When Should You Call Off Sick?

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Hi, I have always thought I would like to be a nurse, but I tend to get sick (contagious illnesses) a little more often than other people. I was wondering, as a nurse, when is it best to call off from work due to illness? I mean, I would always be worried if I had what seemed to be a cold or a flu, for example, that it would get patients sick, but I wouldn't want to call off too often either. Can you wear a facial mask when you are sick to minimize the likelihood of getting patients ill, or what do you do? Thanks.

Specializes in Critical Care, Med-Surg, Psych, Geri, LTC, Tele,.

My last job had an interesting policy regarding sick leave. If you don't call off with sufficient notice, not sure if it's 4 hrs or more or less, it's better to come in and be sent home by the supervisor. My DON attempted to explain it to me. I didn't fully understand but didn't try to figure it out, but I know that people avoided getting written up be being sent home by another nurse after arrival.

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Specializes in PCCN.
You need to make them regret they asked. Supply vivid descriptions, associating it with things staffing probably are enjoying while they're talking to you, such as a cup of coffee. I trained several nurses to stop asking me questions like that by just gushing forth with details, if you know what I mean. And quit worrying about it's yours; they're not going to see it any more than any other bowel movement you've ever had. But do this a couple of times and they will be happy to accept the excuse of "GI upset".

Don't be embarrassed; embarrass them for asking. You don't want to go through life a victim, do you? :Emoticon-Devil:

Hahaha. Yup.

Im sorry I didnt come in. I was was hemorrhaging and going through a tampon and pad per hour. Would you like verification?:roflmao:

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I say call in sick when you feel you really need a break. Take care of yourself. It's not all about the physical. Mental health days count too.

I wish this was standard. Having worked in psych the past four years, I really think mental health days should be a thing.

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I wish this was standard. Having worked in psych the past four years, I really think mental health days should be a thing.

Yes! Odd thing about health care, isn't it? We don't do much to promote health of our staff! My husband works for the telephone company, and they have separate sick days, vacation days, AND "personal" days which require NO explanation. Oh yes, and we switched over to their MUCH BETTER health care insurance.

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If you are in the early stages of an illness, you are contagious. Stay home. Fever, stay home. When you come to work sick, you give it to co-workers and to patients.

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Specializes in NICU, Cardiac.

We just had a flu B outbreak due to people coming in with a "cold" with low grade fevers and bad URI symptoms. I actually went and got swabbed after work, even though my temp was only 99.9 and it was an immediate positive. Everyone who caught it had the same symptoms and we were so miserable. I think there were at least 30 people who ended up catching it in a 3 week time period. We are just really really lucky none of our babies caught it, since we were fastidious about hand-washing and mask wearing once we started showing symptoms.

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We just had a flu B outbreak due to people coming in with a "cold" with low grade fevers and bad URI symptoms. I actually went and got swabbed after work, even though my temp was only 99.9 and it was an immediate positive. Everyone who caught it had the same symptoms and we were so miserable. I think there were at least 30 people who ended up catching it in a 3 week time period. We are just really really lucky none of our babies caught it, since we were fastidious about hand-washing and mask wearing once we started showing symptoms.

Why were you able to protect your babies but not each other?

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I was going to call in sick today but I've got two nurses with worse symptoms then mine. I will medicate, mask up and go in. I am not seeing patients but I obviously don't want to infect my coworkers. Knock on wood it doesn't get worse, I haven't had to call in sick for several years.

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Specializes in ED, School Nurse.

I call in with fever/vomiting/diarrhea. It's pretty rare for me to get sick, although I am just getting over a nasty chest cold. I never spiked a fever with this one though so I toughed it out and came to work.

I did call in once because I fell down the stairs and broke my leg the night before. Since I got treated at the ER where I had just finished a 12 hour shift and was scheduled to work a 12 the next day, they knew it was a legit call-in. I actually didn't even have to "call". I just told the supervisor who was standing at the door to my ER room laughing at me that I most likely wasn't going to make it to work the next day.

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Specializes in NICU, Cardiac.
Why were you able to protect your babies but not each other?

Honestly, I'm not really sure except that we always wear gloves when we touch our babies. The symptoms also came on really fast- I went from being totally fine Thursday and Friday nights, to a slight headache when I went to work at 7p to full blown URI symptoms and chills by midnight. I put on a mask around 10 that night because I started feeling "off". I think I was in the middle as far as people who caught it.

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