What do you mean you're sick? How dare you!

Nurses Humor

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This happened to me today. Urinating blood, feel like there's a war going on in my abdominopelvic region. Pardon me for scheduling a doctor's appointment.

The question is against labor law.

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Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.

Maybe OP should have spun a fantastic fairy tale about how her potential and future children will all be perfectly healthy and never have any illnesses, nor accidents; they will be born with completely civilized and matured psyches, and be considerate of others at all times and are cognizant, understanding that their mother's employers' needs being more important than their own.

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rnsrgr8t said:
I work for a Urology practice. There are 3 nurses, 2 APN's and 4 MD's and 3 residents. Whenever the MD's get sick, have a family emergency, death in the family, we ALL always pitch in and "just get it done". Our lead APN is the supervisor for all the nurses. I have had a couple of instances where she has given me SUCH grief over legitimate call outs (which I do not have many).

I got that awful enteroviral URI thing that was going around last year. I had a high fever, conjunctivitis, otitis media and severe sinus infection. It took two rounds of antibiotics and steroids (plus 2 urgent care visits and almost an ENT visit) to get it better. I was sick for 3 weeks. I missed ONE day of work at the onset of symptoms when I had the fever and conjunctivitis. When I called her that morning to let her know I was going to the urgent care and what my symptoms were she said "You really cannot come in after you get checked?" "ummm NO I have PINK EYE ok? and a fever!". Give me no fever and 24h ours on antibiotic eye drops and THEN I will come in!!!

I also had a running injury where I tripped (I am a clutz) on a crack in the side walk and fell flat out landing on my left wrist on a Friday night. By the next day, It was so severely swollen I thought I broke it. I could not move it at all, could not put pants on, shower etc. By Sunday, I acquiesced and went to the urgent care (again!) and luckily it was not broken but severely sprained. The PA told me (after she found out I was an APN) NO WORK for 3 days. She wrote me a work excuse. When I called my supervisor she said, "you cannot just come in and do patient phone calls etc?". Umm, NO, what part of I cannot shower or put my pants on do you not understand???? Needless to say I took my 3 days as instructed. She never asked how I was when I went back with my brace on and a severely purple wrist. Everyone else I worked with was concerned but she wasn't.

The last was when my Grandfather died unexpectedly. Now they did let me go fly home to be with my family without question which was nice. He was to be buried in a military cemetery with full honors (playing taps, flag on the coffin the whole thing). He could not be buried on the day of his funeral because it happened to be a holiday. It was going to have to be two days later (on a Monday) on the day I was supposed to fly back. My mom's family is a piece of work (my uncle/aunt and cousins) and totally bailed 2 minutes after the funeral was over with no intentions of staying for the burial (was not work stuff my uncle/aunt are retired). My Dad was on call (he is an anesthesiologist) and was trying to get someone to cover for him at the last minute but was not sure he could. I called my supervisor to let her know I really needed one extra day so my Mom did not have to bury her father alone. Can you imagine standing there alone while taps is played and your father's casket is draped with a flag alone??? No, was not going to let that happen. My supervisor wanted to know why I could not get a flight immediately after the burial? When I told her the cemetery was an 1 1/2 hour drive from my parents house and the airport was 3 + hours in the opposite direction and there were no flights available, she begrudgingly agreed. Now the MD's I worked with, had NO issues AT ALL. She just did not want to see my patients for me (because I do 3x the amount of clinics she does). We always just pitch in and make do, we take care of each other. We have done it for her as well...she just is very reluctant to reciprocate.

One of our nurses needed foot surgery. She immediately told us when she found out b/c her doctor said she needed to not work for 8 weeks. It was elective so she planned it at the best time she could, we made staffing arrangements and we were going to handle it the best we could. She took out FMLA etc. My supervisor, from the beginning, kept "forgetting" how long she was going to need to stay out. She kept on making it "well she will REALLY only need 4 weeks!" before she had her surgery. It was so ridiculous. During her leave, there were constant comments "why is she not back yet, it has been 4, 5, 6 weeks!". I kept telling her, she is out 8 weeks!!! She always looked dumbfounded every time I reminded her of that. I guess she did not expect her to follow doctors orders!

That is unbelievably horrible. It only takes one nasty person to make your work experience a bad one.

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Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.

This is kind of an off-shoot from the main subject:

When I was in elementary school my mother, being an RN, wrote the BEST excuse notes to turn in when I returned after being out.

I wasn't just sick to my stomach. *I* had 'gastroenteritis'.

Oh, and I didn't just have a cold, *I* had an "upper respiratory infection".

I don't know why, exactly, but it made me feel somehow justified that my absence was legitimate....

And my mother 'had my back'. :)

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I am not a nurse but one of my supervisors is so stupid that he never wants to believe something is really wrong with you. Last year when my husband called my work that my dad had suddenly died, he wanted me to send in a death certificate to prove that it actually happened. WTH!!! I couldn't believe it. He kept on calling me a week later asking when I will be back. Sigh.

