A nurse is a nurse is a nurse. Is that true?

dekatn · Mar 20, 2008

What that means to the powers that be, is, a license is a license and a warm body is a warm body!!!! But, the ones of us holding that license don't think along the same lines as the ones that are trying to staff a floor.

wonderbee, BSN, RN · Mar 20, 2008

There are some characteristics that are shared by successful nurses regardless of their specialty.

1. Organizational skills dovetailing with time management.

2. Critical thinking skills/good judgment

3. Detail oriented

4. Compassionate

When you think about it, these are characteristics that spell success in and outside of nursing.

ShayRN · Mar 20, 2008

Our hospital only asks you to float to floors where you are competant. Tele to Tele, ICU to another ICU, etc... Afterall, you wouldn't go to a cardiologist to deliver you baby, would you? Why would you want a tele nurse in the L&D room?

PsychNurseWannaBe, BSN, RN · Mar 20, 2008

I am not sure how I feel about this subject. On one hand I agree that we should only accept assignments for which we are competent in...but I can't help but feel that sometimes I think a nurse is a nurse is a nurse. For example, please DO NOT put me in ICU, ER or L&D... I would not like it...but I could probably swing it (No way would I be efficient at it). I'm mean...we are there to nurse the patient. I think the problem we would run into is the intervention phase of nursing. Meaning that if I were put on an OB floor, I would be able to tell that something may not be right with my patient but I would stutter around trying to recall what I should be doing. But I could probably report to the OB floor and take the mom's who already delivered while a real OB nurse took the mom who is about to deliver. For ER I could triage the patients and care for the more stable ones while a real ER nurse took a more active role. I think there are things nurses can do on other floors to help lighten the load of the nursing staff on that floor. Now if they wanted me to float to ICU and be a lead RN...NO WAY. I could follow but no way could I lead.

So like I said prior... I am not quite sure how I feel about it. But yes, we do have a license to protect and we do have patients we need to protect as well. The nursing process is a problem solving tool that should guide us to take care of patients...regardless of the floor we are on.

Natkat, BSN, MSN, RN · Mar 20, 2008

I took this question to mean a nurse is a nurse whether she has her LVN, RN or BSN license.

I say that because while during clinicals I noticed that all the nurses did the same job no matter what license they had. There might have been subtle differences in some things (like hanging blood) but otherwise everyone was working just as hard on just as many patients with just as many problems.

PsychNurseWannaBe, BSN, RN · Mar 20, 2008

I took this question to mean a nurse is a nurse whether she has her LVN, RN or BSN license.
I say that because while during clinicals I noticed that all the nurses did the same job no matter what license they had. There might have been subtle differences in some things (like hanging blood) but otherwise everyone was working just as hard on just as many patients with just as many problems.

I think the original poster was stating that when we are done with school we have training in adult health, med-surg, OB, psych, etc... and that we could possibly go into any of those fields... Then as time passes, we start losing skill sets that we learn plus we don't learn new and improved evidence based practice in areas that we are no longer in. So fast forward x amount of years after graduation...when fields may have change...is a nurse, still a nurse, for all fields of nursing. Did I understand that right??

For me... I will be starting my psych job soon. I will call myself a psych nurse. My friend is a med-surg nurse and my other friend is a OB nurse. We spin off into specialities and become stronger in them.

So I think the poster was asking... even though we spin off... do we all share common things that makes us...for lack of a better word...a general nurse. Again... I don't know if I understood it right. It's early for me. Waiting for the coffee to kick in. :nuke:

whipping girl in 07, RN · Mar 20, 2008

When I was a new grad I worked in a hospital with only one ICU so sometimes I had to float. I went mostly to med-surg or tele but occasionally I went to psych. Not difficult at the time because it was all still fresh in my mind from only being out of school a short while (and psych was our last rotation).

When I moved here I worked in hospitals with multiple ICUs so if I floated I only went to another ICU. Going to NeuroTrauma ICU is difficult when your used to surgical ICU, but manageable. Just have an experienced NTICU nurse to help me with cranial nerve assessment if that's required for my patient!

