Hello. I work evenings on a hospital nursing unit. I am scheduled to work one night every two weeks. I will remain on evenings and do this cross shift in order to cover the short staff on nights. I am on watch and wait, have stage two CLL with enlarged spleen and a large number of B-cell Lymphomas. Treatment will begin in the next several months. I would like to know if anyone can advise me on the danger of cross shifts/night shifts and whether I would find support with the ADA, EEOC, or any other gov agency if i ask for an accommodation to not work nights.
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Taza1
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I don't know about ADA or EEOC accommodations, but as you progress to needing treatment, fatigue and immune susceptibility are likely to increase.
I don't know what a cross shift is but when I supervised industrial utility workers, vacancies were covered by each of the preceding and following shift working a 12 hour shift to cover the missing colleague.
Whether your supervisors will accommodate you informally or you need to go the formal route, I suggest you consider the risk to your own health if you are fatigued and contract an infection from your patients.
thank you for your reply. Cross shift refers to working different day evening night shifts in one week. Whether covering a sick call or prescheduled it can disturb circadian rhythms. If your in treatment or waiting it can be scary not knowing the consequences reported in various research. I was looking for those who may have experience with asking for accommodations due to limitations. As the disease progresses one comforting thought is being prepared for work related issues.
We had a lengthy discussion about work notification and CLL a month or two back in response to a question I had posted, and I got a lot of good info out of the thread:
My experience, after that discussion, has been that the ADA does in fact provide some protection, as long as you are clear about accommodations that are reasonable while respecting your health. This is more true at larger companies with mature HR and legal departments; most hospitals I would think would be in that bucket.
In your case, the question I'd ask is maybe not "are night shifts an issue?", though with CLL fatigue I can't imagine it.
The question I'd ask is "can I manage infection risk as an immunocompromised CLL patient working as a nurse in a hospital at all?"
You know your field far better than I do, but I would be looking for options where I could reduce patient direct exposure. With all the telehealth hospitals are doing these days maybe there's a different role where you could continue in your field while managing risk?
SNIP: 'Employers managing the impact of the current coronavirus pandemic on the workplace may be overwhelmed with information right now. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) guidance on Pandemic Preparedness in the Workplace and the ADA is a useful guide for employers who have ADA compliance questions. In this guidance the EEOC notes that employees with disabilities may request reasonable accommodations in response to the risk of exposure to the coronavirus. For example, this guidance states that employees with disabilities that put them at high risk for complications may request telework as a reasonable accommodation to reduce their chances of infection during a pandemic. See question 10. Of course, other types of accommodations may be requested for various coronavirus-related reasons, depending on the circumstances.
Who can receive reasonable accommodations under the ADA?
To be eligible to receive workplace reasonable accommodations under the federal ADA, an individual must have an “actual” or a “record of” a disability, as defined by the ADA Amendments Act. For additional information about the definition of disability, see How to Determine Whether a Person has a Disability Under the ADA. Also, there must be some connection between the impairment and specific need for accommodation. For example, the individual might have an underlying impairment and limitation that, if infected with coronavirus, would lead to serious complications. There is no comprehensive list of such impairments, but individuals with heart disease, diabetes, lung disease or asthma, a weakened immune system, kidney disease, cirrhosis, etc. are considered at higher risk for developing serious complications, according to the CDC. Coronavirus alone may not be considered a disability under the ADA, due to the illness being transitory and having limited impact on major life activities in ordinary circumstances."
Good question. I doubt that ADA will help you unless hospital has something you can do without being around patients. My wife volunteered for covid triage duty months before covid shot available, when her hospital department was shut down in response to empty beds for covid surge which never came. What is really sad is threats to fire hospital personnel who would not take the shot after them working months with covid patients when shots were not available.
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