On-call at home and police wake you up?

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Lactation, Women's Health, Obstetrics.

So, I was on call last night and had a terrible time sleeping because I kept thinking I heard the phone ring. I never did get called in but when I came in today for my shift and was mentioning my lack of sleep and my worries about not waking up for the call- multiple co-workers mentioned not to worry because the policy is to call the police to come wake you up if you don't answer the phone.

Is this really true or are my co-workers pulling my leg? Anyone heard of this or had the police show up on their door?:uhoh21:

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Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.

They aren't joking w/ you. It has never happened to me but did happen to a former coworker. She worked nights and went home, slept through her alarm, and was still asleep at 2330 when the cops came to her door to make sure she was still alive. Of course, she was embarrassed more than anything, but still.

I have heard stories of this happening and the cops go to the house to find that something awful has indeed happened to the person supposed to be @ work.

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The cops are not going top come and wake you up. They have way more important things to do like catch criminals.

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Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.
The cops are not going top come and wake you up. They have way more important things to do like catch criminals.

Ummmm.... beg to differ with you. Not that they don't have criminals to catch, but they'll go check on a nurse for the same reason that they won't ticket a nurse for being out on the road in bad weather.

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Specializes in NICU.

They'll check on doctors, too. At our hospital, a doc picked up the phone but didn't say anything. Nurses were unable to contact him. The police went to the house, he had had an MI and was dead.

I would try several times to call in a nurse. We like to have both home and cell phones if available. If you are on call, and live alone, I would talk to the house supervisor if you could not be contacted. Who knows?

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Specializes in Obstetrics.

True!

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Specializes in pedi, pedi psych,dd, school ,home health.

it is called a well being check; the police will do it for almost anyone who is not answering or not responding to the door etc.

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Specializes in O.R., ED, M/S.

many years ago when I did live in the town that I still work in, I had the police and the security from the hospital come to my house to wake me up. I have also been picked up by the police when there was a time I ran out of gas and the hospital called the police to go and get me. I am not so sure if they would do it anymore but they might.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Lactation, Women's Health, Obstetrics.

Well, I guess my husband was wrong...after I told him about it he said my coworkers were just messing with me because I am a new nurse! ha!

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I live alone and have had the situation brought to my attention by a co-worker. Since then my rolodex phone card has the information of: no show/no call, please call and the phone number of one of my son's who lives closest to me.

It made all of the sense in the world things happen to people every day

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Specializes in Cardiac, ER.

That's what happens where I work. If I don't show up and they can't reach me they send the police to do a "check the welfare of" call. I'm thinking this is a good thing myself. I drive 45 min through country roads, if it weren't for onstar I could lay in a ditch for hours before anyone even drove by!

Several years ago one of our long time OR nurses didn't show up for her shift, didn't answer her home phone or her cell phone, police went to her house and found her and her two kids murdered! Everyone thinks the husband did it, although he wasn't found guilty.

I'm okay that my coworkers are concerned when I'm not where I'm supposed to be!

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

back in the 80s, a physician at our hospital committed suicide in the on call room. (pavulon and valium.) as you can imagine, it was a horrible situation and our hearts all went out to his wife and kids. a few days later, one of our float nurse failed to show up for her shift. a call to the nursing supervisor revealed that this wasn't the first shift she'd failed to show up for, so after several attempts to phone her, the police were called. when they went to her house, they found her dead in bed -- an obvious suicide. it seems that she was dating the (married) physician and they'd had a falling out. it was such an awful situation.

then a few years ago, i floated to another icu in our hospital and took report from a really cheerful, pleasant guy named tim who was looking forward to getting off because his so was cooking a special dinner for their anniversary. when he failed to come in to work the next day, i got stuck staying late because there was no one to take the assignment. after two hours, i insisted that they send someone to his house to wake him up. ( i figured he'd had such a good time the night before he'd forgotten to set his alarm.) the charge called another nurse who was off that day, and she went around to tim's house to pound on the front door. her pounding woke the so, who was horrified to find that he couldn't wake tim. he'd vomited and aspirated and died in his sleep. he was 27!

and another time an aging charge nurse at a hospital where i was on travel assignment got drunk and fell down her front stairs. she had broken her hip and couldn't get back into the house, and for some reason either didn't have, had broken or couldn't reach her cell phone. the police were sent to her house when she failed to show up for work, and they brought her to the er. last i heard, she was in alcohol rehab.

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