Responsibilities

As most of you know I am involved in an MS Research Project in order to gain hours for my nursing license renewal for next year.

The project is part of a program to give nurses on long term disability who are unable to return to their usual jobs, experience in other ares of nursing: In this particular case, research. There are other programs such as flu clinics and other community based projects too. It's also meant to give a reference to those who need one because they have been off for so long that their old references are really not valid anymore after so long a period.

The nurses that the insurance company has been getting involved in this particular project, leave a whole lot to be desired!! Slack, lazy, unreliable all come to mind.

There were 4 of us initially put into this project. Three of us attended the initial training session. The 4th was supposed to attend the following week.

The following week only 2 of us were in attendance.

Three weeks later the other 2 finally attended for the training.

After the last 2 received their training, one of them showed up one day while I was there, another day while I wasn't there and hasn't been back since. On the day I was there with her she told me flat out that she wasn't taking the work seriously because she wasn't being paid to do it (we only get our usual disability cheque) and she didn't care about it and it wasn't an area of interest for her. I really felt like asking her why she wasted everyone's time to begin with if that's how she felt. I didn't, but I really wanted to.

The girl that was at the initial training session, and who attended the second part of the training a couple weeks after I did, never bothered to show up for work at all after having gotten the training.

The only 2 who have been consistently showing up for work there is me and Jaclyn, the girl who has been off work due to psych issues and was so clingy with me the first day. Granted, she's gotten better and in fact I even like her

A couple weeks ago another girl (Rita) started and I was supposed to be training her. She was supposed to be working from 1pm to 4pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

She was supposed to show up on October 7th for training, but didn't because she said she had a "conflicting appointment". So she showed up on Thursday, October 9th. She showed up again on Tuesday, October 14th and hasn't been back since.

I called the doctor's assistant and she had just gotten an email from the insurance company saying that Rita couldn't make it this week because she had "conflicting appointments."

How can you have conflicting appointments when you only work 3 hours, 2 afternoons a week? Why not schedule your appointments on Monday, Wednesday, Friday or in the mornings on Tuesday and Thursday?!!

I just don't understand people. They take on a task and then treat it as a joke and in the process waste everyone's time.

I don't know if I expect to much from people but I was raised to take pride in anything I did, whether I was being remunerated for it or not, and to always give 100%.

I am not sure why someone cannot keep a schedule straight anymore with cell phones with calendars and blackberries. It is so unprofessional. Sometimes I want to tell them to go home and make blackberry jam, and I mean that for both men and women.

Oh I find people like that sooo irritating!!! Make room for the people who want it your lazy bums!!! They should get their disability checks suspended for not complying with what they signed up for. It's people like that, that ruin good programs!!

Originally Posted by MoochNNoodles

Oh I find people like that sooo irritating!!! Make room for the people who want it your lazy bums!!! They should get their disability checks suspended for not complying with what they signed up for. It's people like that, that ruin good programs!!

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Absolutely! There are thousands of nurses off on disability, surely they can find 2 or 3 from all of those that actually give a darn!

Jaclyn has the right attitude. She knows it's a program to see how she can manage working, and to get her used to structure again, and to get her a reference.

Speaking of Jaclyn. She has very low self esteem and I've been trying to boost her up and telling her to advocate for herself during her progress meetings. I told her that is she just sits there and lets them run the show and agrees with everything they say, she'll never get back to work. And that's the truth. They'll keep her on disability until her license expires and then cut her off of disability because she won't be returning to her job.

So she's been doing just that. Now apparently they actually have her doing a flu clinic starting at the end of the month where she will actually be dealing with patients again. She's tickled pink about it!

I don't know, as you know I work in a nursing home and I see alot of laziness. And I am sorry but when you take care of people you can't afford to be lazy people's lives depend on you. I worked with one nurse who was so lazy when she gave meds she would leave med cups in resident's beds. And that can cause bed sores if say one of the aides doesn't notice them, and something like that could be easily overlooked if say the resident wasn't dry, and then they would cause a mark from the indention of the cup. She would also have to be told to raise a resident's head up before she gave them medicine. I caught her trying to give one resident regular water once and he was on thickened liquids and she had him flat on his back. And I guess the DON was just as lazy because when we told her about this nurse her reaction was well she's dependable and she's a warm body. the DON was too lazy to find good quality workers to take care of the residents.

I hate to say this guys, but its not just in the nursing profession.....its everywhere.....it seems that people are just too darn lazy and irresponsible to work.....they'd rather sit on their butt and do nothing but draw a check than be a responsible, productive member of society, and I'm not talking about those who can't, either physically or mentally...I'm talking fully healthy, able-bodied people who WON'T grow up and work like adults! When we had the shoe store, I can think of at lest three instances in a 15 year time span that I was involved with hiring/firing, that someone was hired, told a day and time to come in to report for work...and they never showed up. It wasn't hard work. but I know of a couple who didn't show back up the second day, and one who left for lunch and never came back! Of course, there's the one who called me on the Monday night before Thanksgiving (she worked that day)and informed me that she had found a new job and that day had been her last...I'm like, and you couldn't have told me this in advance?

