Essentials of Nursing Leadership and Management 6th Edition by Ruth Tappen, Sally Weiss

Exercise 1

Juan was completing his charting on his three babies in the neonatal intensive care unit. He had just finished orientation and this was his third day working. He was very tired and looking forward to his time off the next several days. Usually the nurse-to-baby ratio in the NICU was 1:2; however, the unit had been running short staffed and each nurse assumed additional patient responsibilities. Prior to him giving report, Juan's nurse manager came to him and stated, "Ada called in sick. We do not have anyone else to cover the unit and we are under our nurse-to-patient ratio. I need you to stay and work today." When Juan protested that he had already worked three 12-hour shifts and one 8-hour shift, the nurse manager told him that if he refused, she could "fire him" and report him for patient abandonment.
If you were Juan, how would you respond to the nurse manager?