RN Disciplined While Waiting On Covid 19 Result

[INDY RN]

I am an RN working full time in the ED. Every shift I am subjected to below par PPE standards. Asked to re-use N95 and surgical masks for multiple patients, covid or not. So it was not to my surprise when I got a call informing me a patient I had provided care for later had a positive covid 19 test. I was informed to contact our employee health if I developed symptoms. A few days later I had a cough, sore throat, HA, fatigue and sneezing. I contacted my employee health as instructed, a test was ordered, I was instructed to remain at home til I received my results. Unfortunately I am still waiting......

My issue with the situation is that my employer has already let me know the repercussions of a negative test, should that be my result.

I will receive an occurrence for missing my shift while awaiting test results. (The quantine was orderd by employee health)

I will have to use my accrued PTO to cover any hours missed while in quantine awaiting my test results.

I will also have the weekend shifts I miss counted against me while in quantine awaiting results. Meaning I can have less weekend shifts off for the remainder of the year.

As an employee I have always helped when it comes to providing for our adopted Christmas family or the food drives. As an ED nurse I am in the frontline of this pandemic, caring for those in need, risking my own health for lack of PPE. This has been extremely difficult for me to understand how the hospital I work for can treat me this way as I await my results.

The community has been amazing and supportive of our ED staff. They have given snacks, meals, encouragement and thanks this entire time. However, the hospital I work for can't do the same. It is shameful to work for such an organization.

Is this OK? Is this fair?

[Wuzzie]

30 minutes ago, Stephanie Hoden said:

You should look into the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. They can’t do this to you based on this new act. They have to give you sick pay and they can’t reprimand you.

Yes, I've pointed this out several times but there are a few people who are having difficulty comprehending this.

[Hepatokween19]

I think the community is really getting behind us as nurses and hopefully this crisis will help lead to a reckoning in terms of for-profit care, undervalued nurses, and greedy corporate management. Therefore I say if you have put into writing your concerns to management, HR, etc and they still don’t want to pay you properly, go to the local media!! Like the local news “problem solvers “ or whatever they have in your area.

[Simon C]

That is outrageous!! Surely you are in a union? Unfortunately the muppets that create the rules for the workers are the clipboard carriers in carpet land. If that was a problem for me I would be straight onto my union, and also to the local press.

[jollydogg_RN, ADN, BSN]

1 minute ago, Simon C said:

That is outrageous!! Surely you are in a union? Unfortunately the muppets that create the rules for the workers are the clipboard carriers in carpet land. If that was a problem for me I would be straight onto my union, and also to the local press.

Theres far and few between nurses who actually belong to unions.

[MunoRN, RN]

19 hours ago, Kooky Korky said:

Muno, please. Just once try to see this from a staff nurse's point of view.

To be ordered to work without proper gear, to be ordered by freaking Employee Health to stay home until cleared, and then to be threatened by your boss that you will be punished if your test result is negative, as if you have any control over what the result will be, is just every expletive that I have to delete here on the board. What is wrong with you?

Just curious - are you male or female? Line staff or boss?

I guess as a super human you are never ill are you? You never call off from any illness.

Have to go take my BP med now. Have to stop punishing myself by reading all of this rot.

As I said earlier, I'm all for complaining about how sick days normally work, including that I get an "occurrence" for a sick day even though it's employee health that says I can't work given certain symptoms, and that these rules should be relaxed for now, but an occurrence isn't itself "discipline" as the OP claimed, it's a record of absences that could result in discipline depending on the circumstances, so it's misleading to claim that they were disciplined, and exaggerated and misleading complaints work against us when it comes to less misrepresented concerns, like appropriate PPE.

When I press for more appropriate PPE (and yes, this is as a bedside nurse, I didn't realize I'm seen as such a prick) it doesn't help if we've allowed for the impression that we often exaggerate our complaints and arguments, that just means I'm stuck wearing crappy masks into a Covid room, which argue is a bigger deal than sick-time policies. But I do agree with you on one thing, that's enough of this for me.

[alebouef]

I am so sorry that you are having to go through this. The waiting for the results is the worst. I am in the same boat, I returned to work on this week after being placed on quarantine because of potential exposure from patient and my spouse was running fever ( due to a flair up of diverticulitis-previous hx of abscess that needs repair),and was told today that you will be paid if you have the PTO time. I would have been at work if I was not MADE to stay home, no s/s and I do not have PTO since I have not hit the “time of employment” mark yet for it to kick in. I have only missed 2 days of work since starting, bc my daughter had to have an emergency ORIF due to multiple open communicated fractures of her TIB/FIB. It’s sad that we are not provided the proper PPE ( we do not have ANY), provide compassionate care to anyone who walks/rolls in the door, told to “stay Home until results are back” and then penalized for following the protocol when our results are negative.

