Hi I'm a nurse with a small dilemma and was hoping for some assistance. I graduated 3 years ago and like many new graduates are told to do so I went into med surg to develop my "nursing skills". Well after I begged and pleaded I was able to secure transfer to a NICU position and was safe there until my training time was over. Now every so often (we're talking about every 5 - 6 months) when the census goes down I'm expected to be able to go back to med surg and perform as well as the nurses that work that floor regularly I've spoken to my bosses using the chain of command and so far the response I've gotten is a nurse is a nurse is a nurse. I'm so frustrated. I love taking care of my patients, just the patient load, ancillary assistance available really don't compare to the the other floors that I work on and there really isn't enough time to be checking at least 5 out of every twenty medicines that you have to give per patient in the am. I feel that I can adequately take care of peds, gyn, mom/baby and level 2 nicu and think that med surg is too far a stretch or am I just overreacting and my bosses are right a nurse is a nurse is a nurse???
Use this situation to become more well rounded and take everything in stride, develop your skills in both departments and use it to your advantage. I would love to have a change of scenery every once in a while. And don't complain to management about it because they will probably take action against you so be careful and be greatful you have a job .
I agree with the OP very much. As an aide it may be easy for you to say " I would love to have a change of scenery" but as a nurse its different then a change of scenery. Unless you have years and years of experience under your belt floating can be very difficult. When she floats to med surg she's dealing with a whole different set of diseases, medications, nursing implications, medical diagnoses and etc. I'm just a student and with a new clinical rotation every 7 weeks can drive me up the wall. BTW Can't wait to become an L and D nurse !
I am not just an Aide , but also a nursing student like yourself and maybe for you its overwhelming but not for everybody .I myself like to be well rounded and gain experience for my professional growth and development and use a situation like this to my advantage !!!
A lot depends on how closely allied to your home unit the department you're being floated to is. For example, if I work NICU and I am floated to Mother/Baby, I will be familiar with the doctors, with the expected diagnoses and routines, the equipment used, etc. If, however, I am floated to a Med/Surg floor I have a whole new set of doctors whose protocols I don't know, tests and equipment I am not familiar with, etc., not to mention not knowing where equipment is located, charting protocols which are entirely different, etc. Yes, I can learn these but a float assignment is not the time. My patients have to wait while I have to ask already overwhelmed staff about these things. Not an efficient system.
I think there was a time when nurses could be expected to float anywhere and function but those days are long gone. There are no longer 4-5 "walkie-talkies" that can be given to a float. Every patient is high acuity or they wouldn't be in the hospital. And medicine changes so fast that just because you learned something in nursing school two years ago doesn't mean that's the standard of care today. If I'm a patient, you can bet I want a nurse who regularly works in this area taking care of me, not a float from NICU. Just as I don't want a med-surg nurse taking care of my premie.
Floating as a tech or learning new units as a nursing student has one big difference from floating as a nurse in charge of care for patient--as a tech or student I don't have a license (and livelihood) to lose. So while I applaud anyone who is interested in learning as much as possible, just be sure you aren't learning it at the potential expense of the patient.
I am not just an Aide , but also a nursing student like yourself and maybe for you its overwhelming but not for everybody .I myself like to be well rounded and gain experience for my professional growth and development and use a situation like this to my advantage !!!
I think the difference between floating as a tech or student (no offense here) is the level of responsibility. I think the concern from nurses about floating is that if, for example, say a med-surg nurse was floated to Neuro ICU, has no NICU experience. And then given a patient with a ventriculostomy drain even though the regular NICU nurses all took a course on how to properly monitor/care for said drain and float has never even seen one. Well say there is a complication with the drain- do you think the patient and family are going to say, well I am glad the float was trying to grow professionally- No they are going to sue and you may lose your license and livelihood. And for those of you that say "this would never happen" I have seen it happen.
I just mean that different nursing specialties can have very specific training and it is not always safe for someone else to perform the same care simply because they have the same degree.
FYI- I have no problem with floating as it is my job and I am in the float pool:specs:
But it is what I signed up for, after I had 5 years of varied travel/staff experience in different areas. Also I am paid more because I float. As a staff nurse, there is little incentive for the nurse to do it.
Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.
Floating from NICU to med/surg after having worked on med/surg. . .you're over-reacting. I was a supervisor. I would float you to the med-surg unit too if it was your turn to float and the med/surg unit needed help.
Would you have a dermatologist treat chest pain patients in the ER? How about a radiologist doing primary care? Would you have a nephrologist read CT scans?
After all, a doctor is a doctor is a doctor, right?
Floating from NICU to med/surg after having worked on med/surg. . .you're over-reacting. I was a supervisor. I would float you to the med-surg unit too if it was your turn to float and the med/surg unit needed help.
I don't mean to be argumentative Daytonite (really I don't), but I have to wonder is it really safe to send this nurse to adult med/surg when she is saying that she doesn't feel comfortable in that department? I could see sending her from NICU to PICU, Peds, L&D or even mother/baby floor but isn't adult med/surg a bit of a stretch? I don't know I just don't think I would want a NICU nurse taking care of me as an adult post surgery just like I wouldn't want a med/surg nurse taking care of my preemie. I understand she had previous training in med/surg but if she says she does not feel confident to practice as a nurse in adult med/surg then I don't think its a good idea to force her to practice in that area. The concepts of "pitching in" to help other units and trying to "be a team player" are well and good but do we really want to risk patient safety by putting nurses who are not comfortable in a particular specialty in positions just to fill a spot?
Floating from NICU to med/surg after having worked on med/surg. . .you're over-reacting. I was a supervisor. I would float you to the med-surg unit too if it was your turn to float and the med/surg unit needed help.
