"I am sorry - I refuse to float to Peds!"

Nurses Safety

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It was my time to float the other night and I was to float to pediatrics. No way Jose!

I have never felt comfortable with children and my specialty has always been with the adult population.

I stood my ground and refused pediatrics.....they said my assignments wouldn't be that bad - 3 infants and 2 older kids - NO! THE ANSWER IS NO!

I would rather be budgeted home that work with kids.

If I was a patient on an adult unit I would not want a neonatal or peds nurse caring for me after a major procedure......I think its safe to say that a child would feel uncomfortable in the hands of an adult nurse.

Sorry if that offends peds nurses, but i can't and i wont work peds.

Can you float to another unit and say, "Look, I am clueless. May I back all of you up tonight rather than take an assignment of my own?"

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Specializes in Critical Care.
Can you float to another unit and say, "Look, I am clueless. May I back all of you up tonight rather than take an assignment of my own?"

That's better than nothing, but that still doesn't properly alleviate a short shift. It is high time that hospitals stop relying on inappropriate floats. Better safeguards for adequate staffing are maintaining a strong float pool that are cross-trained for various specialties, offering incentives for nurses that are willing to come in on their days off (or that stay over) to fill in a short shift, and failproof support from the unit manager and/or director- which in my opinion means, getting out of your comfy jammies and slippers, throwing on some scrubs, rolling up your sleeves and get to work. And for goodness sake, 'ya better still have the skills to be able to do just that! Yes, I think that's what you sign up for when you accept that level of responsibility!

Those simple measures are a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of a bad outcome that resulted from inadequate staffing or when some poor sucker gets stuck floating to a unit that is incompatible with his/her competencies!

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Specializes in NICU Level III.

I'm an NICU nurse and we get floated to PICU and general peds. Do I know anything about a 17 year old trauma patient? NOT A CLUE. But you go or you get fired. Or you call Safe Harbor and you get fired.

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
I would have grumbled a bit but done it if the kids were older/adolescent. No WAY would I go to a unit to take care of infants! As other posters have said, I haven't a clue what to do with a baby. I'm 40 years old and have held a baby maybe twice since nursing school. I don't know what they eat, how to feed them, the meds, and I certainly could not start an IV. Would you want me around YOUR infant? :p

Funny! It works the other way around, too as I worked at a children's hospital where my oldest patient (and I didn't work with adolescents often) was 17. I can't remember why now,( but had to have been OKed by higher-ups) I had a 21 year old very lumberjack-built guy! Ye-gads! Gi-normous! What do I do?? I can't pick him up. . .hmm :lol2: Turned out fine, but we definately get our senses tuned to what we see most often for the longest time.

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Well said Bortaz! :yeah::yeah::yeah:

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Specializes in NICU. L&D, PP, Nursery.

I am guessing you couldn't use as a defense (if something terrible happened) that you were floated to an unfamiliar unit.

I am still amazed that hospitals are willing to expose their staff and hospital to such potential problems just to save some money.

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Specializes in FNP.

When I am getting a ped admit to our adult ICU, I go to the ED and begin my admission there. I make it a point to mention sweetly somehow that I have ZERO peds experience, but I'll do the best I can. This is completely honest, and my employer cannot punish me for being honest with patients/families. 9 times out of 10, mom and dad insist on a transfer. ;-)

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Specializes in NICU. L&D, PP, Nursery.
When I am getting a ped admit to our adult ICU, I go to the ED and begin my admission there. I make it a point to mention sweetly somehow that I have ZERO peds experience, but I'll do the best I can. This is completely honest, and my employer cannot punish me for being honest with patients/families. 9 times out of 10, mom and dad insist on a transfer. ;-)

So you would talk to a family about not having peds experience? Have you ever gotten in trouble from admin. about it?

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Specializes in FNP.

Of course I would. They have a right to know. Their child is sick enough to be admitted to a CCU, they need a nurse who remembers normal pediatric vital signs IMO. No, I have never gotten into trouble for it.

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Specializes in Resuscitation, CCU, HDU, ICU, ER.
When I am getting a ped admit to our adult ICU, I go to the ED and begin my admission there. I make it a point to mention sweetly somehow that I have ZERO peds experience, but I'll do the best I can. This is completely honest, and my employer cannot punish me for being honest with patients/families. 9 times out of 10, mom and dad insist on a transfer. ;-)

We admit kids to our adult ICU (in the UK) while waiting on the paeds retreival team (can take up to 12 hours plus), we have actually had parents call and ask if their child can be transfered back to us us they feel our care was better!

Interestingly in the UK Paeds and Psych are seperate nursing registrations from Adult (adult being 16 plus) although there are some of us "older" Nurses who were trained as "general" nurses so did mainly adults but also some psych and paeds (simmilar to US training)

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Specializes in ICU/CCU/CVICU.

Just got asked to float to the peds unit tonight. I'm an adult ICU nurse. I know nothing about peds!!! I said no way!

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Its your license...i don't blame you. I've been walked on all over the time. Looking back i should have stood my ground and said "NO" or tell them i am going home sick. I have been "forced" to float to MICU and pediatrics. I was not happy with it, everthing turned out ok and no issues either time. But i really need to stand my ground more often. You did the right thing for you, for the patients you would have been taking care of and your license.

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