[jollydogg_RN, ADN, BSN]

13 hours ago, MunoRN said:

As I said earlier, I'm all for complaining about how sick days normally work, including that I get an "occurrence" for a sick day even though it's employee health that says I can't work given certain symptoms, and that these rules should be relaxed for now, but an occurrence isn't itself "discipline" as the OP claimed, it's a record of absences that could result in discipline depending on the circumstances, so it's misleading to claim that they were disciplined, and exaggerated and misleading complaints work against us when it comes to less misrepresented concerns, like appropriate PPE.

When I press for more appropriate PPE (and yes, this is as a bedside nurse, I didn't realize I'm seen as such a prick) it doesn't help if we've allowed for the impression that we often exaggerate our complaints and arguments, that just means I'm stuck wearing crappy masks into a Covid room, which argue is a bigger deal than sick-time policies. But I do agree with you on one thing, that's enough of this for me.

Except, as he said in his original post, he would lose out on the opportunity to pick certain weekend days if he was found to be negative, which he was. This is disciplinary in nature. Occurrences just make it one step closer to taking disciplinary action, that’s the whole damn point. Are you just ignoring this?

[2BS Nurse, BSN]

On 3/28/2020 at 12:47 PM, Wuzzie said:

It’s in the community. How exactly will anyone be able to prove they got it at work?

Because other than working, most nurses are too exhausted to go out into their communities! Also, they are staying home because they don't want to infect anyone else!

21 hours ago, Simon C said:

That is outrageous!! Surely you are in a union? Unfortunately the muppets that create the rules for the workers are the clipboard carriers in carpet land. If that was a problem for me I would be straight onto my union, and also to the local press.

We don't even have union jobs in my area.

[42pines]

On 3/28/2020 at 1:37 PM, LokelaniRN said:

I think there are going to be a lot of lawsuits when this is over against hospitals. You contracted this virus from work due to inadequate PPE. File an L&I claim so you can get paid leave.

I would also contact your state department of health via email about your situation. I would then cc the complaint to your supervisor. You may get fired, but it sets you up for a whistleblower lawsuit.

If you can, contact a labor attorney. He/She can tell you what steps to take to set up a lawsuit in the future.

Harsh realities:

State department of health is unlikely to even answer.

State BON is unlikely to answer if queried (I wrote (email) to the NH BON with very specific questions about PPE, many days ago, no answer).

Whistleblower lawsuit must be in response to a specific violation such as hiding an OSHA injury or a violation of State or Federal law. There is no specific violation here. Further, if you research whistleblower cases more often than not, the whistleblower gets nothing.

Attorney: An attorney will not touch a lawsuit on contingent (no fees) unless they are certain that there is at least $100,000 and preferably > $150,000 in easily proven damages. For instance: Loss of Left eye because surgery was performed on the wrong eye. That's a good contingency case. Minimum retainer for any lawyer these days will be $3,000 but that will very, very quickly grow to $12-15,000 even before any hearings.

Bottom line: There is no specific damages here. Much of this is contract law and contract law opposes most people's "common sense" POV. "Common sense," has no place in law, that's a simple fact that most cannot fathom.

Harsh but true. IndyRN asks: "Is this fair?"

All of us, would respond: "no."

A contract lawyer would respond: "pretty much, 'Yes."

The word "fair" has no place in war. We are at war.

[42pines]

On 3/28/2020 at 6:11 AM, caliotter3 said:

If you can withstand the consequences, I would resign instead of returning to work.

So very easy to say.

[42pines]

On 4/3/2020 at 10:15 AM, Wuzzie said:

Yes, I've pointed this out several times but there are a few people who are having difficulty comprehending this.

Wuzzie, I'm surprised that there aren't 200 thumbs up. Excellent post and IMO mandatory reading for all working nurses.

Summary:

Families First Coronavirus Response Act: Employer Paid Leave Requirements

https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/pandemic/ffcra-employer-paid-leave

Read it nurses...know your rights.

[42pines]

28 minutes ago, 2BS Nurse said:

Because other than working, most nurses are too exhausted to go out into their communities! Also, they are staying home because they don't want to infect anyone else!

We don't even have union jobs in my area.

I'm union neutral and once worked in a hospital (my first nursing job) where I was in a union and nobody had told me. A supervisor said: "Why are you mopping that floor?" I responded: "I was told to do it to prepare for a new patient." She said: "Stop." I did, and was never asked to mop the floor again.

If you don't have union jobs in your area, why not contact a union for nurses and advocate or one. Just an idea.

If your hospital opposes you in any way...now there is a great lawsuit.