Sick employees in the workplace

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Hello all

I had a question regarding others experiences with their facilities and what is considered appropriate and the norm for nurses and CNAs in healthcare.

6 days ago I came down sick. It started as an irritated cough in my throat. The next morning I was god awfully sick with severe jaw and neck pain that turned into headaches shoulder aches occasionally on and off body aches/joint pain. The cough continued, dry, sometimes productive sometimes not. I eventually almost lost my voice it would come and go or be deep and raspy. I walked into work with a low grade fever. They gave me Tylenol and sent me to work. It is a LTC facility so we are always short staffed and I know I can't call out. I only have once. I got chewed out for even requesting to leave at 10 pm that night if my assignment was done since we usually are sitting around for the last hour anyway. The nurse ended up having to send me home early at 9 that night because she said I looked too sick. I went in the next day with no voice and then mustered through my busy weekend. It's now 6 days later and my days are better but the nights I'm up coughing really bad, in such severe pain I can't sleep, and running fevers runny nose and sometimes green; It was 8 hours of torture. I'm apparently ill enough that I shouldn't be working. I am weak so I tell the aides I need assistance with allllll my transfers so I don't put anyone at risk.

With that said, I was wondering what then constitutes a sick day. How does it work in your facility?

Your insight is appreciated.

I have lung problems. If I catch the creeping crud, it goes straight to my lungs. One of my coworkers came to work with a fever, coughing, and the whole 9 yards. Even though I did what I could, I caught it. Ended up off work for almost 2 weeks! Please try not to go to work while you are sick.

It gripes me to no end that you work for your sick time and then when you need it, you get a hassle. Double standard.

We technically don't have an attendance policy where I work. We have people that have called into work once or twice a week for years and get away with it but, it seems that when one of us that never misses calls in, we get hell over it. I just don't get it.

I work in ICU. I also have lung issues. When I have patients who are coughing and hacking, I wear a mask. It's been a long time since I have caught anything from one of my patients. However, last time I got pneumonia, it was from a coworker who came in sick and spread the wealth among the staff. I was off on sick leave for 2 weeks.

It burns me that hospitals etc. give you sick time and then they penalize you for it.

By the way, if you have a condition that is recurrent (migranes, mental health issues, asthma etc) you can file a FMLA. This has to signed by your doctor of course, but once it's on file, they cannot hold it against you if you need to call out for that issue.

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