I've been away from a regular nursing floor for far too long to be comfortable there, so if I had to float to med-surg I'm sure I'd sink! Over the years I've become an expert in my area and a lot of things I used to know and haven't used have fallen by the wayside. I'm sure I could do a basic assessment of almost any patient (adult at least) but I wouldn't necessarily know what to do for the patients...or keep up with all of them!

IMHO, as far as RN/BSN/ADN/LPN they all have basic nursing assessment skills in common that make them nurses...only the volume of education that prepares for things beyond assessment. I've seen LPNs that are better nurses than some of the RNs I've worked with over the years. I've seen diploma grads run circles around BSNs.

PsychNurseWannaBe, BSN, RN · Mar 20, 2008

Ohhh... I hate that we only have 5 minutes to edit now.

I think all nursing specialities have the same core nursing prinicpals and ethics. What is different is the skill set and technical skills. So take away our specialties and the technical skills along with them (but keep the nursing process)....then a nurse is a nurse is a nurse.

I really hope I didn't just slaughter this thread and make it more confusing. I tried to edit my above post and couldn't.

geminigirl11 · Mar 20, 2008

Hi,

Exair, I'd love to hear an update on your class discussion of this topic. I work at a VA hospital and the Director of Nursing is fond of the saying, "a nurse is a nurse is a nurse" to our dismay. When nurses hear this statement, they may easily feel belittled or like chattle. It helps me to think about the history of nursing...someone mentioned that doctors would not be asked to cover outside of their specialties; HOW TRUE. People have an incorrect view of nursing as, "well, you're just taking care of patients". It's been enlightening talking with the public about nursing-they have no idea what we do and the media does not portray us accurately. There is still a huge notion that nurses are simple caretakers and for this and other reasons, they can be easily interchanged. It sends a message that we don't matter as much (as doctors, as male-dominated professions, etc). Nice to hear many of us talking about protecting our licenses; when I was a new RN, I didn't really get what my boss what talking about. Now I have a better picture of how doctor-culture, institutional sexism, and the nursing shortage intersect to cause this attitude. Thank you.

aeauooo · Mar 20, 2008

But there is something in common between all type nurses that make it possible for floating.

I agree with grammyr above - to management we are a warm body with a license. I'll add to that that what makes us even more desirable is showing up for work on time and keeping our mouths shut.

As for floating - or anything else for that matter; you know what you know, and you don't know what you don't know. If you get put into a situation in which you don't know what to look out for or what you need to do, make that clear to the charge nurse. If you'r not satisfied with the response you get from the CN, call the nursing supervisor. If you think something is wrong with one of the patients assigned to you, start making a lot of noise - get someone else in the room who does know.

I'm an ICU nurse, my specialty is neuro. A couple of months ago I got pulled over to another hospital where I was told I would be monitoring a patient "on the floor." I thought, no problem; an ambu bag, a crash cart, and the ability to yell loudly, it's just a pre-code - I can handle this. When I got there to the other facility I was told I was going to L&D. "Are you kidding me?!!!" I hadn't stepped foot on an L&D unit, other than when my sister's kids were born, since I was in nursing school - and had I promptly and deliberately forgotten everything I had learned about L&D after I passed the boards. I was told I just needed to maintain a woman's airway. Great, anything from the diaphram up I can handle. It ended up being a complete waste of my time, but I made sure everyone on that unit and the supervisor know that I am not, nor do I want to be, an L&D nurse!

Floating can be a nightmare, but more often than not, it's because I'm unfamiliar with the unit I am floated to, not because I don't know what I'm doing.

There's nothing wrong with saying you don't know something - there is everything wrong with not knowing something and pretending that you do.

Keepstanding, ASN, RN · Mar 20, 2008

Very strange kind of question ???? :rolleyes:

PsychNurseWannaBe, BSN, RN · Mar 20, 2008

I hadn't stepped foot on an L&D unit, other than when my sister's kids were born, since I was in nursing school - and had I promptly and deliberately forgotten everything I had learned about L&D after I passed the boards.

:lol2: Too funny!