don't get me wrong, i have been known to show up to work sick only to regret it later! my gripe is not only is it not good for my health to show up to work sick, it endangers the health of my patients, it tells the patient subtly to not take my words as a knowledgeable health worker too seriously, because i don't follow what i preach, plenty of rest, push fluids, and stay at home when i'm sick.
i do know that if everyone, earlier in the month of february at my hospital called in sick, we would have been struggling on my floor with tones of patients each! so i find this topic controversial and i don't have all the answers, do you?
Please call in sick if you are. I just had to cover for an RN who came in sick on a night shift and was sent home by the infection control doctor because she had c-diff. Because she came in and started her shift we couldn't find anyone to replace her and me(RN) and 3 LPN's had to cover 33 patients the rest of the night. To say the least this was really unsafe and I ran my butt off didn't sit down for 12 hours, let alone have time to react if one of the patients had become worse during the night.
It also left the rest of us wondering for the next week if we were going to come down with c-diff, or which patients had she spread this to. This nurse had spoken to the manager whose response to her was well don't call in we need our nurses.(what would she have done if we all caught it and had to call in sick) :trout:
She had actually worked the previous two nights as well and didn't think anything of it (not the brightest bulb in the box)until the infection control doc came up and she happened to mention what the manager had said and why she was there. The doc was going to speak to the manager thank goodness.
The bottom line is, take care of yourself, sheesh! There are plenty of jobs out there that don't offer any benefits like sick time; so if you have it and don't use it when you need it, that's downright dumb.
Sometimes, I have to admit it is difficult to tell if one is sick to the point of having to call in sick, especially if you get guff on the other end of that telephone line... Example: Soar throat (are you kidding me?)...Temp below 101 (did you just run a marathon?!)...Cough (use a mask silly, that's what they're for!). So from now on I call in: "I'M SICK...Yeah, IT'S ME, you know my name look up the number," and hang up...done!
Please call in sick if you are. She had actually worked the previous two nights as well and didn't think anything of it (not the brightest bulb in the box)until the infection control doc came up and she happened to mention what the manager had said and why she was there.
:lol2:
I'll admit it sometimes, I'm not the brightest bulb in the box either, especially during a code!!! lOLOLOLOLOL heee heee heee!
Specializes in LTC/SNF, Psychiatric, Pharmaceutical.
For an industry that is supposedly devoted to the treatment and prevention of illness, health care has no mercy when one of its own gets sick - or in how that might impact the patients.
Over the years, I've worked through several stomach-virus epidemics in NHs, sick as a dog. Between every patient, almost every staff member had to run to the bathroom for vomiting or diarrhea. At least one girl I know of, unfortunately, did not make it and had an accident. Where is the concept of "infection control" in these fiascoes?
When I worked at restaurants, if you had so much as a sniffle, the manager would send you home. No restaurant manager worth his salt would allow people to work with stomach viruses bad enough to cause uncontrolled vomiting/diarrhea. The media would run a story about how the restaurant was traced to numerous cases of illness. The county health department would shut the place down. Yet, health care demands that its workers put aside their own health at the risk of permanent damage in favor of their jobs. The statement "How can you abandon your patients?" is often dangled over the heads of health care workers.
We just had one of our sick days taken away (now only four in 12 mos) so i had to suffer thru my worst allergy season in years at work...we are always thinking maybe i will really need that day down the road...
I am not a nurse but i also feel so guilty when i need to call in sick. I just recentally (like after my surgery this las aug) started taking real care of myself by taking the needed time off. The only other time I took time off was because I had had my eye removed thus i could not bend over and I worked at a daycare center.
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:lol2: 
melsch
68 Posts
Please call in sick if you are. I just had to cover for an RN who came in sick on a night shift and was sent home by the infection control doctor because she had c-diff. Because she came in and started her shift we couldn't find anyone to replace her and me(RN) and 3 LPN's had to cover 33 patients the rest of the night. To say the least this was really unsafe and I ran my butt off didn't sit down for 12 hours, let alone have time to react if one of the patients had become worse during the night.
It also left the rest of us wondering for the next week if we were going to come down with c-diff, or which patients had she spread this to. This nurse had spoken to the manager whose response to her was well don't call in we need our nurses.(what would she have done if we all caught it and had to call in sick) :trout:
She had actually worked the previous two nights as well and didn't think anything of it (not the brightest bulb in the box)until the infection control doc came up and she happened to mention what the manager had said and why she was there. The doc was going to speak to the manager thank goodness.