Reality check

How many of you go to work sick? Raise your hands.

If I had a 100% rate, I would not be surprised. Nurses often come to work with illnesses for a variety of reasons. This article has one of the best arguments I've seen for a long time.

I have gone to work because I'm a master at assessment. I've had chronic health issues (nothing major) for years. My body is good at telling me what's wrong.

These are my rules:

1. If I have a fever and will be in regular contact with patients, I'm not going to work. Plain and simple. If I can't do paperwork that day and hide to avoid breathing on anyone, I'm out. I had nursing instructors beat this into me, I mean, reinforce this vigorously on my clinical rotations. As I know from my work in the SU, if you have a fever, you probably are infected with something. This red light is one you should not ignore.

Do everyone a favor. Don't share and stay home. This health system actually publishes an algorithm.

2. Diarrhea will also keep me home. If they only knew how busy our staff bathrooms are (and many times, it's not just staff using them).

3. If you have any other symptoms that are not normal or normal for you, i.e. vision or balance disturbances, you probably need to see what's going on first before coming to work.

My managers always love the "migraine with vertigo" call in (I've used it), but I don't care. You should like being able to keep affordable car insurance. If walking is a problem, driving will be, too.

Also, never take any open wounds (even paper cuts) for granted. If you can't cover them effectively, you need to consider staying home until you can.

I like my doctors. They know I won't bug them unless I think it's an issue for me and my patients. Be sure to have a PCP, so when you need them, you have them. I love mine because she likes nurses and always has our back (she has no problem talking to pesky nurse managers if needed).

To sum it up, if you're sick, don't buck it up. Take care of yourself so you can take care of your patients (and not contaminate your coworkers). You deserve to be well, and so do your patients and coworkers.

More later.