ER nurse rotating through observation unit

[veriteblesse]

I'm considering a position at a hospital where the observation unit is considered part of the ER and the ER staff is required to staff it. The manager told me that I might be required to work in obs as often as once a week. I'm not super thrilled about the idea, but I thought I'd ask if any of you have dealt with that. Isn't working obs basically like working the floor? Is it boring? How did you like it?

[Lev, MSN, RN, NP]

At my old job, a obs unit was opened up (10 of the fast track rooms became obs) and ER staff had to work there at times. I looked at it as a nice break from the chaos which was my old job. The charting requirements were more relaxed because it was still under ER management and the patients were not inpatients. There was staff who was only hired for obs but at times were pulled to work in the ED>

[JKL33]

One question I'd ask is whether the obs unit is open mostly full-time with its own staffing allowance. It's one thing to be scheduled for a shift in obs (no big deal) but another thing entirely to have obs patients tacked onto a regular ED assignment. In that scenario, most EDs are busy enough that when you have a second to catch your breath you realize that you haven't laid eyes on the obs patient(s) for hours.