Can't Stand It! A Rant About Floating

[Diva7332]

Just can't stand it anymore and have to rant....

I work at a small community hospital in OB. Due to the size of our population, there are times where we are "dark" (no patients) on our unit. So, we are asked to float instead of being put on low census/on call. My problem is that I feel like we are totally being abused when we float! For example, the staff on Med-Surg will call us to do an admission (and I mean everything: assessment, vitals, orientation to floor ect) and they just sit at the RN's station! It drives me nuts. When I worked Med-Surg, I would have never delegated that task, especially to a float RN. I would want to do it myself, no matter how busy I was, since I am in charge of the care of that patient! The do the same thing in ER. The staff will sit at the station while the float RN triages. Am I the only one who finds this crazy? It's like having an ICU nurse come and monitor my labor patient, while I, who has been trained to care for a labor patient, sits at the station and eats snacks. I have never floated there when they are busy....in that case I would be more than happy to help. Did I mention that the rest of the hospital NEVER floats here when we are overrun?

This is a small, well staffed hospital (pretty rare, I know) who seems to be very resistant to change. It seems all we can do in OB is dread the days we have to float, and complain to each other. It's been mentioned to management, but we've been told "that's the way it is."

Thanks for reading!

[April, RN, BSN, RN]

Can you refuse to float?

[Mozzie]

No it isn't right - however, I need to comment because I have seen this in the opposite direction in a small hospital where Med Surg nurses were expected to take on patients in OB - even in L&D and expected to do everything as floats. Yes - they were crosstrained. However, delivering babies wasn not something that they did every day, every week or even once a month.

This in my mind is just crazy because OB is one of the highest risk areas of a hospital. However, if OB was to come to Med Surg to float on a busy or short staffed day- they were to be "helping hands" only. Or they would come down to "float" and then disappear. And they got away with it.

This kind of stuff occurred in this hospital because the DON played favorites among departments and departmental managers - would only make decisions that would benefit OB & Surgery and Med Surg could just sink.

If you have a good management team at your hospital - there should be some sort of common sense here.

Needless to say - I left that hospital because it was just so toxic and way too political. Upper management decisions (or lack there of) was creating unsafe issues for the med surg nursing staff. Leaving there was the best decision I could have made.

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

No it isn't right - however, I need to comment because I have seen this in the opposite direction in a small hospital where Med Surg nurses were expected to take on patients in OB - even in L&D and expected to do everything as floats. Yes - they were crosstrained. However, delivering babies wasn not something that they did every day, every week or even once a month.

This in my mind is just crazy because OB is one of the highest risk areas of a hospital. However, if OB was to come to Med Surg to float on a busy or short staffed day- they were to be "helping hands" only. Or they would come down to "float" and then disappear. And they got away with it.

This kind of stuff occurred in this hospital because the DON played favorites among departments and departmental managers - would only make decisions that would benefit OB & Surgery and Med Surg could just sink.

If you have a good management team at your hospital - there should be some sort of common sense here.

Needless to say - I left that hospital because it was just so toxic and way too political. Upper management decisions (or lack there of) was creating unsafe issues for the med surg nursing staff. Leaving there was the best decision I could have made.

The last hospital I worked at had the same issue, and I suspect it's more common than anyone really knows.

Back in my own Med/Surg days, I was cross-trained to OB, so I certainly understood why someone had to be available to take a laboring patient on a moment's notice. But there could be 2 couplets on the floor and six nurses sitting at the nurses' station while Med/Surg was literally overflowing with admits, and not only would the OB nurses refuse to float, management would back them up and tell us 'sorry, you'll just have to deal with it'. Which is one of the reasons I left hospital nursing, never to return (I'd rather work LTC until I die, if I have to).

I have all the respect in the world for specialists such as OB and ICU nurses, but in too many hospitals, they're not only allowed but encouraged to stick to their own little corner of the world. I don't think anyone should expect OB nurses, or other specialists, to take a full patient load on M/S, but they should be able to do an admission, start an IV, insert a catheter, or take off orders. And as far as infection control goes: when I was a float nurse, I'd put on a set of department-specific scrubs to work on the OB floor, and then change back into my own or borrow a set from surgery if I went back to M/S during the course of my shift, and vice-versa. No one wants to potentially contaminate newborns with adult germs like C. diff. and MRSA, which is one of the rationales for NOT floating. But this can generally be avoided by good handwashing and changing scrubs between departments.

Just my worth.

[Diploma'82]

Same thing happens at my hospital with the ICU nurses. We float to the floor and it is like it is a holiday for the med surg nurses. When we float we work as LPNs but I'm not an LPN so have to ask (I'm new to this hospital) what the heck am I suppose to be doing???

[Diva7332]

Never thought about refusing to float.....I don't think that would go over very well!

[mcknis]

yeah, for me probably wouldn't go over too well, but you could always try to refuse!

[karenmv51]

do ccc nurses float to med/surg units?

[flygirl43]

I am a permanant float nurse and love it. It challenges me every day. On the other hand, I always get the crappy assignments, eat lunch by myself and feel like a rogue nurse half the time. More experience makes you a better health care provider. Find the positive