Do you give details such as symptoms (vomiting, fever, cough, diarrhea, etc)
or do you just tell them that you are "sick" and won't be in?
If you know that you won't be working the next day either, how soon do you let them know that you're still sick?
Do you feel believed? Do they question you for more info? Are you frowned upon for being a sick nurse?
Do you feel that you have to thoroughly give enough excuse to be off sick, as if you feel guilty or are made to feel guilty?
When patients cough in your face every time you are near their bed, do you hand them a tissue and ask them to please cover their mouths when they cough?
What are other ways you keep from continually getting sick from patients, in addition to good handwashing?
Under privacy and protection laws, you don't need to give the reason for illness - only that you are ill and will not be at work. The manager has the right to request medical information to be provided - but again, that should not contain confidential medical information, only that you attended medical attention and the duration of your absence.
Medical information should only be shared amoung the persons with a medical interest in your particular instance (your physician and the work site occupational health department). Your manager is acting in the role of human resources and is only privy to the information that you are under a doctor's care and the date of return to duty.
I do not go to the doctor for cold or flu unless I am absolutely ready to die. They are viruses, they pretty much have to run their course, and I know enough to know when I have one. Therefore - my manager can ask for a doctor's excuse until the sky falls down, but she's not going to get it. This goes right along with my other post about being treated like a child. I do not ask others to prove they are sick, I simply wish them better days ahead and I expect the same respect. It is next to impossible to provide compassionate care for anyone when you, yourself are about to collapse. People who come to work sick do their patients and coworkers no favors.
Exactly, RN4NICU. I'm rarely sick...but, if I am I most likely not going to the doctor unless it's really bad. Most things run their course in a day or two.
Managers should not be requesting a medical note every single time someone is ill. But part of a corporate attendence management program may request that once an employee is flagged as having an attendence problems (more than average), medical documentation may be requested.
However, some of the hard nosed managers from the dark ages still believe in and request a note with every sick day. A huge waste of money and a ridiculous waste of physician and employee's time.
Under an attendence management program, failure to produce requested medical documentation maybe deemed as insubordination and lead down the progressive discipline path towards dismissial. I've seen this in both union and non-union environments.
Attendence management is growing and is getting more and more recognition - but common sense must still prevail.
We don't have to provide a MD excuse unless 3 consecutive (sp?) days are missed..which is fair I think..when I do have to call in sick I don't go into detail..just tell the super to put me down for sick for the shift I can't make...if they asked what was wrong I'd tell them, but I don't offer details.....I had one witch super many years ago have the nerve to question if I was REALLY sick...keep in mind I hardly EVER call in...I had a stomach bug and offered to bring her stool/emesis specimens ...think she got my point ? :)
When I worked in a LTC facility as a CNA if you called off they would put a note with the reason on the schedule on the buletin board where everyone could see.... ugh - I never had to call off while there, but I just thought that was a horrible practice.
I don't call in sick often and they don't question me when I do call, usually about once a year. I don't care if they believe me or not, I don't care if they can or can't replace me, I need the day off for illness or for whatever, I can't get involved with anything but taking care of me first.
I'll usually make up symptoms if I'm taking a mental health day. But the last time a staffer I know well answered and I just told her "I need to call in today" and that was that.
I think, but not sure as I've never used it, is if we are out more than three days we need a doctors note to return to work.
I think they like to track illnesses in case there's a breakout disease in the hospital. If they have 50 nurses call in with the same symptoms they can be wary of a potential problem.
We have to call out both to the staffer and to the unit.
when I call in sick, I just say "I don't feel good, or I am sick, I will not be in." I have yet for one person to ask me what exactly I am suffering from, and if they did, I would think it would be very rude and unprofessional of them. Why I miss work is nobody's business but my own. If I ever had an attendance problem, then me and my boss could deal with it but really it is none of their business.
As for patients coughing on me, it seems like they do it all the time! Like I am the wall or something! I do hand them a box of kleenex and I have said once or twice "please don't cough without covering your mouth...we don't need to spread around germs." Honestly, though, several times I have thought...they are adults and they really oughta know better!!!
I just say I'm sick and wont be in. I only told what was the matter once when I had a nasty gastroenteritis that was going around the facility. I told the infection control nurse because she was reporting cases to the Dept. Of Health. We have that same rule where you have to bring an MD note if you're out sick for 3 days. I hate that because most of the time I wouldn't have gone to the MD unless I needed the note.
I have not called in sick yet, but I don't want to!! Every time someone has called on the night shift I hear "she is so faking it." Either people try too hard or they don't try hard enough. Kind of frustrating!
I usually give a them a basic excuse for calling in, like "I have a horrible cold," or "I have a stomach bug." Some charge nurses just say, "Okay, feel better" even when you can hear in their voice that it's crazy busy and now we're even MORE short. Others will cross examine you. I was once hospitalized, and upon discharge, the doctors told me that I couldn't go back to work until the next week, so I called my NM and told her. She knew I had been admitted and was great about taking me off the schedule. Then a charge nurse called me to work overtime! I asked her if she noticed that I was a call-in for the entire week, so why would I want to come and work overtime? I said they told me I couldn't work until the next week, and she tried to challenge my doctors' orders!!! I complained about it in a conversation a month or so later at work, and the charge nurse for that shift marched me into the NM's office the next morning and made me report the nurse. She's never done charge since. I don't feel bad about it either! I was in the HOSPITAL the day before she called me, on sick leave, and instead of asking if I was okay, she was trying to guilt me into working!!!
I agree that in the NICU, much like in areas like oncology or transplant, calling in for something like a bad cold should be perfectly acceptable. Especially during RSV season for us NICU nurses! Some nurses do come in with bad colds and wear masks, but if I was a parent I'd be like, "Why is that sick nurse even HERE taking care of my baby?" Plus they take off the mask when on break and can make the rest of us sick then! But they have no sick time left, usually, and can't afford to take an unpaid day off.
Gompers...if we have a severe cold, we now have to go get swabbed for RSV. That was after we all complained that we were coming in sick and wearing masks...I said the same thing....they tell the parents not to come in if they have a cold, but there we are hacking and sneezing all over. Made NO sense.
Most people haven't come up positive, but at least if you are, your call in doesn't accrue any sick points.
When I call in sick, I would never give details. It's none of their business. Many times I called in sick not because of my own personal illness, but because of a family emergency or my father being ill. Again, none of their business.
RN4NICU, LPN, LVN
1,711 Posts
I do not go to the doctor for cold or flu unless I am absolutely ready to die. They are viruses, they pretty much have to run their course, and I know enough to know when I have one. Therefore - my manager can ask for a doctor's excuse until the sky falls down, but she's not going to get it. This goes right along with my other post about being treated like a child. I do not ask others to prove they are sick, I simply wish them better days ahead and I expect the same respect. It is next to impossible to provide compassionate care for anyone when you, yourself are about to collapse. People who come to work sick do their patients and coworkers no favors.