Calling out sick????

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Shodddy18

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What do you guys do. Ive been rotating on the same rotation, this is week 8/12. I just "called out." The only problem is that there is no official policy for this. None of my class mates have had to do this yet. I was not sure what to do... so I called the director of med ed at the hospital, and called my senior resident. They said it was not a problem, but I still feel like a looser!

Am I right in thinking that I should not go in to the hospital and spread my germs all over the already sick patients??? Or should I have sucked it up and gone in?:confused: :confused: :confused:
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To be honest unless I am literally dying I myself will not be calling in sick....although yes, if you are working with severely immunocompromised patients..then sure you do not want to spread whatever you have...
 
this is like any other work environment. if you are sick. stay home. unless you are one of those work through it type of people. then i guess "work through it"
 
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I think you're right that you should try to protect your patients, especially if their neutropenic, etc.

That being said, I generally believe that adults taking "sick days" is usually silly and not legitimate. As a med student, I saw most of my classmates taking these days when they were hungover or didn't feel like waking up, and they "took one of their sick days" as if this is a pre-measured/allotted amount of time off.

If you're ACTIVELY throwing up, or having so much diarrhea that you can't be off the toilet for 30 minutes, then maybe you should stay home. Otherwise, as healthy adults, we seldom get SO sick that we can't work.

Alot of people, especially in intense specialties (surgery, etc) share my feelings, and unfair or not, they may see you taking a sick day as being weak.
 
I called in sick one day during third year rotations. I was 28 weeks pregnant and had some horrendous version of food poisoning. I lost 4 pounds in a week and pretty much could not leave the house. I called in sick mostly because I was on my peds rotation and could not justify giving our already sick little babies diarrhea. They were cool about it, I came back the next day still feeling sick but better. I think if you pose an infectious risk to your patients other than a cold, you need to stay home, and if people think that's weak it's their problem.
 
How is there not an official policy for this at your school? Certainly you're not the first person to get sick and stay home. When I rotated during third year, policies such as absences were covered on the first day of every rotation. We also got documentation of grading policies, etc.
 
This is such BS. Why is medicine the only profession where it is frowned upon to call in sick unless you were in a 6 car MVA and have multiple skull fractures and two extremeties hanging by pieces of flesh???
 
delicatefade said:
This is such BS. Why is medicine the only profession where it is frowned upon to call in sick unless you were in a 6 car MVA and have multiple skull fractures and two extremeties hanging by pieces of flesh???
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I absolutely agree. When you are ill, you are ill. As a patient I wouldn't want some sick student/intern/resident/doctor touching me, hands washed or not. I mean, the image of a doc sneezing, hacking up a lung, blowing nose, whatever while seeing patients just makes me cringe. And furthermore, it is scary enough knowing that those taking care of you are sleep deprived. Do I really want a sick AND sleep deprived healthcare professional who can't think clearly in charge of my care? Most of the time the medical institution makes no sense, we certainly don't practice what we preach.
 
delicatefade said:
This is such BS. Why is medicine the only profession where it is frowned upon to call in sick unless you were in a 6 car MVA and have multiple skull fractures and two extremeties hanging by pieces of flesh???
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I also agree. People get sick, it happens. And right now we're just students anyway...a patient isn't going to die or something if we're not there for a day. i just called in sick on monday with tonsils the size of golf balls, a wicked cough and no voice. i'm in the MICU right now, so i didn't want to spread germs to patients already teetering on the brink of death, but even if i was somewhere else, you need to take care of your health before you can adequately take care of others'....i'm not saying take off for every little thing, but if you really feel like **** one day, don't feel guilty/ashamed for staying home
 
PuGanDoo said:
I absolutely agree. When you are ill, you are ill. As a patient I wouldn't want some sick student/intern/resident/doctor touching me, hands washed or not. I mean, the image of a doc sneezing, hacking up a lung, blowing nose, whatever while seeing patients just makes me cringe. And furthermore, it is scary enough knowing that those taking care of you are sleep deprived. Do I really want a sick AND sleep deprived healthcare professional who can't think clearly in charge of my care? Most of the time the medical institution makes no sense, we certainly don't practice what we preach.
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See I agree with you. I'm not on the brink of death or spreading the plague, but I am sick and just needed to stay home in bed and recover!
 
