I am so sick of not being able to take my days off because I cannot get a sub! I put in for a family emergency day today due to a very sick pet (hey, they are family to me!) and the job did not get picked up by a sub. I came into the office, planning on staying for an hour just to tie loose ends up and get the staff who is trained to cover my meds and procedures prepped for the day. Well, one of those staff members is absent, one will be out of the building for mandatory training, and the third pretty much flipped out about it
So, here I sit, only able to take a half day (which will really be less than the true half day that I am being charged for), worried sick about my critter, tired from being up all night and hungry because I did not even get breakfast, thinking that I would be able to go back home
This pressure is ridiculous...I cannot handle feeling like I cannot be sick, or have an emergency, or even just take one of the personal days allotted to me for whatever reason I need to. I am truly considering looking into other settings. I love my job and the kiddos, but this is insane!
Dear Purple: Though I would never voluntarily leave this specialty because of the lack of subs, the nurses in my district are in the same boat. We live in fear of becoming ill, and if one of my elderly parents needs me, what do I do?
Furthermore, we have to arrange our own subs. If we find ourselves ill, we have to start calling. Our sub llist is pitifully short! So, if not vomiting, or feverish, off to work we go.
It sounds as though it is the same everywhere, doesn't it? What to do?
I'm sorry to hear about your horse, Purple scrubs. ...and though we've never met, i can tell by your posts that you are very good at what you do as far as school nursing is concerned.
As far as subs go,
We are on a better plane in my district than we were 5 years ago, but that is largely because we pushed the school board to increase sub pay from $80/day (which is what teacher subs get) to $150/day for nurse subs. This took us taking our days without regard to whether or not the school was covered.
Despite the better pay, we still have our times when we struggle with coverage - field trip season especially. They used to just pull me out of my little school to cover wherever needed, but now that i'm at a much bigger school, they won't be able to do that. When my school was first slated to close we all had a brief glimmer of hope that we'd keep the extra nurse on as a float and for extra coverage at the HS and MS but of course that didn't happen.
Other ideas we had come up with over the years - most of which hadn't panned out mostly due to lack of initiative:
nursing staffing agency - expensive and districts hate it, but it sure beats a law suit if there wasn't adequately trained staff in the building
Creating a regional sub pool (county wide) - seemed possible, but nobody seems to want to head up a county wide effort. There has been some talk at the county association, but it's only been talk.
If we constantly go in because there is not a sub, there is no motivation to expand the sub list.
I agree, but am not sure what the answer is. I am supposed to have 3 staff people trained for every procedure or med that I do. In this case, one was absent, one had to leave the building for mandatory training, and the third freaked out saying that she "never thought she would REALLY have to do it". Plus, I had just received the order for a scheduled nebulizer treatment the day before and had not had time to train ANYONE for that. Sure, I could have just called in and not physically gone in at all, but who would suffer? Not the district or the staff...the kids and their families would be the ones to suffer!
For my district, we have a pretty good list of possible subs, they just never want to work! Especially this being a Friday, I knew it was a lost cause. Maybe the just don't want to work at my school, I dunno? It is a procedure-heavy school (4 caths per day, 2 insulin injections and monitoring, along with the routine meds and asthma and ADHD stuff). Like I said, I don't know what the answer is, it's a tough situation.
Artistyc1
232 Posts
Dear Purple: Though I would never voluntarily leave this specialty because of the lack of subs, the nurses in my district are in the same boat. We live in fear of becoming ill, and if one of my elderly parents needs me, what do I do?
Furthermore, we have to arrange our own subs. If we find ourselves ill, we have to start calling. Our sub llist is pitifully short! So, if not vomiting, or feverish, off to work we go.
It sounds as though it is the same everywhere, doesn't it? What to do?