SimonJester

I'm not in nursing, I am male and have been sexually harassed by both female and males in the workplace back in the 90s. Then and perhaps now it's not something a male can goto HR or complain about because you would not be taken seriously and or you would be looked down upon for complaining about it. It's very much a double standard that is not fair. My wife (a nurse) has been what I would deem sexually harassed (verbal comments, body part grabbing) at work by patients as well as physically assaulted. Management blows this off as well... She has been verbally and physically assaulted in the workplace by co workers as well. One issue could have involved police and pressed charges but if she had gone that way it would have ended her career.

Wow, wife paid $113 two years ago and now its $166! There was a little note from DORA these fees are statutorily required and cannot be removed. It would have been nice if they had something on the renewal page about what these fees were for. Not to mention you cannot see the renewal fee until you start the renewal process make this whole thing seem really opaque.

Wow, I know you are probably relieved to have this all over, however that testing company owes you a substantial amount of money. You need to write down all the costs you incurred over the year this took place, drug testing, the hair test, lawyers fees, the loss of wages you would have received from your job, retirement account matches, etc and find a lawyer to sue the testing company for actual damages plus pain and suffering. This could easily go into the six figures realm! I would NOT let this go, there was an injustice done to you and I would fight to find a lawyer that would take your case.

This issue isnt specific to nursing, you see it in any career field. Basically it all boils down to what they think will make the company money. A new parking garage, new equipment in the cancer wing, etc bring in people to the hospital. Higher nursing wages, well the public doesn't see that. Its all about competitiveness in the market place. Once nurses start leaving to go elsewhere they will have to raise their pay, however there is probably still many many nurses leaving the college nursing programs needing a job each year so they do not feel they need to raise pay.

This happened because the bullies are not just students in schools, they are also the teachers, clinical instructors, and administrators. It is sad that judgement wasn't 10 times the amount. 75K is probably 1/3 what they would have spent on their own lawyers defending the suit. My wife and my oldest son both have experienced discrimination in the education system over their disabilities. Every year I have to fight with the administration and each teacher for accommodations under the Americans with Disability Act. Sad really, but I fight every year because I see what a difference it makes in his education. He went from earning Ds and Cs and being labeled disruptive to earning almost straight As in Honors and AP classes with a 3.85 GPA. Ill step off my venting soap box now...

That is what I thought also, even worse that it only applied to "Nursing" staff. Not the Administrators and of course not the Drs, Surgeons, etc. When working a 7 to 7 shift it gets very dark 7:00pm in the winter months. I had my wife call me when she left the hospital and when she got to her car.

Not every need for CCW is an armed gunman bursting into the hospital. A while back at a hospital in my town a young nurse was strangled to death in a stairwell. I believe it was her ex boyfriend that did it. She was only a few feet from co workers on the other side of a door and no one heard a thing. They found her body several days later when she didnt show up for her next shift. My wife was stalked multiple times by hospital staff or patients. One more memorable incident over several weeks a janitor would follow her through the hospital, through the parking garage and watch as she would get into her car. At other times he would turn up all of the sudden along the path from her unit to her car. She finally reported him to security and he stopped. A few months later the administration got the smart idea that none of the nursing staff would be allowed to park in the hospitals parking lots /garages any more (note this applied only to nursing staff). Instead they were directed to park at the administration building located about a mile and 1/2 away from the hospital. While there was a shuttle provided they were all encouraged to walk the mile and 1/2 as they received reduction off their health insurance for doing so. This mile and 1/2 walk was down some very sketchy dark roads, when it finally opened up to the main streets they got the pleasure of walking past dive bars and XXX book / movie stores. This never sat well with me and I often wondered what would happen if some nurse was attacked while walking this route. I'm soo glad my wife transferred to another location. She carried pepper spray but never CCW.

Sounds like my wife's place of work. In the past they always offered a group class for everyone. Now this year its was you are on your own. Luckily for DW this LTC facility is attached to a larger hospital network, and since DW worked in the hospital before she was able to signup for a class the hospital was offering. Her other co workers were out of luck.

