Weather Policy

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Does your hospital have a weather policy? If so, is it lenient? Do you ever feel like you have really sacrificed your safety to make it into work out of guilt?

Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.

I agree with some of what you say, but if there isn't some sort of consequence for repeatedly calling off due to weather, then the burden of working mandatory OT, sleeping at the hosp., etc. will always fall on the people who live closer to the hospital. If I were working for a hospital this year, I would be sick of having to shoulder all the burden, along with my other co-workers, who by dint of geography, would also get stuck being mandated.

I live in a part of PA that has been bludgeoned with snow this year. I don't ever remember it snowing like this...not even when I was a kid. At some point, the nurses who live further away from the facility/hosp. have to step up and relieve their peers.

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If you have no support you need to find a job in a setting where you won't have to work weekendsholidays and through bad weather or you have to find yourself support. You did make the choice to go into healthcare (vs teaching) and the rest of us don't feel sorry for you because we have ALL had challenges, too. You find a kennel for the pets (ask your vet) You make friends and share childcare. Start that at work-I know many single mothers who have made arrangements with single mothers on opposite shifts-it can be done. Church is another good way to build relationships in your community,go to the local schools,college,etc.I have found tutors and babysitters that way. I had a neighbor who was a radiology tech,she worked evenings and I worked days.She put the kids on the bus in the morning and I was there to pick them up after sholl and kept them until her husband came home.It worked out well. The month I found out I was pregnant with my son I interviewed caregivers and put him on the waiting list for daycare. As someone else said this is critical thinking. My mother and in laws were older and we just took for granted that WE would be responsible for raising our child and that included finding appropriate care when needed. Even though we lived near them all I never assumed they were at our beck and call. There were times they felt a thousand miles away to be truthful but we managed.[/quote']

I asked a question. I wasn't asking for, or expecting, your pity, but I'm glad I gave you an opportunity to feel self-righteous. Based on your other posts, you clearly enjoy it.

Anyway, I was wondering because I know during hurricanes some places allow staff to bring their families and (crated) pets, for those who don't have another option. I haven't had to deal with this yet, but it doesn't seem to be something that is commonly offered.

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Specializes in Med/Surg/ICU/Stepdown.
First of all let's compare apples to apples. A Colorado, Minnesota, Upstate NY, etc nurse cannot say to a Georgia nurse 'well I make it to work in the snow.' I drive in the snow here (Mid-Atlantic), but it scares my husband to see me go. When I remind him I've lived in Colorado, he reminds me, they have more plows, salt, ppl know how to drive in the snow, etc. He's right, I've seen more spin outs here than I even did in Colorado. There was a hundred car pile up last night in PA. The fairest thing to do is give some sort of weather/hazard differential (defined by each state and hospital's unique situation). If a nurse who wasn't schedule comes in s/he gets overtime and a differential. Those who are forced to stay and sleep at work get on-call while sleeping, and differential pay while working. Those who can't come in have to take PTO. What they shouldn't get it 'punished', dinged on their evals and such. The exception being if they take too many. Too many sick calls is brought up at evals, so inclement weather should be the same. Money is the great equalizer, and people should get credit and compensation for going above and beyond. Of course this isn't going to happen, because we won't ask for it. The culture of nursing has always been, 'lives are at stake, be compassionate, and do what has to be done.' It’s always been this way so it can never change. Instead of criticizing the hospitals (and other care centers) for not taking care of their staff we criticize each other for not being good enough. Seriously, does anyone know what firefighters, police ect do for inclement weather? Do they have the same ‘show up, end of story’ policy? Someone’s got to have a cop in their family.[/quote']

Thank you! Thank you for offering a viable solution not rooted in judging or putting down the nurses that take issue to, or occasionally have to, call out of work due to weather. My question was really posed as taking a poll to policies that exist and whether or not nurses find them fair and/or a real solution to the problem.

I appreciate your feedback!

