Jen Fad's Ordeal: Being Understaffed and Overworked?

Last weekend was Father's Day Weekend. I wasn't feeling well because I had injured myself and was experiencing lower back pain. Although I was putting "heat" on the site (Ben Gay, Heating Pad) and taking Tylenol ES I was still out of sorts. I called in from work only to hear the desperation in my colleague's voice that two other colleagues had already called in for which the floor was already short by one staff even before those people called in and I don't they could find two more agency staff. It didn't look good for the busy CCU for morning staffing. She ended with, "But if you're sick you're sick." She stated that she would let the staffing office know.

Needless to say, I went to work that day because I know how horrible the staffing office is about finding staff. That would be a day that I might regret for the rest of my life. Although I love my work as a nurse, I realize that no one in my place of work actually cares for me the way I care about myself. All I was to them that day was a "body". I ended up having the busiest day ever! By Lunch time I had already discharged a patient home (who had a pacemaker placed two days prior) and then transferred another to a step down unit. Meanwhile there was one patient taking tally of how many times nurses were going into the adjacent patients rooms as opposed to coming to his room.

I know this because he asked one of the relief staff nurses why people had entered the other patient's room 62 times and nurses had come into his room 60 times. Once I had gotten back from transferring the patient to step down that he'd been taking tally of his room, I was told by the Charge RN that he stated that he had not seen his nurse (Me). He wanted his commode emptied and his bed tidied. There are lessons in life that one should learn and I learned that when I am not feeling well and I'm scheduled to work...

To Call In Sick (AND NOT CALL BACK).