Sandy Storm whom do I serve?

[echoRNC711]

Sandy storm is en-route I feel it's strength echo in the wind that cautions me vigilance. My husband ,who is a Srgt.in the NYPD , has already been called in and is expected to be on duty for a minimum 48 hrs. I am here with my children and received "that" call, the one where I am sitting here wrestling with whom do I serve?

My area of work is an off site facility but as we are on disaster status I am expected to show up .The the hospital requires me to be in at 7am prepared to stay there through Tuesday am. The hospital has no concern for my children or situation that would mean in my case they would be left here alone. I ask myself questions like "Is it abandonment to not show up? Could I be fired ? Where do I stand legally if I choose my children's safety over patient's? As I sit here contemplating I am also thinking I know I can't be the only nurse making this decision tonight.

I consider, Have I not shown up before for emergencies through my 20 years of service. I have walked through snow to my thighs to receive a 25 pt load because only myself and one other nurse felt it our duty to show up.I have arrived in a blackout, on my night off ,in 2 different colored flip flops because it was all I could find scrambling in the dark.There I was left manning the ED cardiac unit alone with 2 active chest painers and no doctor in sight. I stood in the ED on 9/11 waiting for patients while my own husband was down there and I didn't know if he was safe.

I am aware as I'm writing this I am relieving my own conscience that the truth is I have already decided that this time I am not going to show up.

For weeks after hurricane Katrina I thought of the nurse's those who both stayed and those that didn't and how they each felt as the water gradually rose up. I couldn't in my own heart arrive at a decision would I have stayed with vented patients or raced home to my family instead.

So I am inviting a discussion that when faced with an emergency is the call to serve greater or to serve family first? Personally, I am not leaving my children,my mind is made up but the consequences of the decision I am yet to find out

[Sinman]

These are all tough choices and none of us will know until we are in the position which choice we will make. In my opinion the duties of mother outweigh the duties of nurse. I am extremely blessed in the fact that my husband is a stay at home dad for our children. However in you situation I would definitely stay home.

[T-Bird78]

My husband is 46, has been working in his industry for 25+ years, and our baby is 46, so just because OP has 20 years experience doesn't mean her kids are teenagers. Family may not be available to watch her kids, especially for 24 hours or longer, and not everybody is comfortable leaving their kids with family for various reasons. My question is this: if you get "the call" do you HAVE to go in, or just if able?

[hecallsmeDuchess]

@OP, I think family always comes first. In your case, I would not feel regret especially as your husband is out there doing his bit to help in this storm. If you went in and God forbid something happened that affected both of you, do you think the hospital will take care of your child's future?

To some saying make plans, leave children with family, etc. Not everyone has family nearby and what person would want to be babysitting others' kids in such an emergency. If something happened, do you believe the sitter would make your child(ren) their priority and make sure they are safe? I hope we all get through this storm and its aftermath without loss to our lives, limbs or jobs.

[rngolfer53]

Certainly, one's family is going to take priority over work. However, as some have pointed out, this storm came with a lot of warning....and nursing is a profession that requires someone to care for patients 24/7. They are more helpless and at risk than we are.

Natural disasters are a "known unknown." We all realize they're going to happen, but we don't know when they'll strike. It makes sense to plan ahead.

A smart employer would provide for a safe, supervised place for kids to stay when parents are working and there's no one else in town to care for them. We are, after all, a mobile society.

(As an aside, I find it strange that there are so many more business schools, but evidently so few good managers.......that doesn't say much for the MBA profs, does it? I started working in the good ole boy days of "paternalistic" oil and gas men. Often up from the ranks with not much in the way of college degrees. I'm not suggesting we go back there, but if you showed loyalty to them, they generally returned it in kind.)

The one thing I've missed, and I haven't read every post top to bottom, but when ever someone calls out in these situations, all we really accomplish is shifting the burden to the people already there....who of course may have their own families in need. Just something to think about........

[brandy1017, ASN, RN]

I left the US ten years ago and I only need to come to this site and read the postings here every few months to realise that I never want to work as a nurse again in the US. In regard to the topic at hand, I have worked a disaster and slept on site. I was happy to do it; however, I was given a free place to sleep and free food, but I was only paid for the hours I worked. Good experience, but I had no children and lived only a few miles from work.

Today I live in a country where occupational health and safety are taken very seriously and employers can not fire people without just cause or mandate you stay at work without paying you for every minute you are onsite. Mandating is a term I read about here all the time and it frightens me how little people know about what their state board of nursing or the law says about mandating and abandonment. Being mandated to work is a very serious demand and if your employer is chronically under-staffed, then they cannot mandate anyone to work. Furthermore, a professional nurse is expected to know herself enough to say "I am not safe to work beyond x amount of hours." As nurses we are every bit as human as our patients and we need to consider our holistic beings. We need to eat, sleep, love and be loved and care for our family every bit as much as our patients.

I work in palliative care and deal with the dying every day, I have yet to hear any dying person say, "If only I had given more to my work." I think of it this way, "If I died today would my place of employment close down?" As for the patients, in a disaster like this, only those without family or friends should need to rely totally on strangers for basic care. This is a big disaster... read about what happened during Katrina.

It just freaks me out that nurses in America live in fear that they may be fired at any moment for any reason. Is it really that bad? Sounds like a form of slavery to me... The land of the free is beholden to the irrational employer for the sake of a paycheck and health insurance?

