Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[maryx]

Anyone out there experience problems with supervisors forcing you to work on medical floors without meeting their unit competencies? This practice is being done where I'm at. A supervisor is using Psych. nurses to help staff a medical floor (Rehab)....If you have any suggestions as to how to help....it would be appreciated. I feel like my license is in jeopardy everytime I'm forced to float over to Rehab, and the complaint is falling on deaf ears.....I really question the legality of this practice....

[reesern63, RN]

That was pretty rude.

I understand your anxiety. I started my career in psych. We never floated, but I chose to leave after a few years because I was afraid of losing my skills. And it is true, you do lose certain skills (and gain others) when you go into psych. I hadn't been near in IV in nearly 5y. I was really stressed when I first started to have to deal with "medical stuff." It came back quickly, but it took time.

To expect someone to just float from psych to a medical unit like rehab where you have the whole gamut of dx. and expect that nurse to take a full assignment and act as a staff member--sorry. Not without a lot of orientation, not without a skills review. Until I was satisfied that I had the skills to meet the basics for those pts., no way.

I don't care who did what back when; I've been a nurse for a long time too and worked in several specialties. I would never dismiss someone for feeling anxious about floating to an area he/she was unfamiliar with. That is ridiculous. Not when we're talking about making the person take an assignment and act as a staff member. Yet another prime example of why people leave nursing. Do you ask your opthomologist to do your colonsocopy?

I hope you can find a solution to your situation, maryx. Mine was to leave psych and get skills. Ultimately, I'm glad I did because it gave me more mobility, but only you can know what's best for you.

addendum to previous message for "Daytonite"

Your insider info. about the dumber nurses being floated to Rehab is really insulting and rude. I think you owe all Rehab nurses an apology.

[Woodenpug, BSN]

Floating as an LVN can be very difficult. I can understand how Daytona felt that the op was not interested in any real solutions....from the perspective of an RN the advice seemed reasonable. Whenever I floated I would find it impossible to locate my covering nurse. The charge nurse would directly ignore any questions. She actually pretended to not hear me. When my patient needed a PRN IV for other than pain, I would have to eventually resort to "twisting the arm" of the charge nurse by threatening to call the patient's attending. (I can imagine how difficult it would have been, if I did not know how to assess a rhythm strip.) The policy at that institution required that lvn's have an RN sign-off on any incident reports. Naturally, if the patient suffered any consequence from not receiving a prn lido, the covering nurse would "cya." I have worked, briefly, at an institution which also did not allow lvn's to call an MD. I guess, that similar to supervising, you don't know what it's like unless you've been an LVN. (Being an LVN while you were in nursing school doesn't count.)