Politely refusing

[gtmoore]

The director of nursing of the hospital called my house and left a message begging me to come in on Saturday night to work the floor. This is a big thing since this is my nurse manager's boss and I want to make sure I use the right words to politely decline her offer for me to come in. It would be overtime, but, I'm exhausted from just coming off of 3 12 hour night shifts in a row. However, in my 3 years of working at my hospital, the director of nursing has never called me. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

[EmmaG, RN]

Thanks for everyone's help. Maybe I was making more out of this issue than I should have.

Here was my email reply:

I received your phone message. Thank you for thinking of me. Unfortunately, I am unable to work this weekend.

Her reply back was:

Thanks I had to try have a good weekend

Having been on that end of those calls many times, I think most managers understand. When we were short, I called everyone on our staff, even if I knew they'd say "no". I certainly couldn't face the next shift knowing I hadn't at least tried to get them help.

[autumleaves]

Ignore it. You are not under any obligation to come in and are not on call. You have a life outside of work. Live it.

It is not your responsibility to staff the hospital, it is management's.

Amen to that!!