Call in sick?

[Apollyon]

When I was a student, during peds, I got the flu, a viral URI, and a bacterial URI back-to-back-to-back, and was off 3 days at one point.

Now, though, as a resident, I have some type of respiratory infection, and morally won't call in sick - when people are depending on me, I need to work.

My question, though, is: what about making patients sick? Do you, or have you, ever taken off because you thought you might be a hazard to the already-sick patients?

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[blackcat]

i took off during internship because i had pneumonia. i was miserable, coughing, had 3-4 word dyspnea. the ob rotation i was on at the time reluctantly let me go home for the day. back the next day tho.

 

[Annette]

I took off about the first week during a family practice rotation because I had (I think) pertussis. My O2 sats finally got above my heart rate at the end of the 8 week rotation. It had been going around. Besides not being able to breathe because of the coughing, there was a nursing home attached to the clinic/hospital. They certainly didn't need it.

If it is some minor bug, then I'd work. But, if it is very nasty, I'd talk to the PD and take a day or two.

 

[njbmd]

Hi there,

I had severe gastroenteritis from the flu (one of our chief residents had been spreading the virus around) but spent the night on call and the next day doing surgery. I ended up rushing out of the OR just in time to hurl. My attending physician told me to go home but that just meant twice the work the next day. I rested in the call room on some much needed Thera-Flu and got back into the OR later that afternoon. I found that once my fever was gone and I was hydrated, I was pretty comfortable. Everyone commented on how pale and green I looked for the next day or so. Ugh!

njbmd

 

[surg]

We certainly have had people call in sick and I have sent home people who were too sick to keep going even when they were going to be on call that night. It is a matter of safety for both the residents and the patients in my mind. Obviously don't make it a habit to call in sick for every little hang nail.

It is everyone's responsibility to help each other out. Most residents would rather round with their IV pole than miss a day, so it is important to force those people out of the hospital when they aren't well enough to do a good job or are infectious! That being said, the classic response for me once was, "I'll go see that consult as soon as I'm done throwing up." too which the response was, "sounds good, so it'll be pretty soon?" Needless to say by the next day, my attending got one good look at me and paged another resident to do my scheduled procedures and forbid me from staying another minute of that day.

 

[mikecwru]

Originally posted by Apollyon
When I was a student, during peds, I got the flu, a viral URI, and a bacterial URI back-to-back-to-back, and was off 3 days at one point.

Now, though, as a resident, I have some type of respiratory infection, and morally won't call in sick - when people are depending on me, I need to work.

My question, though, is: what about making patients sick? Do you, or have you, ever taken off because you thought you might be a hazard to the already-sick patients?

I've had to bad bacterial sinus infections during med school. One in third year during OB/GYN (the surgery part) and ended up making it up piecemeal during my peds clinic (robbed Peter to pay Paul).

The second one I had during my Peds EM month. I came in during my vacation days and did an extra weekend to make it up. The director was a nazi about it. PS: I got her sick. hehehehe.

Everyone gets the sniffles but this was hardcore fever and chills, incoherent, pus pouring out my nostril.

 

[ckent]

I was sick for ~1.5 wks during my peds rotation, but still went in every day. I just wore a mask when I saw pts and told them that I was sick and didn't want to get them sick.

 

[Foxxy Cleopatra]

Intersting thread; guess it's hard to have a system that allows people to recover when truly ill but is not abused by those with hangnails.

I can see toughing out a mild cold, but still can't see the point of people having to be at work when they're burning up with a fever, can hardly talk, coughing their heads off, or even worse, when they get a case of the G.I. special. In other words, too sick to perform at their best or to learn anything, spreading nasty germs to patients & coworkers, plus, wearing themselves down even further.

I got a nasty respiratory infection/fever/chills during peds. I never missed a day over it, but all I got was bronchitis that I had a hard time getting rid of; plus, I probably infected several of my poor friends and patients. However, I am quite thankful that I managed to get through peds without getting gastroenteritis- yikes!

One day when I'm the one in charge, I'll never force someone who is really bad off to be there; I'll let 'em go home and recover.

 

[mikecwru]

Originally posted by Foxxy Cleopatra
Intersting thread; guess it's hard to have a system that allows people to recover when truly ill but is not abused by those with hangnails.

I can see toughing out a mild cold, but still can't see the point of people having to be at work when they're burning up with a fever, can hardly talk, coughing their heads off, or even worse, when they get a case of the G.I. special. In other words, too sick to perform at their best or to learn anything, spreading nasty germs to patients & coworkers, plus, wearing themselves down even further.

I got a nasty respiratory infection/fever/chills during peds. I never missed a day over it, but all I got was bronchitis that I had a hard time getting rid of; plus, I probably infected several of my poor friends and patients. However, I am quite thankful that I managed to get through peds without getting gastroenteritis- yikes!

One day when I'm the one in charge, I'll never force someone who is really bad off to be there; I'll let 'em go home and recover.

Oh, I also had a real purulent conjunctivitis on peds. I didn't miss any days, but went home early on call because of it, because it was creeping my chief out. hehehe

Remember, you're paying several thousand for this priviledge. Yes, you're responsible for learning responsibility and your education, but I don't think you have to kill yourself to prove that you'll be a responsible resident. Next year, my attitude will be more gung ho because people will REALLY be depending on me, I'll be really screwing people over if I call off. Right now, I just duplicate others' work or make it easier for them to do their work.... for the most part. I also don't think call is very useful for a med student. Yes, we've all had some cool calls where we got to do something/see something cool, but for the most part, they're useless, because when the **** really goes down, the resident only pages up for help, not down. I spent a lot of calls basically just sleeping in the hospital. At my school, we take call like the residents on their same schedule. I'm in favor of these other places I'm hearing about where "call" is staying to 11 or 12 at night.

mike