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I have two cousins who are police officers. They have to show, calling off for weather is at their own expense, ie I do not believe they get paide time off for it. I have a friend who is a firefighter, although the way he has described it before they stay in the firehouse when they are on duty, so their going out is for a fire, I do not think they will decide they cannot drive to the fire because of weather. Just my opinion.

I also have a cousin who works for the post office, they also have to go. I personally worked for the phone company, since I was in network support we always got the "911 has to work, no matter what the weather". That being said, we were not allowed to call off for weather either. Yet as with anywhere else, if a person decided to it was at their option, but we did not get personal days for that you got time off without pay and too many could hurt your evaluation. I have pulled 16 hour shifts for multiple reasons, but I do not remember ever having to pull one because somone called off for the weather. That is just my experience.

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Specializes in Med/surg, Quality & Risk.
Except it isn't, because the snow/inclement weather caused the power to go out, and the roads to be unsafe. I'll say it before and I'll say it again--not every single county plows accordingly. Not everyone's route to work is direct or safe. I understand getting there, driving slow, taking your time, snow tires, safe car .. blah, blah, blah. But, again, if there is that one individual who DOES live that far from the hospital and the commute is going to be far too treacherous, then there shouldn't be the browbeating and the guilting/consequences that come along with a nurse throwing up her hands and saying, "You know what? I'm sorry. I'm going to have to take a personal day/come in late/find coverage because this is going to be too dangerous a trip given the snow circumstance." I'm not sure when it became customary to question everyone's intentions, but it's almost as if NM's don't trust the nurses to know their commute enough to know when it's going to be impassable. And that's really sad.

I had sympathy for you, but you went there. You kinda went to "I'm special because I live far away from the hospital." You AREN'T that one individual. Why? Because there's one individual with a sick parent that makes them difficult to leave to go to work. There's one individual who's got an ex-husband who makes their life heck and tries to sabotage them enough to keep them from getting to work. There's one individual with a special needs child who just lost their babysitter today. EVERYONE is that one individual. None of us are special.

Again, I get that jobs are difficult to get. BUT if you have to live that far away, you just have to be prepared to make arrangements for these situations. It would be lovely if the hospital would assist with this. Ours provides rooms in the hospital or at local hotels if they are expecting a large amount of people to not be able to make it due to weather. But if yours doesn't that's unfortunate, but you should still make efforts to get to work, or you risk the consequences of your attendance policy and the annoyance of coworkers. It's just how it is in this biz.

To attempt to be helpful: You could also consider asking people who live closer to trade with you for another day. I hadn't seen that suggestion yet.

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Specializes in Med/surg, Quality & Risk.

We should start some real fireworks.

Holidays and staff with children. Discuss.

Oh God. You were bored, weren't you? Don't get me started!!

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Specializes in Med/surg, Quality & Risk.
A car ran into my house once...I took a personal day. I don't know and I don't care how they coded it. I had trouble using a phone book after that happened. Alphabetical order was too much for my pea brain.

Yeah, when things do come up, I don't care what they call it or whether they pay me for it. I can act like that BECAUSE I DON'T CALL OFF. The last day I took off unexpectedly was over two years ago, for a death. When you cry wolf so many times though, yes, your boss and your coworkers will start to give you the what for.

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Specializes in LTC,Hospice/palliative care,acute care.

You call it "self righteous", someone else may call it "doom's day prepping" or simple common sense.

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Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.
You call it "self righteous", someone else may call it "doom's day prepping" or simple common sense.

I have my 439 gallons of bottles water right next to my cash stash for a (really) bad weather day. ;)

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I work at a hospital in suburban Atlanta and we have an inclement weather policy. If a code white is called, staff is called and asked to come in before the storm hits or gets bad. You are expected to be at work for your scheduled shift(s). If you choose to not come in to stay or sleep at the hospital, then you are expected to come in to work, regardless of the conditions of the roads. I know in the past if you called out due to bad weather, then they really haven't done anything punitive but they might this time around. If it's the same day as your shift, you are paid call pay for the hours you come in before your shift. If you sleep over before or after your shift, you are paid double call pay for those hours. You are given 2 meal vouchers (worth $5) per 24 hours stayed at the hospital.