drbon said:
I also agree. People get sick, it happens. And right now we're just students anyway...a patient isn't going to die or something if we're not there for a day. i just called in sick on monday with tonsils the size of golf balls, a wicked cough and no voice. i'm in the MICU right now, so i didn't want to spread germs to patients already teetering on the brink of death, but even if i was somewhere else, you need to take care of your health before you can adequately take care of others'....i'm not saying take off for every little thing, but if you really feel like **** one day, don't feel guilty/ashamed for staying home
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I'm just on IM right now, so I have all sorts of patients. Only one is in the ICU, non are severely immunocompromised. A PE, a few MI's, a pneumonia, asthma exacerbation... but non of these people need my germs either. I just hate the responses that some of the first people to respond came up with. I mean why are physicians supposed to be super men/women up on a pedestal. I mean how many times have I told workaholic patients to take some time off when they are ill to recouperate? Lots! This is so hippocritical. Like a doc who is a smoker telling patients not to smoke! I mean I guess I am part of the hippocracy becuase I felt so craptacular calling out... but I guess as a future physician I should practice what I preach... so I'm going to stop feeling crappy about it!;)
 
If you are so sick then why are you on the internet playing? ;) Just admit it, you didnt feel like working today. I'm guilty of it several times when I was on a service with 6 other medical students and not like it really mattered if I was there or not. But on services where I'm the only medical student with an attending, I've never called in once.
 
Physicians are notorious for being overworked and overstressed which leaves little time to exercise, let alone do much else including sleep... And next time you are in the hospital cafeteria, take a look at what is on the trays.

Why are physicians in training expected to go for hours upon hours without food, drink, or using the bathroom? 'Because that is how is has been done for years' is not an acceptable answer. I realize that we are the lowest on the totem pole, but everyone deserves to take care of these basic bodily needs. Where's the human-side of medicine when it comes to our own?

Whew, I needed that rant :mad:

Don't waste your energy feeling bad about staying home to recover. If you feel sick enough to have needed to call in, then you are sick enough. As drbon replied about not calling in for every little thing, which goes without saying, but know your physical limits.

Hope you are feeling better soon.

-P.
 
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Like many of you, I am a product of the unfair school of thought regarding calling in sick. I'm going to give my opinion, and I understand if it makes you mad......sorry.

1. I can't help but assume that most of the posters saying it's perfectly ok to call in sick are women. Am I wrong? I think it's because I 1) think it's weak to call in sick, and 2) think women are weaker than men. Hopefully I'm wrong......

2. There's a big difference between feeling bad and not being able to do work, and feeling bad and not wanting to do work. Most healthy adults can physically endure a day at work with flu-like symptoms, but they don't want to.

3. Keeping your patients safe is important, but are your motivations truly that selfless, or is it a good excuse? I think it can be a combination of both, but handwashing hygiene, and if you're really bad off, a mask, can mostly eliminate this from being a real issue.

4. My opinions on this are not restricted to the medical profession. I hate the concept of "taking a sick day" as if it's something that's yours/belongs to you.

5. I still believe, after my med school experience, that alot of students are hungover from drinking, or tired from lack of sleep, or a combination, and they don't want to work even though they can physically do it.

6. So, while there are many legitimate reasons to stay home, MOST reasons people stay home are not legitimate. In the end, laziness and weakness seem to be the main reasons people "call in sick."



......in my experience.
 
I only called in sick once when I was in medical school - it was during my fourth year, and I was throwing up about every hour (not due to a hangover, due to a gastro). I never really got sick otherwise.

If you are really sick (i.e. throwing up/diarrhea) there's nothing wrong with calling in sick. Especially when you are a med student - the hospital will not fall apart if you are gone for one day. But as a resident, you'd better damn well be sick - we had a resident call in sick one day because he was "exposed to strep" and people had to shift all around to cover him. It makes more of a difference if you call in sick if you are a resident.
 
SLUser11 said:
Like many of you, I am a product of the unfair school of thought regarding calling in sick. I'm going to give my opinion, and I understand if it makes you mad......sorry.

1. I can't help but assume that most of the posters saying it's perfectly ok to call in sick are women. Am I wrong? I think it's because I 1) think it's weak to call in sick, and 2) think women are weaker than men. Hopefully I'm wrong......

