What are your experiences regarding nurses taking sick leave in winter?
In most places that I’ve worked I’ve noticed a sharp rise in staff off on sick leave – obviously this is in part due to the winter cough/cold/flu blues, but perhaps it may also have something to do with the run on effect from others being off sick.
In other words, constantly working one or two staff down can be pretty tiring and eventually can lead to you also getting run down & taking a day off to recuperate. This is also compounded if your work load goes up during the winter months.
While I’m on the subject of sick leave, I was interested in a recent allnurses thread that discussed different policies for calling in sick.
The hospital where I work in Australia has no time limits for calling in sick, compared with some of the hospital policies mentioned in the above thread. For instance, you could call in 8 hours before your shift or 8 minutes before your shift without any penalty or ramifications.
Common sense however dictates that calling in 8 minutes before your shift will not only infuriate your workplace and colleagues, it is pretty poor form in general and should only be done in dire circumstances. I would say that in general, most people tend to give at least a few hours notice. (Notice I say *most* people!)
Just another war story – Back in the days of my training and life there after. (Industrial) Diarrhoea became such a common excuse, they’d call for stool samples to prove our point.
???! Surely you’re not serious!
Oh! I’m serious alright! Mind you, 1975 was a long time ago.
I am a NUM and my experience with leave throughout winter is seasonal illness in addition to burn out. Not burn out from increased occupancy as we no longer have a winter and summer occupancy we are full all the time! But burn out resulting from junior staff having to co-ordinate, dilution of permentant staff with agency replacing sick leave, and acuity rising. There is often a viscous cirlce where a staff member may need 2 shifts off, leaving the only other senior to run the show then they end up sick too. There is no easy fix, I roster a little different and prepare junior staff in co-ordination early. I also report sick leave trend at staff meetings and counsel staff who are taking excessive leave. It is good to be supportive but directive in expectations. I guess though there is the occassional sickie as it is dark and cold for a 0700 start.
After all nurses are human and we cannot stop them from taking sick leave, especially in winter. The situation is not at all confined to Australia, rather all parts of the world have the same issue of nurses and other professionals taking leaves in winter due to bad health..