Rita showed up on Thursday, despite my having been told she wouldn't be there due to "conflicting appointments". She arrived at 1:15 pm and didn't look at all impressed to be there.

I found out yesterday from the doctor's assistant that Rita was told to show up because when you work so few hours a week there is no excuse to have conflicting appointments during those particular hours.

My official last day at the study will be on November 7th. I've looked at my back-to-work program hours which have been increasing not only in numbers but also in days, and realistically there is just no way I could juggle that with the research position and not burn myself out in the process. Any hours that I would continue to pick up at the research position would be voluntary and not paid, and once I'm back to work I want to pick up extra shifts at my job so that I can earn some more money. As well, the study budget runs out at the end of 3 months, which is the end of the year.

There are over 2000 charts and as of yesterday there were only about 100 of them entered. I've done over 80 of them myself. Unfortunately once the doctor's study budget runs out, she will only be able to base her study on the charts that have been entered. Fewer charts means less accurate data results. This whole pilot program has been an utter disaster IMHO.

Originally Posted by Natalie_ca

...I was raised to take pride in anything I did, whether I was being remunerated for it or not, and to always give 100%.

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Absolutely. In fact, I feel even more committed to do my best when I'm not being paid -- because I'd be so ashamed if someone thought I only cared about the money.

I had a meeting with the insurance claims specialist in responsible for me being in the MS Research Project to gain some nursing hours.

I mentioned to her that I was of the opinion that these pilot projects should be mandatory and that your disability benefits should be affected if you do not participate or sign on and then treat it as a joke and just not show up.

I found out that it does affect your disability because the purpose of these programs is to give you experience in other areas, get you used to actually keeping a schedule and getting out working again. If the insurance company sees you blowing off their attempts to integrate you back into the work force, they will cut off your disability. If they see you actually participating and taking it seriously and treating it like a job, they will help you find other employment based on your restrictions and while they are helping to place you, they continue to pay you your disability...as they are with me.

She said that there have been several people who have had their benefits cut off because they don't want to return to work and buck every effort that was being made to get them back into the work force.

I finished my stint at the MS Research Project.

Because of the car accident and the fact that sitting for long periods now hurts my back, I really didn't intend to do the last 2 afternoons (Nov 6 and 7), but I did go in on the 6th out of obligation to finish training Rita. Her days to work are now Monday and Thursday afternoons.

However, when I got there, Shauna was there. She's the girl that was to get trained with me and Jaclyn back in August, but didn't show up for it until weeks later, and then only worked 1 shift with me and I never saw her again. Rita never showed up at all And The doctors assistant hadn't heard from her either, so she didn't even bother to call.

Shauna told me that she was there because the insurance company told her that if she didn't start showing up for her shifts that they were going to cut off her benefits. She was upset about that because she wasn't forced to participate in the project, but now that she signed up she's committed to it whether she likes it or not.

She doesn't seem to grasp the concept that the project is meant to get her back into the workforce by giving her additional skills and get her used to actually following a schedule and get her body accustomed to actually being up and about for extended periods of time.

Anyway, she went on and whined and complained about how in 2 months it will be 2 years that she's been on disability and the insurance company is threatening to cut off her benefits. They tell everyone that, but if you are still unable to work due to illness, they don't cut you off. Attitude to get back to work also plays a factor.

Because of the nature of her injury, she can't work as a bedside nurse anymore because she can't lift at all or walk for long distances. So the hospital she works at needs to see if they can accommodate her in another area.

Anyway, she's just darn lazy IMHO. She also has other job options available to her, but she won't take them for one reason or another, one being "I don't like the job!" She is qualified to teach at the University, and she did it for 3 months at the beginning of this year and they offered her another job there, but she refused it siting the fact that while the pay is good, she doesn't get benefits with that job because it's not full time, permanent. However, if she could get on full time permanent she would get benefits. But she doesn't want to work "full time."

The insurance company knows that she is capable of working, but her attitude about it stinks.

She even asked me what would happen if she took a job and then found out that she didn't like it. I told her that the goal is to get her working and off disability, so if she takes a job and doesn't like it, that's too bad. Disability isn't "UIC". You don't just get it because you don't like your job.

She told me that she's going to talk to her doctor about telling the insurance company that she's "permanently disabled" so that they can't cut off her disability.

I can't stand people like that.

The other one, Allison, that showed up for training but never did a single shift, has had her disability terminated because she never showed up and when talked to about it said that she had no intention of going back there.

Before I left on Thursday I went and said goodbye to the doctor and her assistant. By the sounds of it, the project is going to be terminated soon. It was a complete failure because of the staffing problems they had. There were supposed to be enough of us to keep 3 laptops in use 8 hours a day, 5 days per week. That never happened.

All I know is that I did my part to the best of my ability. The doctor asked me if I would be interested in helping out in future research projects. I told her I was, so she will call me if she does another.