2. There's a big difference between feeling bad and not being able to do work, and feeling bad and not wanting to do work. Most healthy adults can physically endure a day at work with flu-like symptoms, but they don't want to.

3. Keeping your patients safe is important, but are your motivations truly that selfless, or is it a good excuse? I think it can be a combination of both, but handwashing hygiene, and if you're really bad off, a mask, can mostly eliminate this from being a real issue.

4. My opinions on this are not restricted to the medical profession. I hate the concept of "taking a sick day" as if it's something that's yours/belongs to you.

5. I still believe, after my med school experience, that alot of students are hungover from drinking, or tired from lack of sleep, or a combination, and they don't want to work even though they can physically do it.

6. So, while there are many legitimate reasons to stay home, MOST reasons people stay home are not legitimate. In the end, laziness and weakness seem to be the main reasons people "call in sick."



......in my experience.
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Well, next time I'm sick, I'll be sure to come in to the hospital and MAKE SURE that you get sick as well (ever seen Seinfeld???). Then we'll see how YOU do at work with the flu.

But I'm really just hungover right??? ;)
 
delicatefade said:
Well, next time I'm sick, I'll be sure to come in to the hospital and MAKE SURE that you get sick as well (ever seen Seinfeld???). Then we'll see how YOU do at work with the flu.

But I'm really just hungover right??? ;)
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In my experience, it's the guys who are whiny and more likely to call in sick. The only women I've ever known to call in sick have been 1. hospitalized or 2. deemed unable to work by their personal MD/ER doc due to severe illness (bad case of mono, limb injury on narcotics, etc.). On the other hand, I've known guys calling in sick for a couples episodes of diarrhea the night before and hangover related symptoms.

I am one of those "die-hard" people who believes if you can drag yourself into work, you go to work. Exceptions being things like actively vomiting or unable to safely get to work (lightheaded, etc.). And of course anything which required a trip to the ER/MD where they told you you can't work. Maybe once you get to work, you may look like crap and get sent home by your team...or told to sleep for a few hours in a call room or get hooked up to an IV for a bolus. Most hospital pharmacies will dispense meds free to residents to get them thru a shift (i.e. NSAIDs, anti-emetics, anti-diarrheals, etc.) But if you have a cold and call in sick cuz you could give it to a patient, well, that's what masks are for. I've done this, and frankly, if you tell the patient you are wearing a mask b/c you have a cold and don't want to give it to them, the patient doesn't mind in the least.

As a student, I never knew if I could call in sick....I got sent home once or twice by a sympathetic FP or peds attending when I was obviously pretty miserable looking. However, once you're a resident, your presence, or lack thereof, makes a big difference....you (hopefully) want to be responsible and not screw over fellow residents. Once you are on the screwed-over end of the situation, your feelings may change. The residents who frequently no-show due to being sick and cause someone else to take overnight call unexpectedly or to have to miss a surgery or get called in on their day off are looked down upon because someone else has to cover their work. (I'm not talking about the once in a blue moon sick day here, I am talking about the people who call in sick more frequently and for things that the majority of people would not take off for, like your average cold...the person who is calling in sick "again" and whom no one believes is truly too ill to do work compared to what the rest of us would call in sick for.).
 
SLUser11 said:
Like many of you, I am a product of the unfair school of thought regarding calling in sick. I'm going to give my opinion, and I understand if it makes you mad......sorry.

1. I can't help but assume that most of the posters saying it's perfectly ok to call in sick are women. Am I wrong? I think it's because I 1) think it's weak to call in sick, and 2) think women are weaker than men. Hopefully I'm wrong......

2. There's a big difference between feeling bad and not being able to do work, and feeling bad and not wanting to do work. Most healthy adults can physically endure a day at work with flu-like symptoms, but they don't want to.

3. Keeping your patients safe is important, but are your motivations truly that selfless, or is it a good excuse? I think it can be a combination of both, but handwashing hygiene, and if you're really bad off, a mask, can mostly eliminate this from being a real issue.

4. My opinions on this are not restricted to the medical profession. I hate the concept of "taking a sick day" as if it's something that's yours/belongs to you.

5. I still believe, after my med school experience, that alot of students are hungover from drinking, or tired from lack of sleep, or a combination, and they don't want to work even though they can physically do it.

6. So, while there are many legitimate reasons to stay home, MOST reasons people stay home are not legitimate. In the end, laziness and weakness seem to be the main reasons people "call in sick."