Unfortunately, am still at this job. A few weeks ago I had to have surgery and was in the hospital for a few days, guess who kept calling and texting to find out why am off work? Mind you all the paperwork was sent to HR and they knew why I was gone but I had asked them to NOT tell this particular supervisor as to why I was off work since he has verbal diarrhea. HR was so upset with him when they found out he had been asking me why am off work.

Some people are just beyond help and he's one of them.

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Specializes in Hospice.
rowrowyourboat said:
I am not a nurse but one of my supervisors is so stupid that he never wants to believe something is really wrong with you. Last year when my husband called my work that my dad had suddenly died, he wanted me to send in a death certificate to prove that it actually happened. WTH!!! I couldn't believe it. He kept on calling me a week later asking when I will be back. Sigh.

Unfortunately, am still at this job. A few weeks ago I had to have surgery and was in the hospital for a few days, guess who kept calling and texting to find out why am off work? Mind you all the paperwork was sent to HR and they knew why I was gone but I had asked them to NOT tell this particular supervisor as to why I was off work since he has verbal diarrhea. HR was so upset with him when they found out he had been asking me why am off work.

Some people are just beyond help and he's one of them.

HR probably had stomach cramps when they found out because you had every right to trot out the "H" word to them.

Harassment.

I'm hoping they told him to cease and desist.

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If I am sick, then I call in sick. I don't care about what the other nurses do, whether they call in sick even if they are not. That is between them and our Nursing manager. I am aware that my nursing manager is usually hard pressed to find a replacement when the other nurses call in sick and she calls me if I can fill in. I say yes if I can and if I feel like it. I don't feel obliged to answer all her phone calls on my day off (not in any way paid)and to fill in just because she ask me to. That's the definition of a day off. As a personal rule, I don't give my cell number to my employer. They should not expect to have my cell number and use it to call me unless they are paying for my phone and it is part of my employment agreement with them. I value my employment, but I have to draw a line somewhere. My nursing manager does not won me. If my manager does not know all these employee-employer rules to the extent that she would do the horrible stories I've read here in this discussion topic, then I would not want to work for her either. There are other jobs. In the interview when I applied for my jobs, I asked my future manager questions about her expectations ad her managerial style to see if I fit. I realize that I can't pick my manager of she gets replaced, so If in the future my manager crosses my boundary too much then it will be time to leave and find a new job. I have yet to go to HR on a complaint. But beware - HR is not your friend. HR works for the interest of your employer regardless of what they say otherwise. If you have a union, approach your union rep first to ask for advice before you go to HR. And, know your rights.

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So here's how it goes:

I am borderline sick (think I may be coming down with something but not entirely sure yet) and I call in and ask if there is any chance of getting canceled because I'm not feeling that well. I am told the staffing is tight, so probably no chance of getting cancelled.

If I decide to officially call in sick I will get a black mark on my record for unscheduled call-in.

I also know at that point that my co-workers will be stretched even thinner due to my call-in and I feel guilty about it.

I tell them I'm not feeling well but I'll come in, and the manager says thanks, and she'll try to get me a lighter assignment.

I show up and get an awful assignment, because there are no lighter assignments on the unit. One of the reasons being that a couple of other co-workers were smarter than I was and called in sick.

I can't take the good cold meds because then I'll be working under the influence.

I am getting sicker by the hour. I guess I really am coming down with something.

If I leave mid-shift I'll get a double black mark. (It doesn't matter if someone is feeling fine and suddenly vomits and has to go home, they get a double black mark.)

So I stick it out. I wear a mask all the time, wash my hands a lot, stuff kleenex up my nose under the mask so it doesn't drip all over my face while I'm in the room. Luckily all the patients are on full contact-droplet precaution because they are sick, too.

At some point in the shift I look at the patients in their beds and I'm jealous of them.

I go home and crash into my bed and take my good cold meds.

And when I wake up and check my work email, there is a company-wide email that says they are paying some extra pay for people to pick up shifts because they are so short staffed.

And then there is another email that says not to come to work when you are sick.

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Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.

NurseFifty is right: HR is not your friend.

An HR director asked me to come see her at a certain time on my day off. I showed up on time and she made me wait 35 minutes to see her.

Then she was "Really sorry..." (Uh-HUH, right.) and she let me go.

I was working in an ethically compromised facility that loaded waaay too much work and too many responsibilities on both the nurses and the CNA's. Wish I'd bailed out before all this occurred!

HR cared not one bit about the conditions under which we worked; it did not matter in the least.

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Specializes in Internal Medicine, Geriatric Medicine.
No Stars In My Eyes said:
We used to joke that even if we call in dead, they'd try to tell us we were responsible for finding someone to cover for us.

LOL. I've seen signs/posters/etc saying, "I've used up all my sick days so I'm calling in dead."

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Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.

Once, some friends wanted me to call in so I could join them in whatever it was they were up to. One guy put his index finger through a belt-loop on my jeans and said, "Now, you REALLY can't go to work! We're holding you back so you can't​ leave."

What was I supposed to say when I called in? "They've got me by my belt-loop and won't turn me loose?"

I did end up going in to work, but forever after "The Belt-Loop Defense" was often cited as a reason for not being able to do something.

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