floating?

[kats]

I have been reading Echo Heron's books again as I face what is hopefully my last semester of pre-reqs before nursing school. It seems that the three things that most upset her about nursing other than the attitudes of administration and doctors with the delusion that they are God, were the rules regarding floating, required shifts per month on a different shift, and poor nurse to patient ratios. I know that here in California, they have now passed a law concerning the ratios, but I was wondering if any of you could tell me if there has been any change in the case of floating to other units or working different shifts where you work?What are your thoughts and experiences on these subjects? I am not getting afraid as I can't imagine any other job that has as many things as being a nurse does that I want to do with my life. I have also worked as a CNA, a phlebotomist, and a volunteer in several departments including ICU, CCU, Intermediate Care, Surgery, Med/ Surg, and Physical Therapy. I appreciate any input as I was just wondering how much has really changed.

[live4today, RN]

Hello kats :)

I've seen many changes in my seventeen years of nursing, but floating to other units seems to have increased the most due to the so-called "nursing shortage" (of which I do not believe exist).

I never use to mind floating in years past. I actually enjoyed the change of pace from time to time. However, this past year was a reality shock to me when it came to floating because every nurse seemed to be on edge about being so understaffed and overworked, they were actually spewing fire at one another instead of helping one another through the crisis.

It's a tough world now in healthcare, especially with inpatient care due to everyone being on edge about mistakes being made due to the lack of staffing and respect from management for their nurses.

Once you graduate, expect to float...a lot in some cases.

It really shouldn't be necessary to float nurses once nursing takes a change for the better and sufficient staff is hired to care for the level of sick patients admitted to hospitals today.

Once 'TPTB' realize the need to retain nurses with respect above all else, perhaps things will improve and every floor will be sufficiently staffed with happy less stressful nurses.

Management needs to change their tone as well. If management sucks, even having sufficient staff won't make the unit a better place to be employed. Women need to pull together more and stop the cat fights that seperate us from one another in the work force. [i say women because I am a woman, so I'm speaking from my own personal perspective of what I witness in the work force when working with other women.]

Healthcare is a business......and becoming more and more hardcore as time passes from my perspective. It's sad, but true. Changes need to be made in healthcare that will lessen this drama for all concerned -- patients and staff alike.

Echo Heron speaks the truth in those books, and the same drama still exist today.

[fergus51]

My current hospital doesn't float staff at all (it is much less common here in Canada than in the US in my experience). Even when i was in the US and had to float, I would float as a helper and not take a full assignment on floors I wasn't oriented to. I would take an assignment in my family of specialties (L&D, PP, antepartum, nursery, even peds), but not anywhere else (can you imagine the lawsuit if I screwed up in ICU?!!). Generally I found that worked well for all concerned.