......in my experience.
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And in my experience, I think you're an @$$. And I'm a woman as a matter of fact. And I've never taken a sick day in my life (except in the 3rd grade when I had the chicken pox and my mother wouldn't let me go to school). Maybe I'm lucky - I don't ever get deathly ill with anything. The occasional cold or cough but I always go to work anyway. But I know there are people who have all sorts of worse conditions :migranes, gastro, etc where it'd be impossible to do your job.

But I'll stop talking about you being an un-sympathetic @$$ now. I had a chief resident on my surgery service as an MS3 who had a REALLY bad cough. She would be constantly spreading her germs and this went on for my entire 6 weeks on service. One afternoon in clinic, my attending told me to go see patient X. I was confused because I knew my resident walked in there a couple minutes ago. So I see patient X and the first thing she asks me is if I too have the "plague"? As it turned out, patient X fired the resident and said she couldn't even carry on a conversation she was coughing so bad and she didn't want to catch whatever it was!

So patients get pissed off and I would too! Believe it or not, the attending surgeon sent home the chief resident and told her to get some sleep after he got wind of what was going on. He said he didn't want to get sick. And this isn't the nicest guy in the world either! And guess what...the team survived just fine sans chief so my hunch is that they could survive without the ill MS3 too!

in my opinion...
 
Do not come into the hospital if you:
Have a fever.
Have productive cough (you will be wearing a mask all day on my service)
Have diarrhea with or without vomiting.

If you call in sick constantly, it WILL affect your grade. On the other hand, you are supposed to be a healthy adult. If you are sick, stay home and do not bring your bacteria and viruses to infect a vulnerable patient population of the other members of your team.

Most of the time, if you are harboring a virus, you can stay home a day, rest and get over whatever you have managed to acquire, faster than if you drag yourself in, spreading your pathogens.

If your child is sick, stay home with your child or make some arrangements for your sick child to be cared for that do not involve your walking around the hospital with a cell phone to your ear constantly. I am likely to send you home if you cannot keep your mind on your work. If you come to work, be prepared to work.

Kids get sick, spouses get sick and medical students get sick. If you are ill, take care of yourself (and your child/spouse) and then get back to work. I don't come into work if I have the possiblity of passing on pathogens to my patients. It doesn't happen often, but it has happend once or twice.
 
Ok! So I guess that according to all the gunners I am a no good whiney looser who cant handle it!!! Well I dont think that is true, but I will also tell you what I know is true. My family and my self and our health come first... before any patient's. I am not worried about taking time off for myself. I have a beautiful wife, and I plan on keeping our marriage great by spending time working on it. We are going to have kids in a few years and I will try my best to never miss a soccer game or a dance recitle. I will lead a good life and not be overly stressed. I wont become depressed. I wont become and alcoholic. I wont become a drug addict, and most importantly... I will lead a happy life. I thank god every day that I am not a type A gunner.:)

:rolleyes:
 
Shodddy18 said:
I am not worried about taking time off for myself. I have a beautiful wife, and I plan on keeping our marriage great by spending time working on it.
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since when do your marital issues come into this. we were talking about you taking a day off if you're sick (to which many people - myself included - provided sympathy) not "taking time off for myself" and your beautiful wife. if this is what you're talking about, that's why people like SLUser have nothing helpful to say. You abuse the system. Don't do it, you'll hurt all of us.:thumbdown:
 
SurgeryChef said:
since when do your marital issues come into this. we were talking about you taking a day off if you're sick (to which many people - myself included - provided sympathy) not "taking time off for myself" and your beautiful wife. if this is what you're talking about, that's why people like SLUser have nothing helpful to say. You abuse the system. Don't do it, you'll hurt all of us.:thumbdown:
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?????:confused: :confused: :confused: Ok... since you obviously have trouble interpreting what you read, I will spell it out more specifically so as not to confuse you. I have NEVER abused the system. I have not once in my entire life called out sick from work unless I was truly sick. This statment is true from when I started working at age 13, until now... including my sick day yesterday. The stuff about my personal life was included to support my point about taking time for ones self to heal. That can mean taking a sick day to get better when one is physically ill, or taking vacation time to relax and heal your mind and spirit from the stresses of work! I said that yesterday I was taking time for MYSELF to get better from a physical illness. But I was also saying that as physicians we need to take time for OURSELVES for other reasons... to spend time w/ our families and spend time relaxing. These are all things that help one be truly healthy... mind, body, and spirit... they are all connected. I said nothing about faking sick days to be with family and goof off... and if you interpreted it that way I suggest you spend some of your personal time learning how to interpret what you read!:thumbdown:
 
I just took my first day off in medical school this week (I'm MS4). I must have caught some virus or bug working in the ER, and I was literally vomiting as I was having diarrhea. So gross. Didn't think that was compatible with work, so I called in.
 