I have to agree that if I started on M-S (who knows how long ago), got used to NICU (vast worlds apart here), I'd be awfully nervous about going back to M-S. I was OK with it when they floated me from Tele because they were related.
Floating from NICU to med/surg after having worked on med/surg. . .you're over-reacting. I was a supervisor. I would float you to the med-surg unit too if it was your turn to float and the med/surg unit needed help.
Yes... Please tell me that you also were a floor nurse in the same dilemma and had to float between very vast specialties. Oh and by the way supervisor, today you'll be working on the floor with a full patient assignment 6:1... 4 discharges and admits to fill up those beds as soon as they are empty. But that you haven't been doing floor work for five years is no big deal because you're a nurse and you can do it. I'd like to be a bug on a wall that day and just watch. LOL.....
As for management... it seems this problem is rampant hospitalwide, nothing is going to change with my position. I've asked and pleaded my case until I'm blue in the face. Hey, sometimes you have to stumble to learn. It sure sucks when you get scrapes though. I've cried enough over this subject ... I'm gonna keep on truckin till I can find a facility can can help me keep my license safe, I worked too hard to get to this position. I hate to have to leave. I was hoping to be able to start working at one place and just stay there but oh, well, we'll see about the next one. Believe me I'm interviewing the next one and now I know what to ask!
All I want to do is work with women infant and children. I float to a lot more floors than other nurses in that hospital float to. All I'm asking is to be kept from med surg. I just wished the hospital and managers really cared about the patients. A nurse is not just any nurse, that's why there are different floors if not they would all be integrated.
Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.
Yes... Please tell me that you also were a floor nurse in the same dilemma and had to float between very vast specialties. Oh and by the way supervisor, today you'll be working on the floor with a full patient assignment 6:1... 4 discharges and admits to fill up those beds as soon as they are empty. But that you haven't been doing floor work for five years is no big deal because you're a nurse and you can do it. I'd like to be a bug on a wall that day and just watch. LOL.....
As a matter of fact I was. 13 years working med/surg and ICU stepdown. When I transferred from the ICU stepdown to the IV Team I was frequently floated to the ICU and CCU. It was my co-workers on the IV Team who complained to the nursing department about them floating me and it was because they were scared to death that they were going to get floated next! They didn't need to worry because none of them had any floor nursing experience and the supervisors knew it. What you may not know is that the supervisors know, at least we did, what we are doing when we float people and where we are floating them. Floating, unfortunately, is a reality of nursing. And, our profession is not the only one that does this. They do it in banking, airlines, sales, restaurant service and many other businesses. Why do nurses get so rattled over this, particularly when they can have an entirely different group of patients to take care of from day to day? Unless nurses are cutting corners and not following good nursing principles working on a different unit shouldn't be a cause for that much worry. And if a nurse is asked to do something she isn't trained to do she needs to speak up and let someone know about it so her assignment can be adjusted. Follow orders, policies and procedures, and consult with colleagues and supervisors if problems arise. That's what you do on your home unit. Why would you do differently on another unit?
Good luck to anyone searching for a nursing job where they do not require floating.
Hi I'm a nurse with a small dilemma and was hoping for some assistance. I graduated 3 years ago and like many new graduates are told to do so I went into med surg to develop my "nursing skills". Well after I begged and pleaded I was able to secure transfer to a NICU position and was safe there until my training time was over. Now every so often (we're talking about every 5 - 6 months) when the census goes down I'm expected to be able to go back to med surg and perform as well as the nurses that work that floor regularly I've spoken to my bosses using the chain of command and so far the response I've gotten is a nurse is a nurse is a nurse. I'm so frustrated. I love taking care of my patients, just the patient load, ancillary assistance available really don't compare to the the other floors that I work on and there really isn't enough time to be checking at least 5 out of every twenty medicines that you have to give per patient in the am. I feel that I can adequately take care of peds, gyn, mom/baby and level 2 nicu and think that med surg is too far a stretch or am I just overreacting and my bosses are right a nurse is a nurse is a nurse???
Please Help Any reply is appreciated
Thank You
As long as you are a full-time employee with the facility, they can send you anywhere. If you are sent to work on a unit for which you have no experience and you think this may endanger patients, you must speak up and follow the chain of command as far as you need to. You are ultimately responsible for the care given to patients, if you accept an assignment for which you are not qualified, you will be solely responsible for any problems that occur, i.e., you won't be covered by hospital policy if there is a law suit - you will stand alone. I was once sent to adult telemetry - I was an nicu, newborn nursery nurse and was not up to date on cardiology - I squawked and squawked - the charge nurse said it didn't matter that I didn't have cardiac experience - I told her that I was going to tell the patients and their families if they were present that I had no experience in that area - I was reassigned real fast. Most important, as a nurse you must stand up for yourself and demand respect!
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Hey, sometimes you have to stumble to learn. It sure sucks when you get scrapes though. I've cried enough over this subject 
... I'm gonna keep on truckin till I can find a facility can can help me keep my license safe, I worked too hard to get to this position. I hate to have to leave. I was hoping to be able to start working at one place and just stay there but oh, well, we'll see about the next one. Believe me I'm interviewing the next one and now I know what to ask!
NurseLoveJoy88, ASN, RN
3,959 Posts
I agree with the OP very much. As an aide it may be easy for you to say " I would love to have a change of scenery" but as a nurse its different then a change of scenery. Unless you have years and years of experience under your belt floating can be very difficult. When she floats to med surg she's dealing with a whole different set of diseases, medications, nursing implications, medical diagnoses and etc. I'm just a student and with a new clinical rotation every 7 weeks can drive me up the wall. BTW Can't wait to become an L and D nurse !