As a Nurse, is it normal to be pushed around doing different jobs at the place you work?

CharleeFoxtrot, BSN, RN · Jul 10, 2020

30 minutes ago, sam619 said:
This might make people upset...but...
If I spent 4+ years of hard work getting my BSN, I am NOT going to fold laundry. I am there to provide expert nursing care and to clinically take care of my patients.

If you continue to be the “yes-man” you are going to be walked all over.
Sorry not sorry.

*rolleyes*

EDNURSE20, BSN · Jul 10, 2020

Folding laundry is the only non nursing thing they have asked of you. Was even all day? More than once? Is it that big of a deal! Otherwise everything is acceptable.

Being adaptable and a team player is only going to do good thing for your career.

Tweety, BSN, RN · Jul 10, 2020

I'll go against the grain and say that those tasks can be done by anyone and shouldn't be done by a professional nurse even if they aren't demeaning.

That said, these are special times and we might have to step out of our role to fill what is now essential duties such as temperature checks.

When our OR shut down some of the nurses opted to deliver PPE supplies and manage that, check all the supply rooms for expired items, and other tasks that could have been done by anyone. It was either that or take PTO hours.

They and you have set the precedent so you might just have to roll with it for now, but it certainly isn't something I would do in the long haul.

caliotter3 · Jul 10, 2020

18 hours ago, chare said:
What of these duties, with the exception of working in the laundry, are not included within the scope of nursing practice?
You should consider yourself fortunate, nurses being furloughed or called off for low census is becoming a common occurrence.
Best wishes.

Better to be folding laundry and being paid the salary of an RN, than to be sitting at home lamenting the fact that no employment at all awaits you for yet another week.

CharleeFoxtrot, BSN, RN · Jul 10, 2020

3 hours ago, caliotter3 said:
Better to be folding laundry and being paid the salary of an RN, than to be sitting at home lamenting the fact that no employment at all awaits you for yet another week.

No doubt. During my short tenure in a SNF we would occasionally have to redeployed to do CNA work for a shift if the unit as short. What a delight to be able to hands on care and be paid (no offense to any hard working CNAs reading this) an RNs wage-and it was usually time and a half.

TriciaJ, RN · Jul 11, 2020

16 hours ago, Dln14 said:
This might make people upset...but...
If I spent 4+ years of hard work getting my BSN, I am NOT going to fold laundry. I am there to provide expert nursing care and to clinically take care of my patients.

If you continue to be the “yes-man” you are going to be walked all over.
Sorry not sorry.

If they're willing to pay you to fold laundry, they must not have any "BSN" work to do that day. Many, many nurses are being furloughed and laid off due to low census and not enough work.

It seems to me that the employer is trying to keep everyone employed to the best of their ability. I doubt this is a permanent thing; no one can afford to pay a nurse to fold laundry for long.

If you want to quit a job that isn't respecting your "dignity", that's anyone's prerogative. I've worked enough crazy, stressed-out shifts in my time that a paid day folding laundry would have been like a day at the beach.

LibraNurse27, BSN, RN · Jul 11, 2020

After the day I had today, giving blood, FFP, pt vomiting blood EVERYWHERE, heparin drip, 2 pts with PEs, chest pain, high trops, labs every 2 hrs on all pts, covid everywhere, alcohol withdrawal covid patient off the hook in 4 pt velcro... SO overwhelming.

