Taking Our Pals Away

[puddlesrn]

Hey everyone.. I have a problem and i would like some advise. I manage a 12 bed adult and peds unit. Rarley do we have peds pts proably 1-2 a year but when we do they are usually on the vent and critical. My DON has informed me that she is no longer going to approve my staff for PALS recert. I am very upset about this. I know we need it. I told that if we were going to do this that all our policies will have to be changed to take out all peds info. I even want to remove our peds crash cart. She informed me that when we get a peds pt that a peds nurse will be pulled to take care of it. Now she MUST think im stupid!!!! I know that if we have a peds thats critical enough to be in ICU that no ped nurse in their right mind will agree to this. All our peds nurses take care of stable pts. We do have one that can do critical care and peds. I think that the DON thinks that this nurse will just happen to be working on the day that the critical peds comes in. She refuses to change her mind. I think im going to go to or ICU Director and speak to him about this and if that doesnt help go to our CEO. We even teach pals at our hospital!!!!Whats the deal???? Do you guys think im overreacting????

[Orca, ADN, ASN, RN]

If you will be expected to take care of peds patients, then you need the training. The scenario I see developing is this: a critical peds patient comes in, the peds unit has no one available to cover the case, and you're stuck - without the proper training. This is a lawsuit waiting to happen.

[sunnygirl272]

i must admit when i saw this topic i thought it was gonna be a notice that some of us..(me included) are being evicted...

[Peds_Theresa]

I am a peds nurse. When we have a child that requires ICU care one of the nurses from our pediatrics always goes to the unit to care for them. We are not only taking care of "stable kids." I have had many 1 to 1 patients in the pediatrics unit.