I don't get it... Not

The holier than thou attitude some people here have about not calling in sick unless their dead.

The clamoring to justify calling in sick that other people are doing here.

This is all just immature bull &*%^$ if you ask me, and I wish you'd all just cut it out.

If you need a day off, for whatever reason... maybe you're just burnt out and need a minute to refuel and nobody's really depending on you that day, and you call in sick... SOOOO WHAAATTTT????

...Students don't have "personal days" that other people in much less demanding schedules/professions have and it's in everbody's interest that they take care of their body and soul. Those of you who don't thinks so should all get together and become a religion, or something and leave the rest of us alone.
 
I was sick twice during surgery. Both times on trauma/burn service. Went in anyway, but was late for rounds both times. First time was food poisoning/viral GI thing, I was granted a special dispensation to "scrub out" of surgery whenever I felt it neccessary. Second was with the flu on overnight call in the middle of a 14 day stretch on (not too bad). The trauma nurses were great. One of them even got me some pseudafed to perk me up for the rest of the day. Never slept because I was afraid I wouldn't wake up until morning. Good night, got to do alot of procedures because the ortho/trauma call student also was sick and slept through the night.
I have called in sick from many a job just to goof off with my friends. The stuff I'm doing now is just too fun to miss.
 
SurgeryChef said:
And in my experience, I think you're an @$$. And I'm a woman as a matter of fact. And I've never taken a sick day in my life (except in the 3rd grade when I had the chicken pox and my mother wouldn't let me go to school).
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Congratulations, go get yourself a cookie.

At first I was like, "What's wrong with her?" but then I searched your posts and saw that you're interested in OBGYN, then I was like, "Oh, nevermind." It's funny hearing you call me an unsympathetic @ss when I can guess what you're going to be like as a resident.

Anyway, I was purposefully harsh because I'm trying to let you know what your resident might think about med students calling in sick. I know that med students aren't vital parts of the health care team, but you're practicing to be residents, so you should get rid of your bad habits now. As someone else pointed out, if you're calling in sick as a resident, especially in more intense residencies, your work doesn't go away, but is shifted onto the shoulders of your co-residents.
 
delicatefade said:
Well, next time I'm sick, I'll be sure to come in to the hospital and MAKE SURE that you get sick as well (ever seen Seinfeld???). Then we'll see how YOU do at work with the flu.

But I'm really just hungover right??? ;)
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Wear a mask, wash your hands, and you'll be fine.

Also, don't drink so much next time.
 
madtowngirl said:
I just took my first day off in medical school this week (I'm MS4). I must have caught some virus or bug working in the ER, and I was literally vomiting as I was having diarrhea. So gross. Didn't think that was compatible with work, so I called in.
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This is a perfect example of being legitimately sick. Stay home, get better, come back to work when your eme-diarrhea is under control.
 
What about venereal disease? I called in a couple weeks ago and told them I had the clap, it didn't seem to be too much of a problem.
 
SLUser11 said:
Like many of you, I am a product of the unfair school of thought regarding calling in sick. I'm going to give my opinion, and I understand if it makes you mad......sorry.

1. I can't help but assume that most of the posters saying it's perfectly ok to call in sick are women. Am I wrong? I think it's because I 1) think it's weak to call in sick, and 2) think women are weaker than men. Hopefully I'm wrong......

