Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Fake sick calls equal fake crisis

Being in school full-time I work per diem with just one hospital and on a schedule that is mine, and everything works out well. However, every so often I get these calls from the agency begging me to come in because the hospital is extremely busy and they need everybody they can get.

The actual translation is that more staff than normal called in sick. Today it was because it has been raining for the past 12 hours, it is so predictable when this is going to happen. Halloween fell on the weekend this year so all the parties were Friday and Saturday nights, so why was it a surprise to have numerous calls both Saturday and Sunday morning.

Pretty soon more holidays and school will be out for the little kids, so will they prepare knowing sick calls will be going up, probably not. This is not a crisis, this is a staff problem. The weather is bad and people call in sick, staff wants to extend their vacation for a day or two and they call in sick, hangovers from holiday parties equal sick calls. The only ones hard to predict are the real sick calls.

3 comments:

Candi said...

I have a friend that's a nurse & she said recently her hospital implimented a rule that said if you were going to call in sick you had to either find a replacement for yourself or you came in. Kind of like what teachers have to do, that may put an end to this calling in business. :)

Candi said...

Wait, but then that would mean that you wouldn't be called as often to work then huh? Ok, skip that, let them call in. :)

NPO said...

I'm to the point where money is not a deciding factor if I work, school comes first.
I'm not stressed with having to work. I go there because I enjoy it, but can only handle a shift or two a week before it gets to be too much and reminds me of why I am in school.