Pregnancy Work Woes

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"Its in the water" I'm sure everybody has heard this phrase. For those who haven't it usually means in the workplace (for me the hospital) when one person gets pregnant it spreads like wild fire. This go around I have been spared the pregnancy bug, however my cohorts have not. Now here's the issue, although nurses are pregnant, patient acuity does not change. Patients still need to be bathe, fed, walk to the bathroom,or wound dressing change. Recently at work I was working with a nurse whose fairly early in her pregnancy who refuse to change the patient because the smell was too overwhelming.(Bad yeast under stomach folds) Later on that night she refuse to help transfer that same patient to MRI stretcher. (Patient was bariatric).Throughout the night I was wondering at what point is enough's ENOUGH??. How can we accommodate pregnancy woes. I haven't been pregnant in over seven years but when I was I wasn't spared my duties as a CNA. I still changed diapers. I still helped with stinky trach care, I still pulled and push heavy patients. I was expected to to do my job should I expect the nurse to do hers??

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In ltc this became enough of an issue that a staff meeting was held with the administrator saying that if anyone was unprepared to perform their duties(to my knowledge all staff nurse/aide/tech positions, when posted for applications, state that the position involves lifting, pushing, pulling, squatting, etc) they either needed to stay home on sick time per policy or (I think according to state or federal law) bring an md note stating the need for light duty and be prepared to be asked to fill a different position and/or use sick time (and go unpaid if none available) if no light duty work is available.

As far as I know, it is common policy that anyone who refuses to perform regular duties due to any health issue needs a doctor's note and administrative approval. Ultimately I believe that when the employee agreed to certain physical tasks when hired, it is up to the employer whether to accommodate them if unable to do their whole job or else fmla protocol goes into effect.

Summary: in all areas I have worked, pregnancy is not an automatic excuse to not do your job. If they have a md note they are treated like any disabled non workers comp employee. Now, other employees can choose to do a favor here or there if there is a specific infrequent thing they object to, but you are under no obligation. Someone who is not performing their duties can be reported. That said, depending on the setting you may wind up with the person out on fmla, their position held and no one hired in their place. Use your judgement about your workplace in deciding whether it is easier to just pull the extra weight (possibly find something they can do for you in exchange?) Or risk short staffing and being seen as a snitch if reporting the problem.

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Specializes in Emergency Nursing.

Pregnancy shouldn't be a get out stinky jobs card by any means. But transferring a bariatric patient? Yeah I'd probably decline that too.

I work in a busy ED. I worked up until I delivered at 37.5 weeks. I did virtually all of my duties, but I declined to participate in reductions with fluoro or transferring/repositioning obese patients. I also stopped seeing rashes as many turned out to be shingles. I had supportive coworkers who were more than happy to step in. But if I had used it as a trump card or some sort of excuse, I wouldn't have expected such kind responses.

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I am currently 26 weeks pregnant and working as an RN on a Cardiac step-down unit. All in all I have not declined to do very many things throughout my pregnancy. Stinky jobs or not, I still have done them. I do find it hard to do all the bending, pulling, twisting, that I have done throughout my practice. Also my supervisor and my co-workers have been amazing actually stepping in to help me transfer patients. My assignments have also been chosen carefully for me so I haven't gotten very many isolation or bed bound patients. I honestly feel that I am still getting paid, so I have an expectation to do my job. My unit has just been really good to me!

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The pregnant women I've worked with didn't ever refuse to do their job. Obviously, they wouldn't get a patient with shingles, and we had one woman whose OB didn't want her to have flu patients.

It seems like the people I know are the total opposite of the OP's coworkers...they're not going to let being pregnant turn them into wimps, and refuse to let people help them! And as far as smells go, I've seen more than one puke in a strategically placed trash can then keep going like nothing happened.

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Specializes in LTC, Rural, OB.

