There is a very specialized unit in which some of the nurse friends I work with also float to, let's call it "Unit X." This unit has the reputation of being unwelcoming towards float nurses, especially the newer float nurses. Many of these nurses dread going to that unit. Here is a common scenario I often hear happening on this unit: New Nurse makes a mistake during an orientation shift. Unit X Nurse sees this mistake, and instead of going to New Nurse to tell him/her about it and provide a good teaching moment, he/she will correct the mistake themselves and go talk behind New Nurse's back to the other Unit X nurses. It is not even a med error where a patient has been directly affected. It's more things like a med not being constituted the right way (but has not been administered to the patient yet) or an IV line not being primed properly.
Other, perhaps more trivial things have also occurred on the unit: the Unit X nurses chat amongst each other without including the floats. They all decide to order food and don't include the floats (not the most polite thing to do, but definitely not the end of the world, IMO). Or, when a new float nurse is running around the unit, very busy with their patient load, the other nurses will just sit there and whisper about them instead of offering to help. Nurses from other units have suggested to them that they should get in touch with the manager of the float pool and let he/she know what is going on. However, a lot of them do not want to tell the manager; one nurse in particular said she didn't want to because she doesn't like confrontation. I then told her that there are other nurses who seem to be unhappy on that unit, so if they joined forces and all went to tell the manager, she wouldn't have to do it alone. The float nurses seem very eager to learn, but don't feel they are being supported in their learning on this unit.
I'm just curious to know the right way for this situation to be handled. Would it be better for the newer float nurses to politely confront the nurses on Unit X when the negative behavior occurs? If so, how should they go about doing it? Would going straight to the float pool manager also be a good idea? I currently don't float to that particular unit, but I guess it would also be helpful for me to know how to handle it in case I end up working there in the future.