.
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WHoa. I am very far from being any type of feminist, but I have to call BS on this one. In most families I know, the female is the pillar of the family-- she's the carpool driver, lunch maker, housecleaner-- often while working as many hours if not more than the husband. Which means that she doesn't complain and doesn't have the luxury of calling in when she's sick or being weak. Maybe its just the females that you know, but in my world, females are infinitely stronger than males in many respects. At any rate, its kind of personal thing. I personally wouldn't call in unless I physically couldn't make it. People who stay home out of consideration for the patients have a point but there are ways around that. When I was sick on NICU, I was super viligant about handwashing and wore a mask when ever handling babies.
Just some thoughts...
M
 
SLUser11 said:
Like many of you, I am a product of the unfair school of thought regarding calling in sick. I'm going to give my opinion, and I understand if it makes you mad......sorry.

1. I can't help but assume that most of the posters saying it's perfectly ok to call in sick are women. Am I wrong? I think it's because I 1) think it's weak to call in sick, and 2) think women are weaker than men. Hopefully I'm wrong......

....["blah, blah-dy blah, and further blah-ness."]

....6. So, while there are many legitimate reasons to stay home, MOST reasons people stay home are not legitimate. In the end, laziness and weakness seem to be the main reasons people "call in sick."

......in my experience.
Click to expand...

I am proud to possess my most handsome set of testicles and am thus neither a feminist or female, but I think such assumptions about women are utterly apalling. As a matter of fact, some of the female medical students I have worked with actually try HARDER than my male counterparts specifically BECAUSE such assumptions about women are made from people that should know better: future physicians.

....[...]...."in my experience," you stated.

What experience? Were you a woman before you got the operation and now are in a better position to know what it would be like more so than what could otherwise be considered a superficial bias? I am ashamed for being a member of the same profession where there are actually people still like this.

Trust me, I have not championed the idea of equality for women in society or medicine, for that matter, simply because it might help me "score with the ladies" in college or medical school. It probably would have been easier to get laid with women who adhered to a school-of-thought that was the COMPLETE opposite.

Nonetheless, the need to abolish hurtful stereotypes is what I believe; one cannot rationally adhere to such a principle without making it universal for the poor, women, various ethnicities, races, or socio-economic classes--i.e. historical underdogs comprising this wonderful country. Such fervor is an evolutionary permutation of what I have had to fight all my life as a person of mixed race being forced to correct the habitual non-sense of the ubiquitous swarm of ignorant folk all around me that have been tragically denied the insight of a world view based upon having actually lived on different parts of the planet.

No, your Carnival Cruise to Jamaica does not count.

Such tomfoolery in bias may indeed not be of their own fault and merely a direct result of sole reliance upon a xenophobic vacuum of what they were taught to think or feel by progenitors with inferiority complexes afraid of change--i.e., a cultural-and oftentime institutionalized-inbreeding of thought.

*Shakes his head:* A pity, it is.

Maybe we should call this thread the "Calling out those who try to call out those who try to call IN sick."

Sheesh.
 
had a surgery attending tell us if we weren't being admitted we were expected to be there. :(
 
during my peds surgery rotation i was the lucky one who came down with some horredous gastro and had stuff coming out of both ends simultaneously for days. To top it off, there was no was possible to even keep down gatorade..... so as dehydrated as I likely was, I probably could have been admitted. :(
I called in sick, and felt bad for doing it. The next day I returned at felt like I was walking around drunk and when we went in to see a little girl s/p appy who came in with similar sx, I thought to myself: who am i kidding being here, there is no way i can even think of taking care of any patients, when i can barely even see straight. The senior saw how miserable I looked and sent me home.
I think there are key times where a med student, resident, doc or whoever should NOT be around patients. For their safety and to not spread it around to anyone else!
 
ennuiescence said:
I am proud to possess my most handsome set of testicles and am thus neither a feminist or female, but I think such assumptions about women are utterly apalling. As a matter of fact, some of the female medical students I have worked with actually try HARDER than my male counterparts specifically BECAUSE such assumptions about women are made from people that should know better: future physicians.

....[...]...."in my experience," you stated.

What experience? Were you a woman before you got the operation and now are in a better position to know what it would be like more so than what could otherwise be considered a superficial bias? I am ashamed for being a member of the same profession where there are actually people still like this.

Trust me, I have not championed the idea of equality for women in society or medicine, for that matter, simply because it might help me "score with the ladies" in college or medical school. It probably would have been easier to get laid with women who adhered to a school-of-thought that was the COMPLETE opposite.

