If you are living with a chronic illness, you already have your fair share of struggles when you are off the clock. But what is it like to navigate those challenges while simultaneously caring for others? What is it like working in nursing with a chronic illness? How do you manage to take care of yourself when sometimes you really can't put your own needs first? The truth is, it's not easy. Here are some tips for navigating this sometimes lonely, sometimes challenging road.
What makes nursing a great career can also be one of its downfalls. This is especially true regarding shift work - working longer than the average eight hours. For some nurses, it's great because it gives four full days off to rest and recover. Still, alternatively, those three shifts can sometimes be physically and mentally challenging. This is especially true if you are not feeling your best - ten to twelve hours is a long time to work when all you feel like doing is crawling into bed.
Long shifts may or may not work well for a nurse with a chronic illness. The same goes for working at night - that might be off the table depending on your health. The key is having those conversations with your manager or supervisor once you figure out your diagnosis. If your illness is something you've been dealing with for a long time, you might take a stand before you decide to take the job in the first place. Getting a lot of pushback in an interview about needing a flexible schedule or having time off for health reasons could make you rethink the position entirely.
It's up to you whether you choose to discuss your health with your employer - they aren't entitled to know. There is always the option of getting human resources involved, but that may not get you anywhere faster than trying to sort things out on your own with your direct manager. Taryn, a nurse in Los Angeles who navigated her own health crisis while working in the ER, says, "It can be sticky with management. You almost have to read the room on who they are and what you say to them [about your illness]." While she found her management extremely supportive, she acknowledges that not everyone has that luxury.
Sometimes, a more flexible schedule just works better. Jamie, an ICU RN who now runs a nursing start-up in Colorado, feels like leaving the hospital has given her a better work-life balance while dealing with her diabetes. "The hard part of having very different days of working long, intense hours and then completely different days off was that it was hard to have a consistent record of my insulin usage." She found that long shifts put her at too high a risk for lows (when her sugar would plummet because she couldn't get a break to eat). Working from home makes it much easier to control her blood sugars.
Another aspect to consider if you are a nurse working with a chronic illness is the issue of supplemental benefits and FMLA. If you are a benefitted employee, it is imperative that you find out what kind of disability benefits are offered to you and when you are eligible to take them. Some employers only provide certain benefits to full-time employees. In contrast, others may have options even if you are per diem or part-time.
In general, disability will usually kick in if you must be off work longer than two consecutive weeks due to a chronic illness. Every employer will have different guidelines in place, so it definitely helps to talk to someone in human resources. Individual state disability websites will also have a lot of good information if you know you may need to tap into disability at some point.
Regardless, get familiar with what's being offered, and take advantage of any supplemental policies that make sense for your situation and your budget. For example, some employers may have a supplemental disability policy. You can pay a little extra each month, which augments your state disability if needed. That gives you a financial safety net if you cannot work your usual job due to illness.
Everyone needs time off when they don't feel well, and it makes sense to keep a nice cushion of sick time in the bank if you know there might be days where you just need a break and can't work. Alternatively, those days can run out quickly if you cannot book multiple appointments in a row on your days off.
This is what Moriah, an RN in San Diego, does to try and protect as much of her sick time as possible. She says, "Working bedside, you're able to have some days off during the week, allowing me to stack appointments and procedures and tests." She does add that there have been plenty of times she wasn't approved for time off and had to call in sick just to keep a hard-to-get appointment with a specialist.
When you request multiple days off due to your own illness, you may need to loop your manager or HR person in to get access to help and support. Moriah feels like she should have looped her manager in sooner because they might have been more understanding about all the sick time she used. Instead, she was given multiple warnings about missing work, which might have been avoided if her manager had more knowledge of what she was dealing with.
Having your own illness means you likely have more empathy towards those you care for. Lisa, a cardiac cath lab tech, points to her own cardiac issues as the reason she understands her patients' concerns. "It's comforting for me to tell patients, 'I've had this and that they are going to be ok." But she also says, "I HATE being a patient!"
Moriah says her experience in the healthcare system brought her to nursing. "A main reason I went into nursing was my own chronic illness - I wanted to help others get through it." While nursing is truly a calling, having been through so much as a patient yourself gives you a unique perspective when caring for your patients. Taryn feels like she was always meant to be a nurse. She says, "It gives me purpose, and I found a lot of purpose from working."
Written by: Alexandra Prabhu BSN, RN
Alex lives in Southern California and has spent her decade-long nursing career in cardiac critical care and loves all things heart related. She’s currently a pediatric ICU nurse in Los Angeles and has worked in both adult and pediatric cardiac surgery as well as the cardiac cath lab. After getting her degree in immunology and genetics from UCLA, she studied nursing at Mount St. Mary’s University. As a mom to five in her blended family and married to her firefighter husband, her house is generally chaotic. When not at the hospital Alex loves traveling with her family, surfing and doing her kids’ laundry.
