Pregnancy is not a disease!!! (vent)

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in ER, Occupational Medicine.

I am so upset right now:angryfire I work as a PCT in a busy ER on the weekends. There is a girl who found out she is pregnant a couple of months ago, and now she thinks that's an excuse not to do her share of the work. We have 22 er rooms in which we have 3 PCT's to cover 2 in the back splitting rooms and 1 in triage. Last night the pregnant tech who is 4-5 months pregnant (3rd child by the way) would not empty her laundry bags or help take her admitted patients upstaris! Now I understand if you have complications then you should be at home or on light duty, not in the er where it is very busy for you to just fold your arms and ignore your work!. I had to take her patients up and mine and still maintain the care for my own pts. I am not the one who got her pregnant if she feels she can't carry out her duties then maybe she and the baby's father need to work it out where she can stay at home, because employers are to treat you like any other employee who is not pregnant.:madface:

I hope I don't come off sounding mean but that's how I feel, I have two kids of my own and worked very hard with both until it was time for me to deliver with no mercy:trout:. You do what you got to do!

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I just had my fourth and I was working up until the very end with all of my pregnancies, having to take care of my own family up until the hour I went to the hospital to deliver. Wait until she gets up in the 3rd trimester, she will hardly be able to walk. I was so bad off with this last one I was riding one of those motorized w/c's at the stores. And I went back to work four days after I delivered this one. It's basically just a sitting job and thankfully one where I can take baby, but it was hard, nonetheless.

But when I read your post I immediately thought of this certain LPN I used to work with. She was lazy, lazy, lazy. Before she got pregnant she wouldn't do anything because her back was hurting, when she was pregnant she wouldn't do anything because she was pregnant.

Lazy, lazy, lazy.

You're right. If she can't pull her weight she needs to go home. Someone will need to tell her that.

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Specializes in Nursing Ed, Ob/GYN, AD, LTC, Rehab.

I think you guys need to be more understanding! Did you see their 'special flag' that they were waving around? These flags are reserved for people who are 'special' and should get treated as such. Shame on you for failing to see it!:lol2:

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I think you guys need to be more understanding! Did you see their 'special flag' that they were waving around? These flags are reserved for people who are 'special' and should get treated as such. Shame on you for failing to see it!:lol2:

Yep, had one of those 'special' people at the last place I worked. A CNA - she was whining to me for sympathy because the LTC facility wouldn't let her go on 'light duty'.:uhoh3:

Why she came to me is a mystery, because I have NO sympathy for slackers. I explained to her what 'light duty' was used for (people hurt on the job) and asked how it would be fair for her to be paid the same amount as the other girls, yet do less.

I'm 'pretty' sure she didn't get pregnant on the job - it was her second child - no one forced her to GET pregnant in the first place.

I told her that all the rest of us with kids have had to deal with it, so I guessed she would too.

She walked down the hall and told one of MY CNA'S that I was just the nastiest thing. Oh, well - truth hurts.:lol2:

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Specializes in PACU, Med/Surg.

I am 26 and have never been pregnant before, and I definitely have seen people use pregnancy as an excuse (and have actually worked with people who were faking pregnancy and trying to get on light duty) but I do think that since procreation is a fact of life, that there should be provisions for women who have to work while pregnant.

Men don't get pregnant of course, and as part of our place in life, we do; it's not right that we should have to handle it on our own. Women don't always have husbands or boyfriends to make money for them so most have to work while pregnant. Maybe America has such a bad trend of pre-term labor because of the attitude so many people have toward pregnant women and working conditions.

I know the extra work sucks sometimes when working with a pregnant co-worker, but most of the pregnant women I have worked with really do try and I definitely DID NOT let them carry anything heavy if I could help it.

I have seen what can happen first hand: A good friend and co-worker was forced to work online with me in a factory. She was pregnant with twins and was having a terribly difficult time. She pleaded with our employer and her doctor to put her on light duty but both declined to do so. She started having problems while she was online and went home sick, and all the while I heard several people complaining that she was "milking it" and "just being lazy" and asserting their various unneeded opinions. Two days later she gave birth to her twin girls at 25-26 weeks. Both girls narrowly survived but after many heart surgeries and lots of lung troubles. It is still unknown as to whether or not they will have any developmental issues or not.:o

She didn't have a choice to just "stay home." She had another child to take care of and a house payment.

I'm not saying you're wrong about your coworker though, I know those people are out there, just saying that we really don't know the plight of others, and even if some people can work up to the hour they deliver, others might not safely be able to.

