Can they force me to do it?

Nurses Safety

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I've been a mother baby nurse since graduation. At my current hospital they have 25+ nurses who work on my shift and 7 of us float to L&D to take care of their antepartum patients. I am completely uncomfortable going there and have addressed the issue with my clinical leader and my unit manager. Their response is that I have to go there despite the fact that I fear losing my license because I am not properly trained to go there and I was never asked to take on the task of being an antepartum RN. The other RNs on the unit do not go to antepartum just the 7 of us. I called HR and was told that the hospital can make us float anywhere if the census requires floaters.

I have no problem floating to the NICU or even going to L&D and being a baby RN or recovering a postpartum patient but going to antepartum and having to read the continuous fetal monitoring strips scares me to death.

3 of my antepartum floating co workers feel the same way I do but it feels like it's us against the world because management and HR won't back us up. Is there anything we can do other than get new jobs elsewhere?

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Have you specifically requested, in writing, training on the monitors? I would think that your boss and all the bosses on up the line would understand how putting nurses somewhere without proper training and education is just a total disaster waiting to happen. I should think they'd be delighted to get you all the education you need.

I am thinking that you are really going to be in trouble if you accept being floated if you know you are accepting an unsafe assignment. Why not speak with an attorney and find out the liability in accepting an assignment for which you know you are unprepared?

If you all do this together, it won't be so scary and will carry more power.

If your manager refuses to budge, go over her head, all the way to DON, Admin, Risk Management, etc., anyone else you can think of, including your state's licensing board, JCAHO, and whatever you do, you must keep a paper trail.

Do this immediately, before you are "forced " to float again. Or, if you do accept a float order, accept it under protest and put that in writing and specify that you do not feel confident about the monitors and maybe you can even refuse to accept the duty of reading them. What an unholy mess this profession is in.

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Specializes in ER, Infusion therapy, Oncology.

Have you approached them about taking a fetal monitor course?

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there is another poster, and since i am not sure of the name i wont try to name.. that has suggested contacting the law firm that represents the hospital.....and letting them know what is going on....good luck

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Specializes in Government.

Most hospitals can and do force nurses to float to other units. In their eyes, it is a license. Even hospitals I worked at with a "no float " policy ended up floating people after a while.

Once I was floated to a neonatal ICU, an area in which I have zero expertise. I was expected to gavage a couple babies and I had no idea how. I went to the unit manager and said "I have no idea how to do this task and I am unsafe with it". She found someone else to do the gavage while I did all the other care.

I think forcing people to float is a silly stupid practice but it is done for resource mgt purposes. I think there are better ways to do it...have the floater help with admits and not take an assignment, have the float double with another nurse and do vitals, meds, etc.

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Specializes in SICU.

An old hospital that I used to work for did something similar to this. It was rumored that a few nurses place an anonymous call to JACHO.

JACHO walked in one day on a surprise visit (it wasn't even near the time for recredentialing) and went though the hospitals personnel files with a fine tooth comb. They were looking at all the competencies of the nurses in each department and floor. They were in particular pulling all files of anyone that had been floated in the past 6 months. The hospital almost lost it's accreditation and new floating policies were created.

I don't particularly like JACHO, but when you have higher ups that wont listen to reason from someone under them, it can help when someone even higher up starts to shout at them.

Good luck and protect your license.

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Thank you all for your great responses!!

I am meeting with my manager tomorrow (I'm sure I will be written up for refusing to go to L&D the other night even though I was at home when I got the call and refused) and I will definitely bring this up again and I have no problem going over her I was just hoping she would be decent enough to deal with the issue without getting the higher ups involved.

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Met with my manager today and she wrote me up for refusing to go to L&D to take care of a patient I am not properly trained to take care of. She then informed me that I will not get my yearly bonus and my raise will be cut in half.

Way to treat your employees ________ Hospital.

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Forgot to add that I got a final written warning today at the meeting. Not sure why it was a final one because I have never been disciplined before today.

Oh well, guess managament really doesn't care about their nurses.

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I say get out while you still can!

Forgot to add that I got a final written warning today at the meeting. Not sure why it was a final one because I have never been disciplined before today.

Oh well, guess managament really doesn't care about their nurses.

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Specializes in NICU.

My god... I'm assuming this isn't a union hospital. How can you be written up for refusing to come in from home? Were you officially on call at the time? What are your state's Safe Harbor laws?

I agree with the above poster. Run for the hills.

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My god... I'm assuming this isn't a union hospital. How can you be written up for refusing to come in from home? Were you officially on call at the time? What are your state's Safe Harbor laws?

I agree with the above poster. Run for the hills.

I'm in IL and I don't know what our Safe Harbor laws are. I was not on call. My clinical leader (who knew how upset I was at work last week Weds and Thurs when I was forced to float to that unit and who I have been telling about my discomfort with the other unit for almost a year) called me 90 minutes before my shift started to tell me that I was going there again on Monday.

Funny thing is when they wrote me up there was no mention of why I refused to come in that night. I had to squeeze in my explanation on 2 lines while their explanation of the situation took up 11 lines.

No wonder so many nurses leave the profession. I'm on the verge of being a greeter at Wal Mart.

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