ob to med surg

[tmf1202]

I am currently doing my preceptorship for nursing school on the ob floor at the local hospital. Recently I have been hearing about ob nurses who have never been oriented to the med surg units and haven't worked in the area for several years being floated there. I realize as nurses we should be able to care for all of our patients. I still wonder if this is a safe practice and what should you do if you are asked to float to an area that you are not familiar with?

[whipping girl in 07, RN]

At my facility, we are required to float to any floor except women's and children's services. We are given the option to float to these areas but not required. I work in ICU and so far have not had to float yet. The floors in our hospital that are the most short-staffed are telemetry and ICU. I would probably take the pull to peds, post-partum, or well-baby nursery, but I would not feel comfortable going to PICU, NICU, or L&D. Thank God they can't make me.

If our ICU is not full and we have one extra person, that person tasks and it counts as a pull, so you drop to the bottom of the pull list. I tasked a couple of weeks ago, so I don't have to worry about being pulled anytime soon. I just got out of orientation and I don't feel like I'm ready to be pulled to another floor. I'm afraid I'd drown!:uhoh21:

[Teshiee]

Sounds like that attitude that nurse is just a nurse but that is not true. You can't float me to L&D I have no clue. Just like an OB nurse going into NICU. Orientation doesn't mean squat just familiarization of where things are that is all. I hate floating because I feel like an idiot not knowing a thing. It makes the regular staff work harder because they have to show me the ropes. I refuse to float if I don't get good training after all it is your license.

[MQ Edna]

This IS a sore subject, as someone mentioned before. In my hospital, the nurses on my unit (med/surg) are expected to cover EVERY department, even if it only means going to women's care to cover phones. The last time that happened, the nurse who had to go left her pt's for the rest of us to cover! We cover ICU/OB and ER when necessary. I think 3 times in the last year have I seen a nurse from another unit help us, and those were ICU nurses that came out to do some admissions when they had no patients.

I see nothing wrong or life threatening with nurses from other units going to other floors to assist with tasks such as hanging IVs, doing blood sugars, easy things that we all can do. I don't mind helping other units myself, it gives me opportunities to learn.

Laura

[fergus51]

I would love someone floating to OB to answer phones, but personally I don't want non-OB nurses taking patient assignments in OB anymore than I want to take an assignment in med/surg. I find this especially bothersome on PP because med-surg nurses are not trained for it, and even if the patients are medically stable, they have a lot of other issues to deal with. I would feel so sorry for a med-surg nurse who had to try and solve latching problems!!! It isn't fair to them or the patient.