I didn't think a pregnant woman should lift more than 20 lbs anyway...if your co-worker is 4-5 months pregnant, she probably shouldn't be lifting laundry or patients.:)

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I know the extra work sucks sometimes when working with a pregnant co-worker, but most of the pregnant women I have worked with really do try and I definitely DID NOT let them carry anything heavy if I could help it.

Ah, but this is a time of give and take......."I'll do your bed changes if you'll take this person to his room for me." I agree that pregnancy does deserve some kind of leeway but that person should then take on duties that she can do. Duties can be shifted around but the pregnant one should not be allowed to get rid of tasks without taking on ones that she can do.

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Specializes in PACU, Med/Surg.

Another thing I'd like to add, is that I find it odd that nurses who are so caring and eager to take care of patients will not take care of a co-worker.

We as women need to stand up for each other; this is the only way we got the rights we have now to vote, own property, etc. It is because women decided to support each other instead of tearing each other down. I don't see why pregnancy rights should be any different.

Ah, but this is a time of give and take......."I'll do your bed changes if you'll take this person to his room for me." I agree that pregnancy does deserve some kind of leeway but that person should then take on duties that she can do. Duties can be shifted around but the pregnant one should not be allowed to get rid of tasks without taking on ones that she can do.

I whole-heartedly agree with you.

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Another thing I'd like to add, is that I find it odd that nurses who are so caring and eager to take care of patients will not take care of a co-worker.

We as women need to stand up for each other; this is the only way we got the rights we have now to vote, own property, etc. It is because women decided to support each other instead of tearing each other down. I don't see why pregnancy rights should be any different.

I don't think that women not standing up for each other is the issue here. Many work places do make accomodations for pregnant employees and I think most of us would have no problem helping out a pregnant co-worker. However, these women that other posters are talking about are using their pregnancy as an excuse to slack off and take advantage of their co-workers. It's hard not to feel resentful when you work with someone like that :uhoh3:

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.

You're not sounding mean. I worked with a woman whom the day she became pregnant suddenly became an invalid, and of course wouldn't take certain patients. It was aggravating.

The stork delivered four babies to nursres on my unit lately and they all were awesome, carrying on the same as they did pre-pregnancy. The fifth will deliver in less than four weeks, climbs the steps up to the fifth floor, leaves work to walk the treadmill for an hour. She's planning on not going on her maternity leave when scheduled because she says she feels so good.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.
Another thing I'd like to add, is that I find it odd that nurses who are so caring and eager to take care of patients will not take care of a co-worker.

We as women need to stand up for each other; this is the only way we got the rights we have now to vote, own property, etc. It is because women decided to support each other instead of tearing each other down. I don't see why pregnancy rights should be any different.

I whole-heartedly agree with you.

Well, if it is truly a give and take situation, which is what you're agreeing to, then I have no problem with that.

I think however the op is talking about a different kind of worker. You know the kind......lazy.

By the way, I'm male and we NURSES need to stand up for one another. Why make it a sexist thing? :lol2:

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unless the ob states there are risks in a pregnancy, i have no problem with continuing with reg duties.

pregnant women are fully capable.

yes, i do help pg women, but as a courtesy.

but unless they come in w/an md note, i would expect them to do their jobs.

leslie

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I have seen what can happen first hand: A good friend and co-worker was forced to work online with me in a factory. She was pregnant with twins and was having a terribly difficult time. She pleaded with our employer and her doctor to put her on light duty but both declined to do so. She started having problems while she was online and went home sick, and all the while I heard several people complaining that she was "milking it" and "just being lazy" and asserting their various unneeded opinions. Two days later she gave birth to her twin girls at 25-26 weeks. Both girls narrowly survived but after many heart surgeries and lots of lung troubles. It is still unknown as to whether or not they will have any developmental issues or not.:o

She didn't have a choice to just "stay home." She had another child to take care of and a house payment.

I'm not saying you're wrong about your coworker though, I know those people are out there, just saying that we really don't know the plight of others, and even if some people can work up to the hour they deliver, others might not safely be able to.

I didn't think a pregnant woman should lift more than 20 lbs anyway...if your co-worker is 4-5 months pregnant, she probably shouldn't be lifting laundry or patients.:)

And she shouldn't be working in an environment that requires such, either.

I know life is hard, but if I were in a position I didn't feel I could handle I'd be down at the food stamp office and trying to get short-term disability. It's not a dig at the pregnant woman, at the same time, there is work that has to be done and it unfairly puts others at risk having to carry the extra burden.

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