The Hypocrisy of the Nursing Profession....

I have been processing a lot in the past few days, especially in light of my recent performance evaluation at work. It was not a bad evaluation; there are definitely some things that won't make sense to anyone outside of the nursing profession, and quite frankly to most nurses, but somehow they make sense to hospital administrators. You'll read what I mean in a bit. I know when I start jotting down my 'mental phrases' of criticism or rebuke on pieces of scrap paper or post-it notes that it's time to sit down, collect my thoughts, and write. Who knows? Maybe some day my written angst will get me published in some nursing magazine that no one reads and everyone throws away (like I do with mine).

Where to begin....well, as I said, I had an evaluation recently. Prior to my evaluation, my boss handed me an official 'write-up' for having too many absences in a year. I had 8.

None of them were for fun, or just to have a "day-off", but I was actually sick. Or my kids were sick. Or my parents, who watch my kids, were sick. One of them I was actually in a ditch off of 275 on my way to work. You get the picture. All considered unexcused absences because I didn't try to find coverage for my shift prior to calling off for that shift. I did call from the ditch on 275 to ask for help, but they gave me a trite "keep us posted" and that was all. Okay, for the others I could've tried to call in the middle of the night when my kids woke up screaming trying to find someone to pick up their phone and be happy to come work for me because I couldn't. Like that's going to happen. I know on the days I don't work, I turn my phone off for the sole reason of not wanting to be woke up at 5am asking if I can work. Sure, let me give the magic daycare fairy a call and see if she can come by in 30 minutes to watch 2 kids so I can go to work because I had nothing else planned for that day with 2 kids. (note sarcasm)

Okay, so let me explain how it works in our hospital. A hospital is where sick people go when they are beyond what they can handle by themselves at home. Our unit has REALLY sick people, whose immune system is almost zilch from either chemotherapy or the effects of cancer. So it is REALLY important that we don't get them sicker by taking care of them while we are sick. Everyone in a hospital is sick, but our patient's are horribly sick. So we are supposed to be thinking about the patient's health first and foremost, because they are our job. If we are sick, we are supposed to put their best interests above ours and not risk making them worse. But here's the kicker. Sometimes people don't call off. For one reason or another, they show up. I've done it, and probably everyone else has done it. Why? We get penalized for calling off sick. That's right. We can work around the sickest of the sick, but we, ourselves, are not supposed to get sick. So sometimes, you come to work sick, and the supervisor asks, "Why did you come in? You are sick and you don't need to be here. Don't you know it's easier to find a replacement before the shift starts rather than once you are here and we send you home?" Gee, maybe I wasn't thinking about that. Maybe I was thinking about the fact that so many call-ins gets me written up and I can't afford to lose my job. So then they send you home and mumble something about how you should've known better. Okay, so I'm still sick the next day; I call and tell the supervisor I am still sick and will not be in. Then you get to hear an earful about how short-handed it is going to leave your collegues (guilt trip) and how many more patients they will have to take care of because you are gone, and blah blah blah.... (trust me, your collegues don't want what you've got either. Their complaining is temporary and we've all been on both ends of it) So, you cannot win either way. Either you do what is right and get penalized for it, or you do what you shouldn't do and get ostracized for it. By the way, either way, these are both unexcused absences. Even if you felt fine but looked horrible (I've been here) and you get sent home-->unexcused absence. So employees tend not to call off when they should, because the fear of losing your job outweighs the fear of getting someone really sick EVEN sicker.

Our sick hour bank = our vacation hour bank= our personal hour bank. They are all one bank. So if you get sick and burn through all of your P.T.O. hours (paid time off), and wanted to take a vacation later that year, you can only do it if you have reaccumulated the hours you would need. Or if you took a vacation and used all your PTO to do so, and then get sick when you get back, too bad. You can call off, but you will not get any compensation for it, and it will be considered an unexcused absence. My sister works in Detroit in a hospital, and has allocated at the beginning of the year so many 'sick days', so many 'personal days' and so many 'vacation days'. So if she's sick, she uses her sick bank and can still go on her vacation later on and use her vacation days to get paid. Though she is in direct patient-care, she is in a bit less intimate sort of patient care, and therefore less likely to get sick from being around sick people. But she has a better PTO policy than I do, even though I am in much closer continuous contact with sick patients. The hospital administrators have an excellent policy for their sick vs. vacay vs. personal. They just tell their coworkers they are taking a personal day, or a sick day, or a vacation, and they take it. End of story. No unexcused absences, no problems, no repercussions. Must be nice to be so far away from where the sickness is behind a desk and yet have a better policy for calling off sick than the people who are in direct contact with the sick. This kind of thing only makes sense to the administration. More physical work=less physical pay, more physical pay=less physical work. But this isn't something I came up with. I just happen to agree with it in my workplace.

Okay, my next soapbox is break time. It is called a 'break' for that very reason. WE NEED a break; if it wasn't required, believe me, they probably wouldn't allow for it. But here's the puzzling and frustrating thing for me. When I go on a break, I am not supposed to leave the floor (or our unit), and I am supposed to have my work cell phone on me at all times. So where's the break? I have to stay on the floor I am trying to take a break from, and I have to keep the phone on that coworkers and ancillary staff use to call me for work-related issues. And even if you are on a break, coworkers WILL interrupt your break to ask you things work-related. Why? Because you are still on the unit and they know where to find you. And if you aren't in the conference room, then they call you on your work phone and start out by saying, "I hate to interrupt you, but...." Well, obviously you don't hate to interrupt me enough, or you wouldn't have done it. (or wouldn't do it over and over). I absolutely refuse to interrupt coworkers on their breaks, because it drives ME so crazy when I am trying to take mine!

So, speaking of my personal break time, I have to use my break time to pump my breast milk because I am nursing my infant child. All employees are allotted 2-15 minute breaks and a 30 minute lunch. So what I was doing was taking my 15 minute break in the am to pump, and then my parents were bringing up the girls so I could nurse Paige on my lunch break (now 45 minutes because I combine my last break with my lunch). Sometimes, my pumping session might be longer in the am, and I would take less time at lunch. Apparently this bothered some co-workers who thought I was taking TOO MUCH TIME to pump/nurse. Okay, first of all, mind your own business. You obviously didn't nurse while working or even raise a child. Second of all, I am not goofing around on my breaks, I am actually trying to take my break while I am pumping. And I am also trying to eat my lunch while I nurse on my lunch break. Anyone who has nursed knows you need your hands to hold your baby while she is nursing. So pretty much I am letting Paige nurse, and then jamming food into my mouth while my mom burps her. So I could bring my work phone to my breaks, but either my breast pump or Paige would have to answer the work-related calls because my hands are occupied. For those who don't know, pumping or nursing is not actually a 'break'. Again, the irony of calling it my "break time". Thirdly, the person who complained about my break-time is a smoker. I have never once complained about the fact she leaves campus in order to smoke, does it 2-3 times a shift, plus takes an hour lunch break. Do the math. I am doing something considered healthy and natural, squeezing it into my allowed break time, and getting reprimanded for it. And she, the smoker, is not getting reprimanded. Even though her habit is hazardous to her health, and as nurses we are supposed to be encouraging people to do what's healthy for them, she gets to do it several times a shift and goes way beyond her allotted break time...So, why I am I getting in trouble again?......I don't get it either.