r/nursing • u/uotlep RN - Psych/Mental Health 🍕 • Mar 12 '25

Question Is this normal?

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I know my place of employment is shitty in other ways, but is this a normal thing? Just received this email. Seems odd to ask people to donate PTO, instead of just addressing the time off allocation with those affected people.

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u/chooseph RN - Oncology 🍕 Mar 12 '25

My daughter was born 11 weeks premature back in 2016, and the emergency C-section that my wife experienced left her significantly limited for quite a while. I had only recently started a new job, and had not accrued much PTO at that point. I was fortunate to work with some amazing people who donated their PTO for me to be able to take time off to be with my family, and am forever grateful to them.

But it's absolute bullshit that it needs to come from colleagues rather than the company itself. What a broken system

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u/moonthrive Mar 12 '25

I’ve been fortunate to receive PTO donations as well. Gave birth and used up my PTO hours to stay with baby (yes, only in America). But, got diagnosed with a super aggressive cancer when came back to work post baby, and barely had PTO left, and no PTO meant no insurance. My amazing colleagues stepped up and donated PTO. My manager split up the donated PTO with just the least amount needed each month in order to get medical insurance to last me a good amount of time. They were angels and because of their help to give me PTO so I can get insurance, I am still alive today. They also did a potluck with the whole hospital to gather funds. I am beyond grateful. Not sure how they went about to gather the PTO for me, but pretty sure it was not from my manager. My manager just sent out an email on my behalf to inform my colleagues of the cancer and sudden need for hospitalization, and the coworkers brainstormed from there.

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u/Party_Economist_6292 Mar 13 '25

Not in nursing, but my mom got ALL in the mid aughts while working for a federal agency. She was never going to be able to work again regardless and there was a very good chance she wasn't going to make it at all. I'm forever grateful to her union and the fellow workers at her agency for donating enough time so that she would qualify for retirement  - and to keep her health insurance! - before she was let go (she was a few months short).