25 Nurses fired for not working Frances

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FL. Hospital fired 25 nurses for not showing up or refusing to work during hurricane Frances. Others were suspended for not working OT or coming in late. My friend's sister was one of the 25 nurses who was fired. She was on vacation when they called her to come in! I'll be damned if I am on a much needed vacation and I have to break my vacation to drive through 70 miles per hour winds(5 people,different times during frances, were killed when the vehicles they were driving was pushed off the road by strong winds into a ditch or lake) and heavy rain to get to the hospital!! I am not the one. I know nursing is a caring profession but Personal safety comes first. Also, doesn't firing those nurse add to the shortage, DUH!!

Specializes in Nursing Education.

Thanks for the link ....still does not give much information that is for sure.

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Specializes in Nursing Education.
We had a lot of call offs during Francis. "I'm not risking my life to come to work". Here in this area it was strong winds and rain but by 7am wasn't that bad. 26 people refused to come to work, but all of us on nights made it home in the rain. :)

I'm scheduled to work this Monday and Tuesday. I know there is a potential hurricane out there for those days in this area. It is up to me to be responsible enough to make plans and provisions to report to work those two days. This might mean showing up several hours ahead of my shift if this assures me safely being to work on time, or more likely I'll have to sleep there inbetween the two 12-hour shifts. Not wait until the last minute and call in "there's a hurricane, I'm not risking my life". Well duh, yeah there's a hurricane, why is that news to you?

However, I certainly have compassion and understanding for invididuals who can't report to work as scheduled. No one should be fired if they are called in and they say no that they can't make it if they aren't scheduled. Each case should be considered individually.

Unfortunately this isn't Walmart, despite the fact that nurses are humans, with lives and property of their own to protect, the organization has to assure sick patients who can't be discharged have nurses caring for them. Proper planning, cooperation and commitment is the key.

I was very proud of my coworkers during the last two hurricanes. Many people sacrificed quite a bit to be at work. No, we don't want to do it. It's a free country, no one is holding a gun to anyone's head saying you must do anything, but people did what they had to do for not only their jobs, their commitment to providing for our patients.

Anyway, I'm a bit torn. I understand why hospitals need to enforce policies because the next time people might not take it seriously and the patients would suffer.

Tweety - you make some excellent points and it can be a tough decision knowiing what is the right thing to do. Obviously people need to guard their personal safety. Quite frankly, I would rather be at the hospital rather than at home (of course, I want my family with me) during a storm ... generally speaking, the hospital structure is much more secure than any house would be. But, it can be a tough deicsion and it really does take a great deal of planning.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.
Tweety - you make some excellent points and it can be a tough decision knowiing what is the right thing to do. Obviously people need to guard their personal safety. Quite frankly, I would rather be at the hospital rather than at home (of course, I want my family with me) during a storm ... generally speaking, the hospital structure is much more secure than any house would be. But, it can be a tough deicsion and it really does take a great deal of planning.

Patrick I agree it's tough when you have a family. Heck it's stressful for me planning what to do with the dogs. Many nurses and other staff that were in evacuation zones brought their children to work. It's was very stresssful for them. But many of them agreed, it was safer than staying home and better than going to a community shelter.

It's a very tough and stressful situation, with planning and people pulling together.

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3rdshiftguy even Wal-mart boarded up a closed a day before Frances hit.

FL hospital was very accomodating to the employees during Charley but when Frances came thru they flipped the script. I just returned to work yeasterday and a few co-workers of mine who were at the hospital during Frances told me what went down.

First, they were told that they would not be paid their regular pay when they were off duty and resting. Then they were told they COULD NOT use the empty patient beds, hospital towels or linens that they were able to use during charley. That is absurd!! Some people had a friend or huband bring them a comforter and pillow to sleep on when there was a break in the storm. Also having to sleep on the floor in conference rooms with pople laughing and talking 1,2,3,4 o'clock in the morning when they had to wake up my 6am to get ready for work. How were those people supposed to functioning properly without getting a good nights rest?

When I spoke to other friends who worked at others hospitals during Frances other than Florida hospital they did not expierence this. They were paid their full wages for working during Frances and even when they were sleeping. I guess those other hospitals know how to take care of their employees so that is why they did not have any problems with people calling out or refusing to work.

There is an article about this in the Septmeber 10 Orlando sentinel("19 fired for absence in storm") but I do not know how to link it with this post.

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Specializes in Nursing Education.
3rdshiftguy even Wal-mart boarded up a closed a day before Frances hit.

FL hospital was very accomodating to the employees during Charley but when Frances came thru they flipped the script. I just returned to work yeasterday and a few co-workers of mine who were at the hospital during Frances told me what went down.

First, they were told that they would not be paid their regular pay when they were off duty and resting. Then they were told they COULD NOT use the empty patient beds, hospital towels or linens that they were able to use during charley. That is absurd!! Some people had a friend or huband bring them a comforter and pillow to sleep on when there was a break in the storm. Also having to sleep on the floor in conference rooms with pople laughing and talking 1,2,3,4 o'clock in the morning when they had to wake up my 6am to get ready for work. How were those people supposed to functioning properly without getting a good nights rest?