Curious what country do you live in now?

[DroogieRN]

For over 100 years, nurses have made storm preparation arrangements with their families so they could perform their essential function and be at work during blizzard/hurricane/tornados/coal strike/ floods. Why is today's generation shirking this aspect of our job?

I dunno. Maybe it's because 100 years ago people lived near/with extended families or at least knew their neighbors and could rely on these people to care for their children. Not so much anymore. My husband travels for his job and I have no one to look out for my kids nearby. My daughter is at college, but my son is at home -- am I going to leave him for possibly days alone at home while I work a disaster? Unlikely.

[DoGoodThenGo]

Certainly, one's family is going to take priority over work. However, as some have pointed out, this storm came with a lot of warning....and nursing is a profession that requires someone to care for patients 24/7. They are more helpless and at risk than we are.

Natural disasters are a "known unknown." We all realize they're going to happen, but we don't know when they'll strike. It makes sense to plan ahead.

A smart employer would provide for a safe, supervised place for kids to stay when parents are working and there's no one else in town to care for them. We are, after all, a mobile society.

(As an aside, I find it strange that there are so many more business schools, but evidently so few good managers.......that doesn't say much for the MBA profs, does it? I started working in the good ole boy days of "paternalistic" oil and gas men. Often up from the ranks with not much in the way of college degrees. I'm not suggesting we go back there, but if you showed loyalty to them, they generally returned it in kind.)

The one thing I've missed, and I haven't read every post top to bottom, but when ever someone calls out in these situations, all we really accomplish is shifting the burden to the people already there....who of course may have their own families in need. Just something to think about........

Allot depends upon the situation. If fresh troops can be found and safely brought in then that should take the pressure off. However the concern of management probably comes on several fronts. First if you let staff leave will they come back as scheduled? Can they get home safely? Can they return safely, and so forth.

Using Staten Island as an example most of that brough is without electrical power and land line telephone service (have been checking on family all day), there was no public transportation, roads, bridges etc closed, so what would staff have done if allowed to leave?

Here in Manhattan things were slightly better in some areas, but much of the areas south of 36th street were then and still are without power. No subways, buses, and what taxis were out tended to be full.

[DoGoodThenGo]

I dunno. Maybe it's because 100 years ago people lived near/with extended families or at least knew their neighbors and could rely on these people to care for their children. Not so much anymore. My husband travels for his job and I have no one to look out for my kids nearby. My daughter is at college, but my son is at home -- am I going to leave him for possibly days alone at home while I work a disaster? Unlikely.

One hundred years ago would wager most nurses lived at the residence so the hospital knew how to lay hands on them should an emergency arise.

Also remember that long ago a majority of patient care was done by students who in most cases were young unmarried women.

[DoGoodThenGo]

Certainly, one's family is going to take priority over work. However, as some have pointed out, this storm came with a lot of warning....and nursing is a profession that requires someone to care for patients 24/7. They are more helpless and at risk than we are.

Natural disasters are a "known unknown." We all realize they're going to happen, but we don't know when they'll strike. It makes sense to plan ahead.

If many facilities didn't spend much of the "non-emergency" time of their nursing staff treating them poorly and reminding them they are "just a nurse" and can be replaced like *that* because there is a long line of people just waiting for a job then things *might* be different.

Upshot is one is often a "flunky" 365 days of the year excepting a disaster, then you are Florence Nightingale. However don't get to puffed up about it because once the crisis is over you are back to being a flunky again.

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

As Sandy raced through my area and moved north by 8AM, employeer made the decision to reopen the homecare agency by 12N and proceed to visit critically ill pateints. My staff are well aware that as Central Intake, we are mission critical to our organization and need to be available to work.

Starting at 9:30AM, calls went out we were opening. 16 out of 18 scheduled to work today were able to get in by 1PM; 2 other perdiem staff also answered my phone call to come in. Two who weren't able to get in today are coming in tomorrow 1 hr early.

Staff pulled together as usual and processed 74 homecare referrals in just 4 hours; total 95 processed in 7 hours, a new record. VP patient services and HR Director who live near office willing helped me answer phones. CEO and VP thanked my staff, provided lunch and HR arranging for a perk.

This is what can happen when preplanning for a potential disaster occurs ---something I've been doing since a Nurses aide in 1974 working in nursing home in my home town.

PS: Yes, I did walk uphill to high school 1 mile in the snow....

[CrunchRN, ADN, RN]

So, how did everything work out for the original poster?

[manager123]

I live on the west coast. We don't have the ability to predict, track, or monitor impending disaster events as our earthquakes just "happen". We go to work every day knowing that we might have a "big one" so the preparations are constant.

My particular facility does make arrangements for child care if employees need to come in because of a disaster. A friend in Texas who had to evacuate for hurricane a few years ago was told to bring her family to hospital provided shelter. A huge burden was lifted with that forward thinking place.

No, not everyone has family or trusted friends that will watch young children and even teens should not be left alone in an emergency. Identify who/what you can count on for support. These conversations between employees and hospital leadership need to be part of an annual discussion (at least) so that appropriate safety measures for employees and families can be discussed.

Prayers to all that were hit by Sandy. Hoping all have stayed safe.