unit! (no macho male power intended before you jump on my case, just safety and what I thought was common sense....I guess not after all).

Anyhow, all this to say : I don't think that a pregnant lady should work in areas where there is any kind of risk for her safety. In my culture, people in the streets, on the bus etc...go out of their way to make sure that any lady that shows the first signs of pregnancy have priority to sit down, won't have to carry her grocery bags/luggage etc...so imagine turning pt heavy with Ascites/edema, confused, combative ....UNBELIEVABLE ! UNACCEPTABLE!!!!

That's it, I'm done. Thanks for allowing me...

B-

Unfortunately, North American culture has lost respect for the givers of life. Feminism and female rights activism have made it difficult to provide (or expect) special treatment for pregnant women, and while I don't necessarily agree with that POV, I also don't agree with the pregnancy-as-a-handicap POV that suggests pregnant women shouldn't continue to do their jobs while they're physically able. Our management tries to accommodate in the latter half of pregnancy but it isn't always possible. That's where sick leave comes in. When someone is nearing the termination of her pregnancy or is having complications, they may go on sick leave until such time as their sick leave credits are exhausted, at which time they move onto short-term disability. There are ways and means for those who need it. But pregnancy is NOT a disease, so there is no need for a blanket policy of stopping the world until the baby is born.

[netglow, ASN, RN]

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