It's great to learn nursing skills, but to be honest the days I get to be a screener feel like an amazing break from the stress, and if I could fold laundry in a room away from patients for a shift I think I would cry tears of joy. Of course I still want to do nursing duties, but a break from them once in a while is welcomed! I would say, appreciate the breaks and you will have plenty of time in your career to learn nursing tasks, but if the job is consistently non-nursing tasks look for a new one! As said above all of us who have jobs are lucky right now, even if they are underwhelming or overwhelming =(

allnurses Guide · Jul 11, 2020

On 7/9/2020 at 1:27 PM, DribbleKing97 said:
So I am working at a Retirement Home and its going well, I love being the Nurse on the floor, but sometimes they will pull me and say I am gonna be a screener today to screen essential visitors, or one day I will be the Wound Care Nurse, or I will be helping out the Director of Care with their duties, or one time they were so desperate I was folding laundry cause they could not find anyone for the laundry staff. One time I was also a porter, porting Residents to different rooms in the building for infection control.
I don't want to sound mean and say no, but I feel like I lose my dignity as a Nurse. I don't wanna tell people that I screen or that I porter people, I want to just do Nursing related stuff.
I do get paid for all that stuff, but to me I feel like its a waste of my clinical skills. I can't just leave and find work since we are restricted to only 1 workplace at this time, and if I leave this job, its not guaranteed I will find work elsewhere.
I am full time there, but they did say that I will be working different jobs. Not sure if its just me complaining

If they have you folding laundry for many shifts in a row it would be concerning, but honestly I think helping the Director of Care with their duties is an opportunity that couldn't be replaced by doing a particular clinical procedure one more time that day.

However, I'd also say the attitude they display when assigning non-floor tasks is an important part of it. We can usually tell when we're being used & undervalued vs trusted to fill a variety of roles as it becomes a pattern over time. It doesn't sound like that's happened yet.

There are many things that seem menial on the surface but can actually teach you more than practicing clinical skills.

Hope it all works out. Just enjoying your job at a retirement home is huge!

**CommunityRNBSN, BSN, RN** · Jul 11, 2020

My job is similar. I haaaate sitting at the door in PPE taking temperatures! But it takes all hands on deck to make any organization run. If somebody calls out sick and I need to fold laundry, then so be it. (Now, if they tried to pay me a laundry worker’s salary, that would be another matter.). I have no desire to say “I’m sorry, that is beneath me.” I’d much rather have a reputation as someone who says “Sure, I’m happy to help.”

HiddencatBSN, BSN · Jul 11, 2020

On 7/10/2020 at 4:32 AM, Dln14 said:
This might make people upset...but...
If I spent 4+ years of hard work getting my BSN, I am NOT going to fold laundry. I am there to provide expert nursing care and to clinically take care of my patients.

If you continue to be the “yes-man” you are going to be walked all over.
Sorry not sorry.

The nurses that complain about floating to other duties or units still end up going anyway- they just develop reputations for being whiners and poor team players. There’s nothing dignified or elevated about that.

I’ve never folded laundry but I’ve cleaned many a room in my nursing career when we have needed one turned over asap, and every unit in my hospital has contributed staff at all levels to temperature screen during this pandemic. Other area hospitals are furloughing staff on unit-wide levels.

I would save complaints for assignments that are dangerous: where you don’t have training to be safe or where the nurse patient ratio is too high for the acuity.

FolksBtrippin, BSN, RN · Jul 11, 2020

I agree with others that most of these other duties give you a good window into how the whole system works and are a valuable experience. With the exception of folding laundry, which just sucks. If I was asked to fold laundry for a whole shift more than once in a long, long while, I would quit.

Generally, I like moving around and doing different kinds of things. I would take the opportunity to learn. Once in a while I got floated to the tech position when I worked at the hospital. It was all right, and it helped me learn what the tech's day is like. But some people hate floating and that's okay.

I think its fine to let your boss know that you don't like floating to other duties. A good boss takes into account people's preferences.

I also think it's fine to look for another opportunity if this really bugs you.

You may just want to look at it differently.

Hoosier_RN, MSN · Jul 11, 2020

On 7/9/2020 at 8:30 PM, Elaine M said:
It's normal to have "additional duties as assigned" but no, this isn't normal, at least not in hospitals. To me this shows disorganization and an inability to keep workers. It might be a nice break once in awhile but it sounds like it happens more than that. I'd be looking for a new job.

It's LTC/retirement home setting, and it can definitely be the norm if the pt census is low. Very different that hospital setting