Along the lines of the "But I have little kids . . . . " thread:
One of my co-workers announced her pregnancy this week, stating that she was no longer willing to work weekends or holidays because she's going to be a parent. She also has to have Christmas off because this is going to be her last child-free Christmas. Oh and by the way, she can't take care of anyone with VRE, MRSA, or any other type of isolation. "Yukky wounds" make her nauseous, so she can't take those patients -- in fact, wouldn't it be best to just have her do charge all the time?
We're a large unit and have 1 - 6 nurses pregnant at any given time. Plus there are those who can't travel to interventional radiology, take infected patients, etc. because they're TRYING to get pregnant.
The last nurse to have her baby had to sit in the chair her entire shift "because I'm pregnant," and had orientees to do everything for her. Not the role of I preceptor, I'm thinking!
What's the strangest/most irritating thing you've had a coworker demand because she's pregnant?
I had the opposite problem when pregnant. I would do too much because I wasn't thinking. I roomed a kid with active measles, isolated her and all, and came out to dumbfounded stares: "What were you thinking???? Are you out of your mind????" I couldn't even go through the lunch line without a kitchen employee saying, "You need to eat your vegetables!!" when all I got was piece of the entree.
If someone legitimately can't perform a duty because of pregnancy, like lifting, etc., but can carry the rest of the load, I would be more than happy to help out. However, if someone uses the first trimester as an excuse to get out of the heavy stuff, my help will be minimal.
In many onco/hemo units, pregnant nurses are barred (or bar themselves) from hanging chemo, though official onco policies permit it w/proper precautions.
It actually makes their work harder, because if a patient is on the Onco/hemo floor, they are either getting chemo (usually ambulatory), getting multiple blood products, sickle cellers, or in for pain control (multiple mets and cannot move). It generally means that they will have the heavier patients (either weight/mobility/med-wise).
Others permit it, and they obey strict precautions.
We usually do bar pregnant nurses from CMV/Herpes Zoster patients. And some nurses that are ?pregnant or trying to get pregnant decline Thalidomide patients. We've seen too many cases of one nurse crushing the capsule (saying that they have had a tubal ligation, but ignoring all the nurses that don't....after aerosoling the drug in the area).
oh yes I forgot- you probably have to do a course in stalking first to be qualified as a stalker!! :roll :roll
Karen
well we can't have unqualified stalkers, can we? walking around, using sub-standard methods, not wearing stalker-gloves or washing their stalker-hands, and failing to document their stalker activities.. that just won't do!
Some things pregnant women do need some help with... but the woman you are referring too is taking advantage of the situation. Have you talked with your manager about it? It's not far for you to pull all her slack... and work all holidays and weekends because shes pregnant. Thats just not fair to you.
Specializes in MR Peds, geris, psych, DON,ADON,SSD.
My oh my!!! i've been a nurse 22 years and have been pregnant two times as a nurse. the first time i was an LPN (on the floor) in a facility full (75) of severe and profound mentally retarded pts. with trach and g-tubes with lots of "yucky stuff" all of the pts were also total care in wheelchairs and all had to be spoon fed if they werent g-tube fed. oh by the way i was a working charge nurse who vomited every morning for seven months (no mercy was given to me). the second pregnancy started last semester of RN school the only thing i was exempt from was a kid with RSV everything else was fair game. was working in the same job only as day supervisor instead of charge nurse and less vomiting but still no mercy. pregnancy is not an illness!!!! and most of the time we plan it... so go to work and do the things you would normally do. it's a proven fact that if you continue to do the things you did before pregnancy you will get along better with your pregnancy and after. so what are the "pampered ones" going to do when they arent pregnant anymore and "have to work" again?? SORRY A LITTLE VENT!!!
Pregnant nurses should not be expected to lift or manual handle during their pregnancy because this has been proven to increase the risk of placenta abruption. But there is no reason why they cannot perform all other tasks.
In the UK there are very strict policies governing what a pregnant nurse may or may not do. As soon as they are pregnant they have to go to occupational health.
Ruby Vee, I'm laughing here. Pretty much the same scenario happened to me Tuesday. 2 nurses on the floor, 1 pregnant (her) 1 on HCTZ (me).
I had my hand on the br door and was on my way in and she said "I have to Go!" I laughed and said "Diurectics before *mid* pregnancy!" (she's not due until October) Late pregnancy, yeah go first DEPENDING on the urgency I have...The HCTZ is worse than any of my pregnancies (4).....
Along the lines of the "But I have little kids . . . . " thread:
One of my co-workers announced her pregnancy this week, stating that she was no longer willing to work weekends or holidays because she's going to be a parent. She also has to have Christmas off because this is going to be her last child-free Christmas. Oh and by the way, she can't take care of anyone with VRE, MRSA, or any other type of isolation. "Yukky wounds" make her nauseous, so she can't take those patients -- in fact, wouldn't it be best to just have her do charge all the time?
We're a large unit and have 1 - 6 nurses pregnant at any given time. Plus there are those who can't travel to interventional radiology, take infected patients, etc. because they're TRYING to get pregnant.
The last nurse to have her baby had to sit in the chair her entire shift "because I'm pregnant," and had orientees to do everything for her. Not the role of I preceptor, I'm thinking!
What's the strangest/most irritating thing you've had a coworker demand because she's pregnant?
I'm surprised they get away with any of that here in the States they certainly don't on our unit, in fact sometimes i'm quite shocked at how little consideration they get.
not really a demand, but i very quickly got pretty tired of working with "miss-im-so-worn-out-all-this baby-does is kick-me-all-day.":uhoh3:
she was 9 weeks preggers...really now!
lol! yeah, those leg buds sure do pack quite a kick, huh?
i'll admit...
i'm totally using my pregnancy as the reason i won't work any overtime. i never was a big ot person before, preferring my time off to extra money. but now we're crazy busy and i get called every other day or so. i say, "nope, my ob wants me to rest as much as possible." and it's not like i'm really lying. my blood pressure and edema are worse when i work, and since i'm a high risk for preeclampsia, you'd better believe i'm not going in extra! hmmm...my health or my bank account? which is more important?
Me too. Every night I've been off, work has called to see if I can work that night. (I take that back. They call me on the days I'm off while I'm trying to sleep to come in that night.)Yet, they can't schedule me on the days I request. But they can call me on those days to come in. I don't think so. Besides, until this first trimester fatigue goes away, there's no way. I'm ready to hibernate until March. They've been aware of those holes in the schedule for weeks and did nothing. Why did you keep taking admissions when you knew you only had three nurses scheduled to work that night?
As a male nurse I don't have that problem (THANK GOD!!!)....But I did have a kidney stone once, does that count? I work in a moderately busy ICU with a young lady who is 7.5 months and she will get OFFENDED if we offer to do any of her work for her! The only thing she has asked is for a little lifting assisstance once in a while. BUT!!!!!!!!!!!...If she asked for every weekend/holiday off...NO WAY JOSE'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
TazziRN, RN
6,487 Posts
I had the opposite problem when pregnant. I would do too much because I wasn't thinking. I roomed a kid with active measles, isolated her and all, and came out to dumbfounded stares: "What were you thinking???? Are you out of your mind????" I couldn't even go through the lunch line without a kitchen employee saying, "You need to eat your vegetables!!" when all I got was piece of the entree.
If someone legitimately can't perform a duty because of pregnancy, like lifting, etc., but can carry the rest of the load, I would be more than happy to help out. However, if someone uses the first trimester as an excuse to get out of the heavy stuff, my help will be minimal.