People calling in sick a lot who are moonlighting as agency

[FireStarterRN, BSN, RN]

I ran into someone yesterday at work from my old hospital. I'm working totally agency now, mostly at this one hospital. I asked her about the latest from my old workplace. She is a unit secretary on Med/Surg and is a nursing student and was there to pick out a patient and review the chart.

There are some nurses there who are doing a lot of agency on the side, on top of their regular shifts. Management is giving them a hard time about their frequent sick calls and they are feeling oppressed about that. People feel oppressed easily at that hospital even though it's a cush place to work with unlimited internet access, and great ratios with lots of downtime.

I told her that management had a point. If you are working a lot of extra hours at an agency job, then calling in sick at your regular job, maybe you need to slow down.

What do you think? Should moonlighting be discouraged by hospitals? Originally that hospital was encouraging it when I was there. But more nurses started doing it and maybe they noticed a pattern.

[Jolie, BSN]

Generally speaking, I don't think it is an employer's place to "encourage" or "discourage" moonlighting, or any other activity on one's time off. Unless a contract prohibits it, it is none of the employer's business what legal activities employees engage in on their own time.

If an employer finds that employees are abusing benefits (whether insurance or sick time) then that needs to be addressed, regardless of the cause, so it doesn't negatively impact all employees thru higher costs or reduced benefits.

[bethin]

Moonlighting is ok, as long as you are able to juggle everything in your life and still get adequate sleep and show up to work.

[RN1982]

Moonlighting is ok but no one should be calling in sick at their regular job just so they can do it.

[carolCCRN]

At my facility, we have a point system that awards so many points for an absence, more points for an absence on a holiday, etc. Once a staff member gets to a certain number, he/she gets a warning. If the behavior continues, the corrective action continues up to termination. Of course, it only works if the NM has the guts to fire somebody--and mine does! Alot of my co-workers have "the hook-up" at other facilities for extra hours, but there's not too much calling-in over here because of it. People with trully chronic health problems are strongly encouraged to file for FMLA.

[soulofme]

Think about your co-workers when you call in because of a 2nd job. They are the ones that suffer from your call ins if they have to work short staffed.

[racing-mom4, BSN, RN]

I cant imagine a hospital that does not have an attendance policy. Our hospital has PTO hours, for every 12 hours you work you get a little over 1 PTO hour, so if you have the PTO time you can use it, it does not matter the reason...

Is it "nice" to call in sick just because your tired from working your other job? No, but as long as you have the time:sick days/PTO hours/banked time, It is legal...Do it too much and use up all your PTO time, then you really do get sick or have a family emergency and you could loose your job, so it is a gamble they chose to take.

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

Texas is looking into legislation that would require nurses not to work more than a specific number of hours/week or per day (don't know the numbers they are considering). The idea is that fatique is a factor in risk for both nurse and patient. Also it would ease the concern that hospitals may REQUIRE too many hours. The funny thing is, NURSES are complaining about this bill. They want to be able to work as many hours as they can, with mulitple employers or with only one. So some nurses want to mandate fewer hours and some want to work all the time. Don't know how this will play out.

[Jolie, BSN]

I am opposed to mandatory OT, but I can't help wondering if the employees who complain the most about being required to work an extra shift for their primary employer are the same ones who call out in order to do a prn shift somewhere else.

[txredheadnurse, BSN, RN]

Texas is looking into legislation that would require nurses not to work more than a specific number of hours/week or per day (don't know the numbers they are considering). The idea is that fatique is a factor in risk for both nurse and patient. Also it would ease the concern that hospitals may REQUIRE too many hours. The funny thing is, NURSES are complaining about this bill. They want to be able to work as many hours as they can, with mulitple employers or with only one. So some nurses want to mandate fewer hours and some want to work all the time. Don't know how this will play out.

I could be totally wrong but I thought the total hours for a 7 days span was 60 & 16hrs in 1 day and no more than 2 16 hour days in a row. Yes, there are pros and cons to both sides. Part of me is irritated by any governmental group telling me how I can live/pay my bills, etc but another part of me would love to know I could say....sorry no OT for me or I will exceed the mandated total work time.

[CoffeeRTC, BSN, RN]

There was a post about this a while back. I think it even got to 12 or so pages...

This gist was: It is wrong to call off sick from your primary job, get sick pay and then work at your other job.

I don't think I would like to be mandated (they do that at my place) because someone called off to work at a different place.

[pagandeva2000, LPN]

In my opinion, most nurses may feel they are not paid enough to begin with, otherwise, we would not work second and even third gigs. With that in mind, another thought that comes to me is this; working overtime at the same job usually is not worth it, because for one, for those of us that work biweekly, you may not see it for at least a month, secondly, they kill you in taxes, so, you barely see much for the hard work done. I can see what would make a person decide to work elsewhere or let an agency pay them. I work in a hospital clinic, but work within my hospital's med-surg units getting paid by the agency. I get paid better through the agency, and see it within the week. I don't call in to do this, though.

Unfortunately, we can't determine what each individual's situation is, so, I would not say they are right or wrong. People will continue to do what they feel they have to do for whatever reasons.