Pregnant, refused an assignment

[5555555]

Hi there, I have been working as a contract nurse. I am two months in a contract with a hospital in Houston. They float me to different floors, which is to be expected, but there is one floor there that is an absolute nightmare. I've been a med/surg nurse for 7 years and I am familiar with how difficult it is but this floor surpasses difficult and is dangerous. On just that floor alone they have had over 50 falls in the past few months. There is no team work, charge nurse just watches you drown and they recently took away the CNA's. I recently found out I'm expecting and I miscarried my last pregnancy. I went into work on Sunday and they had put me on that floor. Ratio was 4:1 with no CNA's. I have worked this ratio before on this floor and it was still terrible. Without any doubt it would be dangerous to my pregnancy to accept that assignment. I told the charge nurse that I can not accept the assignment without any CNA's she said "We will help you" I worked with charge nurse before and she's one of the worst ones. In hindsight I should've called the House Supervisor but I was really upset. I have never refused an assignment before and I went home. I did call the director around 0745 but she did not answer or return my call until 4 pm. The facility has terminated me and is filing a Do not Return. Which is really bad for me at my agency. My question is: Have any of you been through this before? Should I argue this? Can I argue this? 

[amoLucia]

Sounds like you walked off the job - plain & simple. Grounds for TERMINATION anywhere. You put the facility at a handicap in that you caused unexpected further staffing shortage. And you prob sunk yourself for unemployment benefits.

I believe Texas is the ONLY that has a true 'Safe Harbor' law which COULD HAVE helped but you did NOT invoke the stipulations as req by law. And those stips are very specific and must be followed to the letter of the law.

Just a reminder that 'Safe Harbor' is NOT a freebie work 'get-out-of-miserable assignment' refusal card. It means you ACCEPT the assignment but UNDER PROTEST. You do your job as assigned. Afterwards, it would then be the time to consider your future options at the facility and with your agency.

Personally, I don't think you have any ammo with which to fight this. Best to just try to mend your fences as well as you can (and just chalk it off to stress at the time). Your status with your contract agency is most prob 'end of the road'. You may well have cost them significant money to lose a facility staffing contract. 

Just FYI, while Texas has a real 'SH' law, other places operate with similar in-house P&P. But it must be done right then & there, professionally - not a threat or an afterthought. For further information, there have been numerous postings here on AN for 'SH'.

Unless the facility is truly violating staffing numbers as determined by the DOH, the fact that you believe staffing is not consistently equal across board is difficult to prove. That YOU disagree with admin nsg decisions is your issue. I believe that it's a sad reality that agency/contract nurses are considered expendable, 'low men on the totem pole' employees. I'm guessing the facility pays the agency, who then pays you. So you're prob paid well, but therein lies the tradeoff for whom you work.

Congratulations and best wishes for your pregnancy. But pregnancy is not any reason for admin to consider any special staffing considerations. It's not an ADA diagnosis for special job exclusions or accommodations. Even with a doctor note, that'd be hard to achieve. If your preg is that great a concern for you, you may have to consider FMLA (if you've been working at least one year prior). Don't quite know how that would work with contracting nurses.

 

[caliotter3]

Don’t see how you can argue walking off the job. They will counter your argument with the fact, that you even acknowledge, that you were offered help. 

[Nurse SMS, MSN, RN]

I agree with the above posters. Fear for your pregnancy, while understandable, doesn't excuse this. You should have stayed and worked it out with them. It is unlikely anything you would do caring for patients would threaten your pregnancy at this point in it, unless you have known risk factors aside from a previous pregnancy loss. In general, healthy people's pregnancies keep up with activity quite well.