Paid Sick Leave for Nurses

Paid Sick Leave for Nurses The objective of this work is to research the issue of paid sick leaves for nurses. The history of the issue will be reviewed as well as will be the social, political, economic, and cultural aspects of the issue and why the issue is significant to professional nursing practice today.

The article entitled: "Hospital Nurses Head Public Workers' Sick List" relates the fact that: "Hospital nurses take far more days off sick than other public sector workers..." (Revill, 2005) Nurses are reported to take 16.8 days of sick leave each year on the average which isomer than even police officers and teachers. Teachers take 11.3 days a year off as compared to 6.4 days for employees in other private sectors.

LITERATURE REVIEW In April 2005 the Institute for Women's Policy Research, in the National Partnership for Women & Families released a report entitled: "Health Families Act Introduced in Congress" states that a bill has been introduced into Congress that would provide millions of Americans with paid sick days. The reason for this push is because many Americans are losing their jobs and risking the public's health by sending sick children to school because there is no provision of paid sick leave in many jobs.

The report states that a cost-benefit analysis of the sick leave legislation was released by the Institute of Women's Policy Research (IWPR) and states that the "...bill is estimated to save $28,375 million, or $5,98 per covered worker per week. The bulk of savings from the bills comes from reductions in employee turnover.

In addition employers' wage payments to workers who are at work but too sick to be productive will fall, as the spread of contagious disease (and the absenteeism it causes) health care expenditures for ill workers, and short-term nursing home stays." (Institute for Women's Policy Research, 2005) According to Anna Walker, chief executive of the Healthcare Commission these statistics are a source of worry.

The National Health Institute estimates costs from sick time for nurses is approximately $100 million pounds a year send health services 140 million pounds into the red." (Institute for Women's Policy Research, 2005) the work of Carvel (2005) states: "Hospital nurses take nearly 50% more days off sick than other public sector workers, the health inspectorate said today after a survey of 135,000 staff on 6,000 wards in Britain." The work of Heymann, Earle and Penrose (2007) entitled: "Importance of the Healthy Families Act to the Health of American Children" a Institute for Health and Social Policy Issue Brief states that: (1) Nearly half of private sector workers have no paid sick days at all; (2) the ability of workers to address their own health needs is critical.

Recuperation from sickness at the start prevents minor health conditions from progressing into more serious illnesses requiring longer absences from work and more costly medical treatment; (3) in a study of nurses, having sick days made all the difference in their ability to keep their jobs after developing heart disease or having a heart attack.

Those with paid sick days were 2.6 times more likely to return to work after a heart attack or angina." (Heymann, Earle and Penrose, 2007) Impacts are positive when sick leave is offered including the following benefits: (1) Offering paid sick days has positive benefits for employers, including limiting the spread of infectious diseases in the workplace by letting employees stay home when sick; (2) at the same time, workplaces with paid sick days experience lower job turnover rates, leading to lower recruitment and training costs and a higher level of productivity and decreased unnecessary absenteeism." (Heymann, Earle and Penrose, 2007) it is additionally related that: "one hundred and forty-five countries guarantee paid sick days." (Heymann, Earle and Penrose, 2007) The work of Ootim (2002) relates that "high rates of sickness absence in the nursing profession are increasingly attracting attention." Ootim relates that when a nurse is off sick the first to suffer are the nursing staff which makes their job more difficult and then the overworked nurse ends up being off sick due to overwork and exhaustion creating a cycle of sick nurses.

Nurses in Australia were in the news of July 14, 2005 in a report by AAP General News Australia which stated that: "Some nurses face losing two weeks' annual leave and two-thirds of their sick leave entitlements under proposed federal government industrial relations changes, Labor says.

Opposition industrial relations spokesman Stephen Smith said Victorian nurses were currently entitled to six weeks' annual leave and 21 days sick leave under their award." (AAP News Australia, 2007) These arrangements are changing as the adjustments are made to the "new Fair Pay and Conditions Standard." (AAP News Australia, 2007) it is related that the: "The Howard government's changes will remove the current no disadvantage test and leave five statutory employment conditions within the Fair Pay and Conditions Standard. Included in those five conditions are the entitlements of annual, sick and parental leave.

The minimum standard for annual leave will be four weeks and sick leave will be eight days per year." (AAP News Australia, 2007) These changes will result any "...any award that entitles employees to more than four weeks' annual leave and eight days' sick leave will be adjusted down to the Howard government's new standard." (AAP News Australia, 2007) This will affect over 60,000 nurses employed in Victoria under the Nurses Victorian Health Services Award 2000, which allowed them six weeks annual leave and 21 sick days.

In a 2004 Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO report it is stated: "The lack of paid sick leave in the United States will compound the risk of getting the flu this winter, at a time when even at-risk individuals cannot obtain flu shots because of a massive shortage of the vaccine, according to the National Partnership for Women & Families. Nearly half the nation's workers don't have guaranteed paid time off from their jobs when they are sick, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

These workers are more likely to go to work when they are sick, increasing the likelihood they will infect others, says the National Partnership, which this summer released a report, Get Well Soon: Americans Can't Afford to Be Sick, detailing the lack of adequate federal and state laws guaranteeing paid sick time. " (AFL-CIO, Issues & Trends, 2004) for those who are nursing staff who will have to work while sick, this means spreading of the germs to all patients and other medical staff that the nurse comes in contact with.

In a 2005 CBS News report it is stated that union leaders from all 31 New Brunswick Nursing Homes called a meeting concerning the sick leave pay that were allotted for nursing staff in the province.

Related in the report is that if a nurse is sick more than four days in a 12-month period that they are "docked two days of sick leave the following year." (CBS News, 2005) Nurses in hospitals are allowed 18 days of sick benefits and that should be the case for nursing home nurses as well according to Jennifer Sutherland with the New Brunswick Association of Nursing Homes.

A recent report in the Business Journal relates that talks between the California Nurses Association and the University of California have been ongoing quietly for six months however, "Unable to reach agreement after 31 sessions, the two sides on Thursday asked the state Public Employee Relations Board to declare impasse and appoint a mediator to intervene. The union represents more than 8,800 registered nurses at UC student health clinics and five major medical centers, including about 1,200 nurses at the UC Davis campus in Sacramento.

" (Robertson, 2007) Stated as key issues in the talks are: (1) Key issues for the union include safe staffing at all times, including.