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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To call in sick? Please help me decide.

24 replies

Sickornot · 16/10/2013 11:28

I'm on a nightshift tonight at the MLU. Will be delivering babies. I have a stinking cold. I feel shitty but could probably get through as the adrenaline gets going. My nose is permanently running, shivery, sore throat, headache, going through a box of tissues in a few hours.

Pros of going sick: wont have to go in! Also, if someone came to visit my newborn in the state I'm in I would tell them to go away. So maybe shouldn't be around newborns?

Cons: would leave them very short and the care of all the women tonight could be affected. Other staff will prob have night from hell. Also had 8 weeks sick over the summer (operation went wrong) so will be hauled in to speak to HR.

What to do please?

OP posts:

xSANTAx · 16/10/2013 11:36

Hope you feel better soon!

Maybe silly question but if you did go into work tonight could you do anything which didn't involve contact with the babies/parents etc?

If you're sick I probably wouldn't risk it but you'd know the situation better yourself, especially with regards to HR's standpoint.

Sister77 · 16/10/2013 11:37

Phone and speak to your manager, ask to change your shift or is there anything you could do that would minimalize contact with the patients? Failing that go of sick as its not fair to the patients. Get well soon!

Suddengeekgirl · 16/10/2013 11:37

I'd call in sick. The snotty nose/ sore throat wouldn't bother me but the shivers is usually a sign I'm getting worse before I get better.

Everyone catches colds but complications from an operation can't be expected - I'd tell HR that too.

kilmuir · 16/10/2013 11:38

Go in, its a common cold. Are you a man, thinking its flu instead

comewinewithmoi · 16/10/2013 11:38

Tricky! Do other mw go in with colds ?

VivaLeThrustBadger · 16/10/2013 11:38

ToT be honest I'd go in and do go in when I feel like this. It's the thought of letting my colleagues down and knowing they'd have a shift from hell. Other staff all seem to come in with bad colds.

comewinewithmoi · 16/10/2013 11:39

Sounds like you will have to go in.

pianodoodle · 16/10/2013 11:39

Yes I was going to suggest asking if you could do something that didn't involve being around the newborns but would free someone else up instead?!

Have no idea how the staffing works though so it might not be possible! Feel better soon.

edlyu · 16/10/2013 11:39

I would not want you anywhere near a delivering mother or new baby. If you could offer to do some support work - competing paperwork or manning phones to help out then try this.

But its not fair on the families if you inflict this nasty cold/bug on them at this time .

HR shouldnt have a problem with this as the operation should be counted as a one-off surely?

WorraLiberty · 16/10/2013 11:40

I wouldn't call in sick for a cold

But I would phone ahead and warn them and see what they say.

Hope you feel better soon

stowsettler · 16/10/2013 11:40

I'd do what Sister77* advises. Ideally anyone who's got a nasty cold shouldn't be spreading their germs to colleagues, but realistically most of us do struggle in when we really shouldn't.
Put the ball in your manager's court, tell her how it is and whether you can do anything which doesn't involve patient contact.
Hope you get better soon!

StephenKatz · 16/10/2013 11:41

Could you not wear a theatre mask to minimise the germ spreading? Although appreciate it would be a nuisance to wipe your nose under it!

AnyoneforTurps · 16/10/2013 11:43

Sorry that you're feeling rough but the NHS would grind to a halt if everyone involved in patient care stayed at home with a cold. And, as I'm sure you know, newborns are protected by their mother's immunity and unlikely to catch anything from you. In any case, at least half of them will be going home to a sibling with a snotty nose .

Hope you feel better soon.

VivaLeThrustBadger · 16/10/2013 11:43

Managers and hr generally don't give a shit about staff having bad colds near newborn babies, etc. it's still a case of having a disciplinary for too many episodes of short term absence.

When my dad was having intense chemo and was neutropenic we weren't to visit if we had a cold. One day his nurse was coughing and sneezing away and moaning about her bad cold to us.

YDdraigGoch · 16/10/2013 11:43

Is there a hospital policy on how sick you can be before you're not actually allowed to work? I wouldn't want someone full of cold around my new baby, or me as a new mother, but I suppose you could wear a mask?

Could you go in and help out by doing some admin, or other "behind the scenes" work that would take the pressure of the other staff, rather than be in contact with the mothers and babies?

Original poster

Sickornot · 16/10/2013 11:49

Obviously if it was a normal cold I would go in without thinking about it. It's the way my body feels, shivery etc that's making me not want to go in! If I ring the manager saying things like "I want to do paperwork" or whatever I will wind them up. There's a potential for them to get bank staff if I call in sick, although that depends on lots of different factors, and there definitely isn't if I say I'm coming in but not doing patient contact.... Likewise if I say I want to swap, that leaves them ringing twenty midwives to see if they'll swap which is obviously so time consuming when they are running the unit!

Will have to go in I think. If I didn't have this sick record I would phone in tbh, I don't feel well enough to go in really and truly. Hopefully if I hang around looking sad enough I might get sent home early!

OP posts:

50shadesofmeh · 16/10/2013 11:53

I'm a nurse and I say don't go in , I know from experience when you go in there's no option to do no patient contact jobs if you are busy . Will they not get bank staff to cover? I'd be annoyed if my midwife was snottering and spluttering all over me and my new baby.

MummytoMog · 16/10/2013 11:59

I wouldn't care if you were full of cold around my newborn, who would no doubt have my lovely immune system keeping them healthy.

I think you probably need to 'prove' yourself to them (even though of course you shouldn't have to) after the extended sick leave. So go in, be the best you can with lots of drugs, and hopefully they will send you home early because NOBODY is giving birth.

QuickQuickSloe · 16/10/2013 12:02

Unless you actually sneeze on people aren't colds spread by touching nose/mouth/eyes after touching something that someone with the virus has put a snotty hand on?*

So as long as you are meticulous about your own hygiene which you would already be doing in that kind of setting you shouldn't be a risk to others.

Horrible to work in a hot dry hospital when you feel that rotten though, you have my sympathies.

*fully prepared to be corrected on this! medical knowledge is minimal.

Nanny0gg · 16/10/2013 12:03

Are you actually 'with it' enough to go in?

Sod the immunity side - (although I can't imagine a new mum would be thrilled to go home with what sounds like more than a cold), but if you're performing under par it could have serious repercussions,

VivaLeThrustBadger · 16/10/2013 12:14

Our hospital policy just states you mustn't come in to work if you've had d&v in the last 24 hours.

Due to the policy of 3 absences in a rolling 12 month period = disciplinary I know people who ignore this rule as they're so desperate not to get into trouble. Which isn't good.

MomentForLife · 16/10/2013 12:21

I don't think you should go in. Do you know any staff well enough to ring them and see if they'll sawp shifts then ring manager and say you've sorted it for them?

Coffeenowplease · 16/10/2013 13:03

That policy is disgusting. Really. People in hospitals should not be feeling they have to go into work and risk giving vulnerable people their illnesses or risk disciplinary action !

VivaLeThrustBadger · 16/10/2013 13:42

I guess it's standard in most hospitals.

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