Before my miscarriage a few months ago, we had a patient that tended to get violent and that night was very intoxicated. She needed a lot of help transferring and by no means was she large but when I went to help transfer her, the doctor and other nurse refused to let me help because they did not want me to get hurt. Good thing too because, unfortunately the pt fell and pulled the other nurse down with her. I really appreciated that my coworkers wanted to keep me safe. Unfortunately my pregnancy ended anyways. When my other coworker was pregnant, we didn't give her any of the isolation patients if we could help it. Now I'm working at a new facility and when I do get pregnant again I hope they are supportive. By no means will I try to get out of my work, but I will tell you I'm not going to help lift large patients, I'm not risking another miscarriage and if that is one risky thing I can prevent I will. I will do anything else I'm supposed to do though.

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I think my tolerance depends on the person and their prior behavior. I'm five months and some of my co-workers do help me a bit more, but I think it's in part because I've always helped them. I'll head to the end of the hall to check on a beeping IV for an older nurse with bad knees. I'll take midnight vitals for a CNA who's not feeling well, etc.

I haven't refused to do anything, yet ...but my baby is the most important thing to me and if I felt like I was endangering it, I would draw the line- even at the expense of my job.

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I am currently 25 weeks and am scolded by my coworkers for many of the tasks I am doing. They go out of their way to assist me when dealing with a difficult or dangerous issue. That being said I have always done the same for them. I will never use my pregnancy as an excuse to get out of doing something that is reasonable.

I do have one coworker that doesn't get it though. My clueless coworker was upset that I refused to go into a room with a well known, very violent patient, who needed several treatments. I found someone else who was more than happy to help her out. I covered for the other coworker and it all worked out. It was a good thing I said no as the patient did kick the 2nd nurse who went in to help. I am all about pulling my weight, but by God I'm not putting this kid at risk of being punched if I don't have to.

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Before my miscarriage a few months ago, we had a patient that tended to get violent and that night was very intoxicated. She needed a lot of help transferring and by no means was she large but when I went to help transfer her, the doctor and other nurse refused to let me help because they did not want me to get hurt. Good thing too because, unfortunately the pt fell and pulled the other nurse down with her. I really appreciated that my coworkers wanted to keep me safe. Unfortunately my pregnancy ended anyways. When my other coworker was pregnant, we didn't give her any of the isolation patients if we could help it. Now I'm working at a new facility and when I do get pregnant again I hope they are supportive. By no means will I try to get out of my work, but I will tell you I'm not going to help lift large patients, I'm not risking another miscarriage and if that is one risky thing I can prevent I will. I will do anything else I'm supposed to do though.

I'm sorry for your loss.

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Specializes in LTC, Rural, OB.

Thank you.

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Specializes in ICU.

We have a ton of preggers right now. They are all generally very helpful, but in some situations they are a bit of a hindrance. I had a patient recently who we were ruling out TB, shingles, HIV, hepatitis, toxoplasmosis, ova/parasites... pretty much just about everything because we didn't know what was wrong with her. She was constantly pulling out her high flow nasal cannula and she de-satted into the low 70s when she did.

We were very short staffed and the person with the rooms next to this lady was pregnant. It wasn't her fault she couldn't help, but it didn't stop me from being run half to death without any assistance with that patient. My other coworkers were too tied up to help. It was nice that she came and got me every time the patient pulled out her nasal cannula, but having someone next to me who could have helped me put the patient's nasal cannula back in would have been better.

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I had a rough pregnancy, to the extent of being put on intermittent FMLA during the pregnancy due to hyperemesis and repeated hospitalizations, home health care, and even wearing a subcu zofran pump for a month (I even worked with the pump on). My clinic had one pt who would come in q 2 weeks for an allergy shot; pt was schizophrenic and would frequently not bathe. Pt's body odor was rough on a good day, so factor in the hypersensitive smell and chronic nausea/vomiting, and it wasn't pretty. I gave pt their shot one day and had to run around the corner to gag. I had to tell my manager that I physicallly could not give that pt their shots, so she agreed to do their shots if I did shots for a pt the manager didn't enjoy being around. I figured it was either do this trade-off or gag and try not to vomit in front of the pt. Plus, my hyperemesis was so bad that if I got started throwing up I could not stop and would have to go back to the ER (I'd already been 3 times at this point in the game) and get IV fluids and IV zofran. I was lucky that my manager was accommodating on this issue. Just remember, it's a temporary situation and your coworker will be back to full force in a few months!

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