Nonetheless, the need to abolish hurtful stereotypes is what I believe; one cannot rationally adhere to such a principle without making it universal for the poor, women, various ethnicities, races, or socio-economic classes--i.e. historical underdogs comprising this wonderful country. Such fervor is an evolutionary permutation of what I have had to fight all my life as a person of mixed race being forced to correct the habitual non-sense of the ubiquitous swarm of ignorant folk all around me that have been tragically denied the insight of a world view based upon having actually lived on different parts of the planet.

No, your Carnival Cruise to Jamaica does not count.

Such tomfoolery in bias may indeed not be of their own fault and merely a direct result of sole reliance upon a xenophobic vacuum of what they were taught to think or feel by progenitors with inferiority complexes afraid of change--i.e., a cultural-and oftentime institutionalized-inbreeding of thought.

*Shakes his head:* A pity, it is.

Maybe we should call this thread the "Calling out those who try to call out those who try to call IN sick."

Sheesh.
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:sleep:

This self-righteous, overly eloquent style is nauseating. You're on a message board. I would like to see alot more "How U doin 2day, text U L8R:), LOL" and alot less fluffy bullcrap. But, you are entitled to your opinion just as I am......so type away I guess.

I threw the "in my experience" part in to prevent too much "Hey! Women are strong!" comments, but in hindsight I can see why some people got mad. Ironically, after doing a post search on some of the people posting in this thread, it turns out they're mostly dudes....one is a vegetarian, though....

So I take it back. Women are super-duper strong and can do anything a man can do, probably doing it even better.......wait, my nausea is coming back.....ok it passed.

The main point of my post, which was lost when I went all misogynistic on your @ss, is that for every person throwing up and peeing out their butt at the same time, there's 5 people who are tired/hungover/don't want to get up at 4am/whatever, and that seems LAZY and WEAK.
 
PuGanDoo said:
I absolutely agree. When you are ill, you are ill. As a patient I wouldn't want some sick student/intern/resident/doctor touching me, hands washed or not. I mean, the image of a doc sneezing, hacking up a lung, blowing nose, whatever while seeing patients just makes me cringe. And furthermore, it is scary enough knowing that those taking care of you are sleep deprived. Do I really want a sick AND sleep deprived healthcare professional who can't think clearly in charge of my care? Most of the time the medical institution makes no sense, we certainly don't practice what we preach.
Click to expand...

Great post!
 
our chief of peds said "if you aren't at the hospital, it had better be due to a death in the family, and it better be yours. . . " and thats peds!
 
I was sick during senior surgery and literally had a fountain coming out of my nose and scrubbed a surgery and the chief resident is pretty much ignoring the fact that my surgical mask was becoming completely wet with snot running down my face (even though I took all kinds of cold medicine decongestants) about ready to come out the mask and contaminate the surgical field even though I warned him and finally the scrub tech pointed out that my mask was "filling up". So he didn't even look at me and told me okay and pointed to the door. I thought he meant to leave the OR area so I went back to the surgery resident room and then didn't come back the next day as we were expected to round on sick surgery patients and surgery ICU patients. I called it in to the surgery office and didn't come back the next day. So the next day this guy is bitching me out about it saying something about it effecting my eval and I am telling him what is the point in me coming if I am just contaminating all the patients and can't even scrub a surgery. There was a very light patient load at this particular hospital. So I call the secretary and she tells me it was excused and then she calls him up and tells him to tone that crap down as it was excused. Bottom line is that, as a student, I'm not risking killing some ICU patient just to avoid getting into it with some whacked out resident with some dumb ideas about students coming into a hospital even if they are dripping snot contamination and possible MRSA everywhere.
 
As an intern on ward medicine I was walking around in my completely sleep-deprived state with a painful rash around my waist on my left side only. It didn't occur to me to actually look at it in the light of day until I was in rounds on day 4 of the pain. My resident caught a glance from across the hall and then quickly escorted me to a call room so that I could observe my own case of shingles first hand. I had such a horrific experience from there on out dealing with the chief residents' "how could you have not known you have shingles, didn't you go to medical school?" to the scolding with finger wagging included from the hospital epidemiologist about the extreme danger I represented to my patients and the hospital population as a whole. So my morale of the story, if you have dermatomal unilateral pain, take a look before you risk infecting your immunocompromised patients and risk having multiple disparaging emails sent to your residency training director.