My wife threatens me if I don't behave she will put me in a nursing home with carpet!

Thanks, I was asking this question for DW, I work in the IT field. I know in the IT field there is absolutely no benefit for for the employee. If we do not work 40 hours we have to fill in the missing hours with PTO. Often I work 8 to 9 hours during the day time and then I am expected to work another 4 to 6 on the evenings and weekends at least two to three times a week. Supposedly my higher salary makes up for this...

Would you take a Salary position in home health? Was told it would be between 2 and 6 cases per day.

Posting for my wife, for the past three or so years she has loved the unit she is working in. Loved the patients, loved her co workers. About a year ago she ran into a communication issue with one doctor who was frustrated with DWs inability to "anticipate what he wanted from her before he needed to tell her". He told DW and her manager he just didn't like my wife, and they were not communicating. When my wife pressed the doctor and her manager on what she should change, no one could come up with anything. For a period of several weeks they avoided each other but eventually the working relationship resumed. My wife has not had any issue with other doctors in the unit. Several months go by and the issue is brought up again, DW is told that she just isn't communicating well with that DR and to try better. Again when pressed for specifics they could not offer any. So the beginning of this month my wife is called into the office and told she has 30 days to find another job. That she just isn't a good fit for the unit. Again she pressed her boss on what in her practice she should change or do better and was told they just couldn't give her any specifics. She asked is this was because of this one Doctor and was told no, however we suspect it is. She was told they are giving her a chance to exit from the unit without involving HR. At this point she is looking for other assignments within the same employer. The thing is she really loved this unit. We are not sure what happens at the end of 30 days if she has not found another job. Does she just show up and wait to be fired? Does she goto HR and explain what is going on? I dont feel HR will help, this DR verbally abused with swearing and such another RN who did goto HR and complain, HR basically smoothed things over between the two but the RN is looking for a job else where.

Many moons ago, I was out of work and applying for work at several different places. So I interview with company A and they really sounded like they wanted to hire me but had a few other candidates to interview. So I go about my week and interview with company B, this guy doesn’t really sound like he wants to hire me and leaves the interview with the standard we will get back to you… A week or so passed and I follow up with company A, they say oh well we ran into person xyz from company B at a mutual business meeting, we were discussing hiring someone and mentioned we were going to hire you. Person xyz said he was going to hire you as well, so we hired someone else sorry. I called company B to follow up, he says no I’m not going to hire you because you interviewed with company A, go work for them… What a jerk, you cost me a job at company A and didn’t even really want to hire me… In the end I was much better off not working for either company...

Note to self, never accept the banana smoothie while in the hospital...

I'm curious why the switch from Law to Nursing?

dw had one doozie of an incident… it was three weeks before graduation during her last clinical rotation… dw was listing off the drugs her patient was being given that day in a report type situation to her clinical instructor. she misspoke and called a drug an anti-platelet vs anti-coagulant, it was a slip of the toung as dw knew she had use the wrong word and corrected herself… the ci however proceeded to scream at dw telling her how she was wrong for calling the drug an anti-platelet, and how she needed to know her drugs and so on for 15 minutes her tirade went on dw sort of froze up and didn’t respond…… the ci then proceeded to pick up a drug handbook and threw it at dw hitting a computer and dw with the book. this was all done in earshot of other nurses, students, patients… after it was over dw went into the bathroom to compose herself and lost one of her contact lens, while searching for the lens the ci comes into the bathroom (sing user bathroom) and proceeds to yell and dw some more, the entire time blocking the entry way so dw could not leave the restroom. she tells dw that she will be written up for being disrespectful and will have a chance to add her comments at the end of the clinical day. end of day comes and no write-up, so dw goes home and emails the director of nursing to explain what happened and see what they want to do (mistake). so the next day miss nasty ci writs up a statement saying dw was being disrespectful towards the ci and has several of the nurses working that day sign it, coincidentally ci happens to also work with these nurses during her day job… so director of nursing program calls dw into a meeting with miss nasty ci where they then pounce on dw with her disrespect offence, they produce the signed statement and so forth. dw refuses to sign statement and instead writes her own account of the incident. so a student hearing is to be held to decide what discipline should be handed down to dw. we are told by the school, no we cannot have any legal counsel at this meeting, no we cannot have outside parties attend (ie other students), and that the director of nursing will provide a third party mediator. this just floors me and upon checking into the schools policy handbook we found that indeed their policies for first level discipline meeting you are not allowed to bring legal counsel, not allowed to bring your own witnesses! dw does manage to get her own third party into the meeting a school guidance counselor… so of course all parties except the school counselor backed the ci and told dw she should write an apology letter to ci and she would be allowed to continue with the nursing program! wow with 3 weeks left before graduation we had to contemplate what to do. on one hand the ci had committed assault against dw and trapping her in the restroom could carry a whole set of other charges. on the other hand a lot of this would be her word against ci since by now no one was willing to come forward for fear of ci wrath. escalating this to legal authorities would certainly mean dw would not graduate… so in the end dw tucked her tail between her legs and wrote the apology letter. the remaining clinical days dw was assigned to the other ci and had no more issues, graduated and now work at the same hospital where this all took place… ps. dw has seen miss nasty ci one time floating on her floor as dw was going off shift, dw smiled nicely and walk off, miss nasty ci pretended to not notice dw…

