My attitude towards sick leave has changed over the years. When I first started working I had little compunction towards taking a sickie. But I think as I've grown, I've become a little more responsible about it. I think being part of a good team helps - I don't like to let them down by chucking a sickie.

I think it's really important not to go to work sick. I really hate doing it, and up until a year ago I wouldn't. I'm a nurse, so there's nothing that looks worse than having some nurse walk in and cough and sniffle all over your child! When I transferred to the job I have now, I had four years worth of sick leave saved up - I hardly ever got sick. In our award, we are entitled to "Carer's Leave" to look after children or immediate family, and that leave is deducted from your sick leave entitlement - so in other words, it's like a tacit acknowledgement that it is okay to use your sick leave to look after your family. Anyway, during DW's last pregnancy, she got so sick during the first trimester she had to have three months off work, so I drew pretty heavily on my sick leave to look after her and the two eldest girls. Well, I was in the midst of a fairly bitter dispute with my manager at the time, and lo and behold, she slapped me under a managed sick leave policy, because she had never bothered to classify all of the sick leave I had been taking as "carer's leave" and she managed to make it look like I had a problem with absenteeism. So I had to show a medical certificate every time I needed a sick day. Which was fine at the start, but now my GP has a week-long waiting list for appointments, she won't write my medical certificates in retrospect because by the time I see her, I am well again. So for the first time in my career, I did exactly that - I turned up to work as sick as a dog, coughed and sneezed all over my patients, and got an absolute mouthful from one of them who was an ex nurse herself for being at work sick.

For a profession that knows so much about illness, I am constantly amazed how many nurses and nurse managers expect you to be a martyr and turn up no matter what. Case in point - another girl was pregnant here at the same time as my DW, and she also hyperemesis. DW did the right thing, saw her OB, and was certified off work for three months, gave her manager notice. This other girl kept on coming to work, lasting an hour before she'd be in a bed or on a lounge somewhere - sometimes just slumped over in the corridor - vomitting her heart out. It was disgusting, and incredibly unprofesional, and the rest of the team had to pick up the slack every day she was there. And yet, they complained about my DW taking time off and asked why she couldn't just "push on" like the other girl. I mean, FFS, at least my DW was getting replaced with someone else who could actually work more than an hour at a time!