MBK2003
 
MBK2003 said:
As an intern on ward medicine I was walking around in my completely sleep-deprived state with a painful rash around my waist on my left side only. It didn't occur to me to actually look at it in the light of day until I was in rounds on day 4 of the pain. My resident caught a glance from across the hall and then quickly escorted me to a call room so that I could observe my own case of shingles first hand. I had such a horrific experience from there on out dealing with the chief residents' "how could you have not known you have shingles, didn't you go to medical school?" to the scolding with finger wagging included from the hospital epidemiologist about the extreme danger I represented to my patients and the hospital population as a whole. So my morale of the story, if you have dermatomal unilateral pain, take a look before you risk infecting your immunocompromised patients and risk having multiple disparaging emails sent to your residency training director.

MBK2003
Click to expand...

How'd your resident see your bare waist?:p
 
Called in sick then actually did end up getting admitted to the hospital during intern year so they believed me but many other residents brag about putting an IV in themselves and going back to work. I don't agree with this mentality. I've seen sicker residents at work than some of our patients which is ridiculous. It's still just a job and I'm more than willing to cover for someone who is sick rather than catch their germs. On the other hand I did get annoyed in med school when classmates called in sick because their wife was sick or something equally stupid.
 
Slaves had better rights 160 years ago in the South than medical student do today.
 
I called in sick a handful of times. Make sure you page your resident that morning before you normally start, so they know you won't be there. Calling in at 10am to tell them why you weren't there at 7am is rude and unprofessional.
 
I think there are some reasonable situations in which calling out sick is ok, but I agree that there is abuse of the system by medical students who feel their absence is not important. I don't know how other schools do rotation, but at my school the student is assigned their own patients that they have to manage. Yes, the intern is ultimately responsible, but it makes more notes and more work if we aren't there. If you can get out of bed and aren't vomiting all over or passing out, at least come in-check the labs, get the numbers, find out overnight events. If you are worried about infecting people, wear a mask (nurses do it all the time) wash your hands, and keep some distance. Your team will likely send you home if you look sick (if you don't look sick, maybe you shouldn't need to go home). I was on surgery and had diarrhea that minimally responded to immodium. I got lightheaded during a case and my chief sent me home without making me feel guilty since I wasn't creating extra work. Another time I was just starting medicine, after having had a thyroidectomy the week before. I came in the first day, despite feeling like crap, because I wanted to meet my team and my patients. The next day my pain was intolerable, so I had to take vicodin. I called my team early and offered to round on my patients later in the day, but my chief told me to just take the whole day off.

Bottom line-don't justify calling out sick just because you are a student. Decide if you are sick enough to justify others covering for your work, and check with your team early so you don't screw them over.
 
Are these people for real?? I used the max sick days every third year and now fourth year rotation. We got 5 per rotation and I used every one of them every rotation and still honored all my third year rotations-You have to be kidding yourself if you think any busy resident notices or remmebers which days their med student was sick at the end. I usually got 5 days off each rotation-loved sick days. You guys are sucha bunch of tools-that is why medicine is looked down upon because it is filled with tools like you guys.ridiculouso
 
SLUser11 said:
That being said, I generally believe that adults taking "sick days" is usually silly and not legitimate.
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You're a doctor in a hospital surrounded by adults too sick to go to work. It happens.

I think expecting that med professionals are somehow super-human and have flawless immune systems is bullsh*t. For god's sake, take a sick day if you're sick, you're probably working your ass off every day, being exposed to all kinds of stuff stressed beyond belief and exhausted....that will make a person sick. Set an example for your patients and take care of yourself.
 
The holier than thou bull**** needs to stop.

Medical students are non-essential members of the team. Calm down, I'm not saying that we should not take our jobs seriously and work hard. However, we shouldn't have the attitude that our patients will suffer or die just because we call in and don't cough all over them at 5 am trying to preround and look good in front of the attendings on rounds.

I called in a few times during third year. Once with a virus causing a day of projectile vomiting (lots of people got that one at my hospital) and a Coxsackie viral infection that gave me the worst sore throat of my life. My residents were actually appreciative that I didn't come in and I ended up honoring those clerkships.

Work to live, don't live to work.
 
medstud2006 said:
our chief of peds said "if you aren't at the hospital, it had better be due to a death in the family, and it better be yours. . . " and thats peds!
Click to expand...

Your chief of peds is a schmuck.
 
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