Snow emergency excuse?

kat911 · Feb 8, 2005

I don't mind staying if the weather is bad, but the hospital should make some accommodations for staff.
I remember being mandated to stay during a bad snowstorm. The hospital let us sleep on the floor in a conference room...no pillows, no blankets, nothing. That really cheesed me off.
I won't try to kill myself to get to work if there's bad ice...sorry, but no job is worth losing your life (or killing someone else in an accident).

Man I would have been out scrounging for stretcher pads and anything else to lay down on. Our hospital doesn't need to do this much, not much snow in Texas usually, but we do allow staff to take over unused patient rooms, especially the deluxe rooms that have a hide a bed sofa. The more the merrier. :rotfl:

BadBird, BSN, RN · Feb 8, 2005

I always attempt to get to work, I only missed one shift in the 8 yrs due to ice and me sliding off the road and getting stuck in a ditch, I did make it in 6 hrs. later after being towed out of the ditch and the roads finally being salted. You just have to leave early, drive slow and don't follow too closely. Now if the roads are covered in ice then no one is safe so I would rather stay at work than try to drive home.

PediRN · Feb 9, 2005

I manage a unit in the northeast and do not accept snow as an excuse to call out sick. With current technology, we know at least three days in advance that there's a snowstorm coming. Gives you plenty of time to plan to come in early or stay with a coworker who lives close by. I live 40 miles from my job. If I can make it in, so can the majority of my staff.

SweetieRN · Feb 20, 2006

so, here in nyc, we're expecting a big one this weekend. my friend is working tomorrow night, and is anticipating a problem getting in to work already (they're saying it's going to be at it's worst during her commute in).
so here's my beef: although she is my good friend, she lives 35 miles from work, as do many of the others (some live further than that). i, on the other hand, live about 5 miles away. every winter, i hear about how these people can't get to work because of the snow, or their mother, father, husband or dog will not let them drive in the snow to work. am i the only one who feels that we, as health care professionals, have an obligation to get to work?? and also, isn't this something you need to consider when you decide to take a job that is so far from your home?? now, i'm talking about nyc/long island, where there is a hospital every 5 miles, not the boon docks (where some of you may be). and i'm also not talking about a school nurse job or a doctor's office, where no one would be there anyway if the weather is bad. it's a hospital, where sick people are, and will stay, until they get better.
i just can't bear to listen to the complaining anymore, especially when i don't agree with their rationale. i can get into an accident on my way in, too. i can't not say anything (i'm just not that type), so i know i'm not going to be popular when i get into work tonight. speaking of tonight, i'm working overnight. so my friend calls me up and says "they might start holding people over before it snows, so you might have to stay". my shift ends at 8 am, and the snow is supposed to begin in the afternoon. i can't imagine that they would hold the entire night shift over in anticipation for a storm.

i live 13 miles from my hospital. this weekend we had an ice storm. roads were pretty bad. it took me sunday morning (i work night shift) 45 minutes to travel 13 miles. the roads were bad enought that the highway patrol was "escorting" vehicles so that they would not travel faster than 30 mph. so - if i lived 35 miles from my job it would take me a considerable amount of time to travel on very slick and hazardous roads. i'm sorry, but my personal safety and my responsibility to my family is more important than my job. i do agree however that you should be prepared for any weather or natural disaster by carrying an overnight bag in the trunk of your car in case you are stranded and have to stay at the hospital because no one can get out or come in.

mom23RN · Feb 20, 2006

Well, this actually happened to me. We're in rural Michigan and we had a snowstorm about 5 years ago that dropped I think it was almost 30 inches. We lived about 5 miles from the nearest "kept open" road. I had to call in for 3 days because they never even got anywhere near us with a plow truck. On the second day work called and said that they would have someone come out and get me with a 4 X 4. I informed him that they would have to bring a snowmobile in the back of it for at least the last 3 miles by that time. I had a 4 X 4 and there was no way we were getting anywhere even in that.

At our hospital they were actually going and getting people on snowmobiles that were in ambulances stuck on the freeway. In one section of expressway there were over 75 cars stuck.

Sometimes it just happens. I didn't mean not to be able to get there, but it does happen.