When I spoke to other friends who worked at others hospitals during Frances other than Florida hospital they did not expierence this. They were paid their full wages for working during Frances and even when they were sleeping. I guess those other hospitals know how to take care of their employees so that is why they did not have any problems with people calling out or refusing to work.

There is an article about this in the Septmeber 10 Orlando sentinel("19 fired for absence in storm") but I do not know how to link it with this post.

This presents a whole different light on the subject. As nurses, if we are expected to work during storms like this, then it is the responsibility of the hospital to ensure that the staff have reasonable accomodations so they can have proper rest. Working without proper rest is just asking for errors and problems.

The situation as you described it is totally unacceptable. I also think that these employees should have been paid disaster wages. This whole situation is a tragedy for those nurses!

Who is Florida Hospital owed by? Isn't that a big hospital system in Orlando?

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yes, it is the Adventist health system, a part of the seventh-day adventist church.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.
3rdshiftguy even Wal-mart boarded up a closed a day before Frances hit.

Well, my point was that some hospitals don't have that option. Shame on the hospitals though that are asking their workers to pull 200% and give nothing in return. We got paid for waiting for our shift to start, and if there wasn't a patient in the room, we got to sleep in those beds.

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Yes, it is a shame. Especially when there are extra empty beds lining the hallways and numerous carts of clean linens that were there but they weren't allowed to use.

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This puts a whole new light on things.

I was contacted by a FL recruiter who wrote of the "dire need" for nurses in FL.

I was told I could sleep in a bed (and not get paid for sleeping), or sleep in a sleeping bag ON THE FLOOR (and GET PAID for sleeping.)

OMG.

:rolleyes:

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Specializes in Utilization Management.

We were told to bring our own bedding, clothing, meds, food, and personal items for up to two days, and that the best thing would be for someone to drive us to work early if necessary, and drop us off instead of parking in the parking lot. It was the first I'd heard that our hospital is in a flood zone, and the policy prior to that was that families could evacuate to the hospital with the employees.

It's my opinion that someone dropped the ball with creating a realistic policy with this, because when Charley was headed for us, the policy that had been in effect while there was no threat, did a faster about-face than Charley did, and suddenly many employees were facing down a Cat 3 hurricane and nowhere to go.

Please don't misunderstand--I have no idea if the nurses who were fired after Frances were supposed to report to work to a hospital in an evacuation zone, but as someone else pointed out, the entire East Coast was under evacuation orders.

It was worse for a relative who works for a group home. No one boarded up windows for the residents, or took the least bit of precaution for the safety of those riding out the hurricane there. They were supposed to evacuate, but didn't.

I was flabbergasted, and that caused me to start this thread:

https://allnurses.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75790&page=1&pp=10

I mean, Tweety, your dedication is admirable and I really respect your opinions on many things, but your hospital is one that doesn't have to evacuate, and welcomes family. Had that been my situation, I would've gone in.

Still, I agree with a lot of the others when I sincerely say that those nurses shouldn't have been fired. It seems like more of the double standard to me--only nursing, out of all the helping professions, is called on to risk life and limb. No doctor was fired for not being on-call. No firefighter or policeman, nor any EMT.

Those nurses in the hospitals in Punta Gorda and Charlotte County that sustained damage are not being called heroes, but they are.

The weathermen tell everyone in harm's way to get out of the way, but if a nurse does it....her head will roll?

It just seems to me a tad unfair.

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More than a tad.

BTW I do like your name, Miss O'Plasty. :rotfl:

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Not only were the nurses not allowed to sleep in empty beds or even use a sheet, several of the 7p-7a shift were woken up 3 times and asked to move to another place. One of the nurses fired was because she didn't come in the day after the storm because her home was just about destroyed. They said that is no excuse. In addition, we are now in mandatory overtime. If we refuse, we will be fired. This includes all part-time, PRN and full time staff, and nurses in late pregnancy. Children, damage to homes nor anything else is accepted as an excuse for the two days on and two days off mandatory schedule. If we don't follow the mandatory 2 days on and 2 days off schedule, we will be fired. One employee was written up for complaining. We are not allowed to discuss our disagreement of this schedule or we will be in trouble for that.

3rdshiftguy even Wal-mart boarded up a closed a day before Frances hit.

FL hospital was very accomodating to the employees during Charley but when Frances came thru they flipped the script. I just returned to work yeasterday and a few co-workers of mine who were at the hospital during Frances told me what went down.

First, they were told that they would not be paid their regular pay when they were off duty and resting. Then they were told they COULD NOT use the empty patient beds, hospital towels or linens that they were able to use during charley. That is absurd!! Some people had a friend or huband bring them a comforter and pillow to sleep on when there was a break in the storm. Also having to sleep on the floor in conference rooms with pople laughing and talking 1,2,3,4 o'clock in the morning when they had to wake up my 6am to get ready for work. How were those people supposed to functioning properly without getting a good nights rest?

When I spoke to other friends who worked at others hospitals during Frances other than Florida hospital they did not expierence this. They were paid their full wages for working during Frances and even when they were sleeping. I guess those other hospitals know how to take care of their employees so that is why they did not have any problems with people calling out or refusing to work.

There is an article about this in the Septmeber 10 Orlando sentinel("19 fired for absence in storm") but I do not know how to link it with this post.

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