Sick leave and on call

[dolphinRN]

I have a quick question regarding your hospital policy on being on call after calling in sick. Does your hospital allow you to still take call if you call in sick for a regularly scheduled tour?

[grimmy, RN]

i have a quick question regarding your hospital policy on being on call after calling in sick. does your hospital allow you to still take call if you call in sick for a regularly scheduled tour?

i have no earthly idea. i'd have never even considered it. i think my next question would be do they expect you to take your call even if you called in sick during your regularly scheduled shift.

[sharann, BSN, RN]

If you are sick, you are sick. The call needs to be taken by someone else. We usually arrange this ourselves within our PACU, but you may need to speak with manager.

[dolphinRN]

The main reason for my question is because I recently have started assisting our timekeeper with posting the time for various areas. The manager is constantly asking him to override the not available for those who call in sick so they still get paid to be on call. I agree that if you are too sick to pull your regular shift, you are too sick to be on call, but it doesn't seem to be the practice where I work. It isn't a major hospital where the on call team is called in routinely, but I still feel it is not a safe practice and wondered if this was common elsewhere.

Thanks for the replies.

[carcha]

I'm a bit confused here Dolphin, are you saying the manager is putting people down as being on call even though their off sick?. If so who is their back up.

[dolphinRN]

I honestly don't know if they have a back up system in place. I've been helping with timekeeping for about 8 months now and the only time I have seen on call changes made did not involve someone being off sick. Again, we have very few instances where the on call team do come in, but it just seems odd to allow someone to continue to be on call when they are too sick to work a regular shift. Yes, odds of them getting called in are slim, but what if it happens???

Do other places have back up systems in place? Again, I don't work the area. It is just a patient and staff safety issue that triggered in my mind.

[kyti]

If you are too sick to come to work during your schedualed hours, you are too sick to be on call period.

[akor]

I honestly don't know if they have a back up system in place. I've been helping with timekeeping for about 8 months now and the only time I have seen on call changes made did not involve someone being off sick. Again, we have very few instances where the on call team do come in, but it just seems odd to allow someone to continue to be on call when they are too sick to work a regular shift. Yes, odds of them getting called in are slim, but what if it happens???

Do other places have back up systems in place? Again, I don't work the area. It is just a patient and staff safety issue that triggered in my mind.

We had a three day wee-end this week-end and the nurse who was on-call called in sick on Friday so the head nurse went around to every nurse to ask them if they wanted the call duty....Everybody said "NO" so he had to write all the names down on pieces of paper and had someone pick a name out of the box!!!!! Than kgoodness I didn't get picked..... Have you ever heard that one before.....

[shodobe]

We have an unwritten rule that if you call off sick and someone takes your call, whatever day the volunteer took you had to take whatever one they wanted to give up. Example, if you called off on Wed for 16 hour call, the person who was on Sat for 24 hours could take yours and you HAD to take their Sat call! This eliminated the call offs almost completely. No one wanted to be forced to take call on the weekends so they didn't call off as much as they use to. Also, I have heard of the names in a hat routine and too tell you the truth what are you going to do, call has to be covered by someone. Mike

[carcha]

I have worked in one hospital where if you called in sick during a week day call you werent allowed to do call on the weekend when you got max. pay and that was a good idea. My concern about the original poster is, if you are aware that people who are sick on their call are still getting paid even though their not available then you can be found guilty of defrauding your employer, one of the only instant sackable offences. I dont know if you know that or if this is the case here. As for the names in a hat? We had this and I always refuse. That is what upper management is there for . In the event that someone has to cover last minute I always tell upper management to.

[mcmike55]

We are a small OR, 6, now 7, RN's and 6 techs for OR call.

Our basic, un written rule...A) don't call in sick on your call nights. B) too sick to work your shift, you're too sick for call that night (16 hr).

When someone calls off, someone will cover your call that night, and then the sick one takes their call later that week. Or not, depending on the need for funds, if you know what I mean, but the offer is always there.

Weekends, basically the same.

Mike

[ZASHAGALKA, RN]

I've called in sick a few times and have been told something like: OH NO! is it contagious? could you come in a dire emergency?!?!?! How about if we put you on call and only call you in if we absolutely must!

And I'll admit to agreeing to that a few times.

The other thing to consider is that the manager in question might just be wanting to shield her employees from negative points for sick days. Or she might be using that as a way to sneak in extra compensation 'off the books', ala, if you work this shift for me, I'll find a way to get you extra money later . . .

~faith,

Timothy.