When Should You Call Off Sick?

bathrobemom, LPN · Dec 22, 2015

I used to get sick quite a bit, but either my kids are older now and don't bring home as many illnesses and/or my education has helped me stay healthy. I wash my hands quite a bit at work and there's hand sanitizer in my med cart. I've worked in healthcare for 5 years and I think I've only been sick once, I don't even remember. Hand hygiene really is as important as your textbooks and instructors will tell you.

I agree with others that if you have a bit of a cold there's no need to call in for that, but you do need to call in if you have fever, vomiting, or diarrhea. If my employer found out I had any of the last three I'd get sent home. I had to send home a CNA that was vomiting while at work and housekeeping had to clean the two bathrooms she was in plus wipe down the whole wing.

ClaraRedheart, BSN, RN · Dec 22, 2015

My rule is that if I have an active fever that cannot be controlled by Tylenol or Ibuprofin or an uncontrollable cough (Dayquil or Mucinex is not working) You know... like Princess Elsa. "Conceal, don't feel. Don't let it show" :) I did blow an eardrum at work last year. It was excruciatingly painful and I remember waking up in tears after finally going home and TRYING to go to sleep. It quit hurting... right when it finally burst. I twisted an ankle last night. My husband asked if I was calling off. No. Yes, I walk alot at work, but walking on a sprained muscle will keep it from getting stiff for sure. I quit limping around noon. It's still quite sore, but a HECK of a lot better than this morning. I know... if there was any reason to doubt my competency, my company would likely throw me under the bus. My team members and my manager have my back though. All in all... I feel blessed to work when I do. I don't want to screw over my team members by calling out, so I show up. I went to the Doc when I was in nursing school because I had a month long cold and a patient complained to me that I might get all of my patient's sick. The doc said "You're going to be a nurse soon. If no one showed up for work at the hospital when they get the sniffles, there'd be no one to care for our patient's. Tough it up." I have since.

annabanana2 · Dec 22, 2015

Like another poster said, when I can't control my bodily fluids. Whether that's vomiting, diarrhea, snot or otherwise. Or if I'm in enough pain to know that I won't be able to focus enough on work to be safe (I get occasional migraines). My coworkers and manager are actually wonderful about folks calling in sick - oftentimes we'll see someone struggling and convince them to give away their assignment and go home. Partially that's selfish, because we don't want to get sick, but honestly mostly it's because we're a close-knit team and we care about each other and don't want our coworker to be suffering. The folks I work with are really excellent, manager included.

Conqueror+, BSN, RN · Dec 22, 2015

My rule of thumb is that anytime I feel physically or mentally incapable of giving good care to my patients, I call in to work.

ilikesharpthings · Dec 22, 2015

I have called in sick 3 times since becoming a nurse 5 years ago: when I went into labor, when I had pneumonia, and once when my childcare provider was sick. But I really never get very sick.

ArrowRN, BSN, RN · Dec 22, 2015

Call out when you need to. Look at your policies etc. At my hospital, our "sick days" are linked in together with paid time off. We don't have to give an explanation for the call out...which puts the person at risk for retaliation. Personally I like it this way...that way you won't have to lie about being sick nor would you have to feel guilty about a call out if you are really sick.

ivikatasha · Dec 22, 2015

If you are sick, stay home! At least until the worst passes. I was working the 14th and 15th last week, and 2 of my co-workers had colds and were working. Guess what? On the 16th I had a nasty cold, what a lovely way to spend my days off. Don't get your patients or co-workers sick.

Pangea Reunited, ASN, RN · Dec 22, 2015

It does seem like every place has at least one or two employees that are famous for calling in for every little thing and these employees are not so popular with their co-workers. Especially when they call in only to spend the day updating Facebook non-stop. Please do not ever do this, at least not if you are Facebook friends with people you work with. If you are sick enough to stay home you are sick enough to not play on your computer all day.

Although I tend to lay low, there is a huge difference between taking care of a bunch of sick people for 12 hours and playing on the internet. Some hospitalized patients even bring their laptops or use the internet on their phones.

Now if they're posting pictures of themselves at Disneyland after calling off, that's a different story...

NurseKatie08, MSN · Dec 22, 2015

Takes a lot for me to call in sick. Fortunately, I don't get contagious illnesses very often...maybe every few years at most. The times I have called in to my current job included four shifts when I had the shingles and once when I thought I was getting the flu, but ended up swabbing negative. Prior to that, I had not called out of work at all since my dad died in 2008. I also didn't miss one day of school in all of high school, and skipped maybe just a class or two in college. I basically have to be falling apart to be absent from work or school.

That said, if you are nauseous, vomiting, having diarrhea or have a fever...please stay home.

Oedgar · Dec 22, 2015

My husband's company, in chemical manufacturing, has sick time available. But you are frowned upon for taking it. One night, after a 4 am trip to the ER for a very nasty GI bug... he had me call him into work for 'vacation.' I said, you have been in the ER getting IV fluids, Demerol, and Zofran. You are NOT on vacation. ... but that was the sort of browbeating employees there take. Also, his company drug tests people constantly, and he was nervous about taking the IV demerol. He did not ask for it, didn't care for how it made him feel, but was mostly afraid of it being found in his system.. even though he got it in the ER.

wannabecnl · Dec 22, 2015

My hospital has a policy that works well for my department, at least: no fever, diarrhea, or vomiting for 24 hours prior to shift w/o meds. Severe cough, stay home. If you're out 3 days or go to the ED, you have to go to employee health before your next scheduled shift. Pretty straightforward. In PACU, if someone calls out, we just move people's shifts around, or they call me as the per diem to see if I can cover some hours. I suspect it is harder on regular floors when the census is high and the ratios are already tight; I think they use float pool for this.

I've called out once; I actually called the afternoon before my shift because I felt like such utter crap that I couldn't keep my eyes open and was scheduled for 7 the next morning (calling out in the morning would have stuck my coworkers a lot worse than calling out the day before so they could move people around). It was a good decision; although I never ended up spiking a temp, I slept the entire day when I wasn't blowing my nose and coughing crap up. There was no way I could have provided safe, competent care that day. Went back 2 days later as scheduled and was still tired, but I wasn't coughing anymore and could control sx with ibuprofen and Ricolas.

I've given Ricolas to docs who came in for cases but looked and sounded awful. I've seen nurses drag themselves in half-dead and be sent home; we're lucky that our manager and charge nurses are always reasonable about stuff like this; we just absorb the change in staff and pull our boss in to recover pts PRN. And, of course, I've had people call in who didn't sound all that sick.

The best way to build immunity is to have a kid in preschool. I swear, my kids were buggy little disease vectors from ages 3-5, but it's down to a dull roar now that they are older and I have a lot of exposure at work!

AMatherRN · Dec 23, 2015

My question is a little different. Why do you become ill so often? Are you washing your hands faithfully? Not touching your face? Do you need to adjust your diet, maybe supplement with vitamins? Exercise? Are you up on your vaccinations? I know not all illnesses can be avoided, but maybe you should take a proactive approach to your health.