floating?

[huntergirl]

I think I screwed myself!

I am on my first travel assignment on a med/surg floor. However, the hospital I am at does not have any patients on the floor so I have been floated to the ER every night. So basically I am being used as an ER nurse which I do not feel qualified for.

I called and talked to my recruiter about this and basically told her I don't feel competent working in the ER where I have no experience. She told me to talk to the DON here at the hospital to get it worked out. But there is nowhere else to put me.

I am thinking of canceling my assignment and just going back to a regular hospital job! It looks like my contract says I can cancel at will and I will only have to pay back my travel.

Is this a good idea?

[PacoUSA, BSN, RN]

When in the ER, are you taking care of patients that are in holding to go to a med surg unit? You in that case would be qualified to take care of those patients. Med surg nurses float to the ER for that all the time. Floating to the ER to work with triage and such is inappropriate for you and if that is the case you should speak up about that. But what do you mean by the hospital not having patients on the floor? Med surg is really one of the busiest units in a hospital for admissions.

As a traveler, you should be hired for a particular unit unless you are hired for the float pool. Even as part of a unit, floating is inevitable because as a traveler you are first to go all the time. But floating all the time is not cool, they should have revealed this to you in the interview.

[huntergirl]

When I'm in the ER I take whatever patient comes in when I am up to take a patient.

Turns out a patient died last year at this hospital so they closed the floor down. They can now admit patients to the floor but the criteria to be admitted is basically anyone that doesn't have to be admitted but just doesn't want to go home! Everyone else that needs to be admitted is sent to another hospital after they come to the ER.

[michlynn, BSN, RN]

That sounds very unsafe. I'm about to start my assignment in May and the manager I spoke to told me there was a chance I would get pulled to the ER but that is only to take overflow when the floors are full and the patients are waiting for beds. I would not feel comfortable working as an actual ER nurse, that seems highly inappropriate.