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.
The admins are seeing this as you trying to avoid work. That is why they are threatening you. If the admins and employee health are on the same page, you should be fine.
No, it doesn’t cover health care providers. Until further guidance is given they are using the definition of “provider”as provided in the FMLA law which includes NPs and CNMs but not nurses. As with everything else during this crisis that may change...and change again 5 minutes later.
So it covers nurses? I am sooooo confused over all of this! And I called employee health this am. I have symptoms and will get tested today. But they said even if my test is negative I cannot work for 7 days. That doesn’t seem logical.
So it covers nurses? I am sooooo confused over all of this! And I called employee health this am. I have symptoms and will get tested today. But they said even if my test is negative I cannot work for 7 days. That doesn’t seem logical.
Yes it covers nurses but it does not add any additional time off. It simply requires employers to allow you to use sick leave to cover your time off and does not allow them to enforce any kind of discipline. You need to be off while symptomatic a minimum of 7 days and fever free for 72 hours without antipyretics. Just because you're negative one day does not mean you won't pop positive the next. You have to reach a certain viral load before the test can sense it.
Is this a joke. You are following instructions by employee health. You are still showing symptoms even if the test comes back negative that is why they instructed you to stay home to prevent spread of infection.
It sounds like your employer doesn’t trust you guys and thinks you are using this to skate out of work. But if they are really worried people using this as free time off, why doesn’t employee health do screenings on employees who show symptoms and document VS and symptoms?
They don’t care about you. They just care about numbers and the bottom line. Because if enough RN’s get quarantined, management will be forced to work the floor and they aren’t having that.
I hope 25% of the RN’s in your ED get quarantined and then management has to come work the floor. It will be a sweet humbling experience for them as they will experience the lack of PPE you guys have been shouting for.
When all is said and done, there will be law suits. Ideally class action law suits so individual nurses don't need to hire a lawyer. Keep good records.
Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.
So the word is quarantine not quantine.
Your word should be attorney or something like that. If you are following the directions given to you by occupational health, the hospital has an obligation to pay you.
Your word should be attorney or something like that. If you are following the directions given to you by occupational health, the hospital has an obligation to pay you.
When you use the word "obligation"- do you mean moral or legal?
Obviously it's the decent thing to do, but is it legally required?
Obviously it's the decent thing to do, but is it legally required?
They are legally required to allow the employee to use their sick time first (without an occurrence) before requiring them to use vacation or any other type of leave. They are not required to pay the employee out of an "administrative leave" type bank. I'm not sure why people keep saying to get a lawyer for this unless they are conflating working without PPE into this situation which, if my memory serves, was not part of the original post.
rnpatrick
72 Posts
In healthcare HR are known as management KGB. Good luck with that.