Floating Task Nurse

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How does your organization treat nurses who are floated to task? Is there specific criteria on what you can and cannot do? Has the role of a task nurse ever been defined, and if so explained to the staff?

With the increase in COVID, short staffing, and crazy high census the staff on my unit (obs) are being told that we will be floated as task nurses. The trouble I've noticed with this is that often times we will be sent to float at the start of the shift and within 2 hours be called back to our unit due to rapid admissions. This leads to staffing and the unit we are helping demanding we stay a full 4 hours despite our own unit's needs. 

These units try to get us to take an assignment even after telling them we are tasking. Once they realize we aren't budging on that they then assign us tasks with their most difficult patients, and tasks they don't like. I have zero inpatient experience beyond clinicals in school and I feel very unsafe about being floated. The last unit I went to was not friendly. I couldn't find anyone and when I tried to they'd be very short with me. 

We don't receive any extra differential for being floated like float pool staff. If I was put on-call instead of tasking I'd at least make time an half once called in. My fear and what I see happening to my unit is that we become a true inpatient med/surg. When I was first hired we were under the ER leadership and now I believe we are under Internal Medicine. 

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