I was scheduled to work Tuesday from 7p-7a. Code white was called as of 5am Tuesday and we got calls about it on Monday. I went in to work around 2pm to wait for my shift to start, as the bad weather hadn't started and got call pay for those hours. I worked my shift Tuesday night and slept Wednesday until I worked Wednesday 7p-7a and got paid double call pay for those sleeping hours. The worst part of the storm was Wednesday and our building (Womens services) had 96 employees sleeping over. We slept in patient rooms (with no patients in them, obviously) and some people slept in conference rooms. Our departments were fully staffed and it went quite smoothly and we actually set a record of 28 deliveries in 24 hours!

I heard that employees who called out at any point during the storm were required to come in and work on Friday for people who had been there for the duration of the storm. We had several people who had stayed at the hospital starting on Monday and left on Thursday, when the temperature was above freezing, so while it was slushy, the roads were ok to drive on. I actually slept for a few hours after my shift ended on Thursday morning, after waking I went outside and spent the better part of an hour chipping ice off of my car and drove home. The roads were slushy but not bad at all and I drive a small car that is not 4WD.

I think that my hospital's policy for code white is fair. I know other metro hospitals will put their employees up in hotels that are close to the hospital. I also heard that one hospital pays premium pay for those working during code white. A few other hospitals mandate people to work the shifts while they are there, regardless of whether they are actually scheduled or not and are not allowed to leave until the code white is called off, I think in part to make it so people don't have to travel during inclement weather. At my hospital, or at least my unit, we are required to work our scheduled shifts and are required to be here period, no matter what. Obviously if your house was burned down or something similar to that, then the call out wouldn't be considered to be bad but we were given plenty of advance warning of what the expectations were and told what they needed us to do. If you chose not to do this, then you ran the risk of punishment.

I do know that on Thursday morning, my charge nurse told me that if anyone planned to stay over on Thursday night, then everyone would be moved out of patient rooms and everyone would have to sleep in this huge conference room that we have on cots and mats. The reason why is because we had no patient rooms left and needed the rooms for patients so employees couldn't continue sleeping in the patient rooms. I wasn't scheduled to work on Thursday night but was on Friday night, so if I had been unable to get home on Thursday, I would have gone to a local hotel (across the street from the hospital) and rented a room, as I was not planning to sleep in a conference room with 50+ of my co-workers and fight for showers in the changing room. Plus, there wouldn't have been any place for me to stay on Thursday night, since I wasn't working and I didn't want to just hang around work for 12 hours. Thankfully, I was able to get home but I would've rented a room in a minute if I hadn't been able to get home.

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Management lies and says it's all about patients. They prey on the nursing instinct to care, guilting them into risking their lives. The reality is it has nothing to do with patients and everything to do with money. They're not going to let a patient die because the nurse didn't show up...they just would have to call in another nurse who lives close by and has a truck with snow tires....which means possibly overtime pay.

I'm sick of the dollar dictating all decisions. I'm a human being and my life matters, and I will never risk it to save the hospitals some cash.

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Specializes in Emergency Room, Trauma ICU.
Management lies and says it's all about patients. They prey on the nursing instinct to care guilting them into risking their lives. The reality is it has nothing to do with patients and everything to do with money. They're not going to let a patient die because the nurse didn't show up...they just would have to call in another nurse who lives close by and has a truck with snow tires....which means possibly overtime pay. I'm sick of the dollar dictating all decisions. I'm a human being and my life matters, and I will never risk it to save the hospitals some cash.[/quote']

And I'm sick of people who choose to live far away from work using it as an excuse not to come into work. It was their choice to live that far away and using it as a cop out to call in is bs. Why should it all lie on the people who live closer? Why should they be punished because the others won't get off their butt to come in?

Sent from my iPhone using allnurses.com

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