you can be sued with no assets and a judgment can be rendered against your future earnings ie wage garnishments...

i'd place bets this is less of an employer mandate and more of a demand by their health insurance carrier… dw took a similar test when she was hired on last year, but i think it was more to the line of carry the box of rocks across the room...

the 50lb weight lift requirement is common across many industries. the employer is following a recommendation from osha, which in turn went to niosh (national institute for occupational safety and health) a division on the cdc, niosh has various studies and mathematical equations to determine the safe lifting limits: see http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/94-110/pdfs/94-110.pdf an employer is protecting their interest and their insurance companies interest when they pre screen potential employees. the tests are designed to look for undisclosed injuries, ie back injury. if you are hired with a back injury your employer might then have to accommodate you under ada. so i understand why they do it, it sucks in the current economy there are dozens of other applicants…

we were able to cash flow my wife’s schooling, so we came out the other end with no student loans. it took a lot longer because she only went one or two classes a semester until she got into the nursing program. we are very grateful we could do this, now her income goes entirely into the mortgage, we should have our mortgage paid off in another year or two. i would be cautious with a 60k load a $690 payment will be tough to manage along with other expenses.

My PPO run about $285 per month for family coverage. $20 co pay for dr, $40 for specialist, $5 generics, $20 name brand. For major events the plan covers 90% after my $1,000 deductible is met until I hit $3,000 max per year it then switches to 100%. What I dont know is how much my employeer is kicking in for their plan each month...

These are all good reasons if you can afford it you should get long term care insurance when you are 60 years old. LTC care can run 30k to 50K a year, as you can see you could run through your retirement quickly. Statically the most expensive year of your life will be your last year...

You should point blank ask your employer if they are withholding federal income tax, FICA (social Security), Medicare, and state taxes from your paycheck. If not you are indeed being treated as an IC and unless you meet the IRS guidelines incorrectly so. If they report back they have not been withholding, you need to call the IRS and turn them in... Believe me you will be in a much better position because the IRS will make the employer pay their portion of your FICA tax which is about 7.5%. Your employer might get POed at you perhaps even fire you, but if they are willing to cut corners with taxes because it suites them what else might they be doing… You need to act, if you do nothing you will get a 1099 at the end of the year and you will pay 15% in FICA, plus you may end up with a penalty for under withholding.

actually in the us the irs has rules about this, an employer cannot just declare you a contract worker and issue you a 1099. they can get in trouble if they misclassify you... http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=99921,00.html

I have called the IRS help line and I found they are very helpful and friendly. I would not be scared to call them and ask for advice. I'm sure they will tell you exactly what you need to do and where to get the forms. However I agree with everyone else, look for another job, it's not worth the hassle...