How far can hospital go?

[RNTX31]

Hi all! I work on a Postpartum floor that shares the unit with Pediatrics. We share nothing with each other, except being geographically close. Recently our Unit Director made the sudden decision to make Postpartum cross train to Pediatrics and they will have to cross train to Postpartum. The reasoning for this was supposedly “to be fair when it came to taking turns in being put on call/floating and backing each other up”. (I’m sure it has more to do with saving money by making us work both areas, therefore needing less staff). Several of us are unhappy about this, having zero desire in becoming a Pediatric or Postpartum nurse, as it applies. They are completely different fields from each other!
My question is, can they do this? How can it be mandatory to learn a field I was not hired to do and have no interest in learning?? Can I fight it?
Thanks for any advice/insight.

[FolksBtrippin, BSN, RN]

On 6/6/2020 at 8:46 PM, TriciaJ said:

Yes. They can do this. As far as I know there is no legislation that spells out how hospitals can arrange their units or modify their job descriptions. (Actually, I'm sure your job description is intentionally vague with phrases such as "... and other duties as assigned.")

It is also extremely unlikely that your union contract has any language pertaining to how the hospital arranges its units. It's probably even more unlikely that you have a union contract.

The hospital is doing this no doubt to save money on personnel and alleviate staffing headaches. They really don't care how much stress this causes you.

Unfortunately, I don't see any options but to embrace it or dust off your resume.

My union would not allow this. If you do have a union, this is the kind of thing you grieve with them.

My union contract specifically stated who could float where and postpartum could not be floated to pediatrics.

[JKL33]

1 hour ago, OUxPhys said:

He had enough when the administrators started using them as float pool to float to other areas of main campus (which never happened before) and to regional hospitals as well.

I can understand business people thinking this way but what's a little baffling is the number of our nursing superiors who are so proud of coming up with (or assenting to) plans like these. It's a bit of a paradigm shift as far as how nursing is portrayed and our emphasis on specializing and the unit-based ways in which we have been used to operating.

Mostly I just think it's inconsiderate . While flexibility is important, this is realistically more than that; there's a lot that can be unpacked with this floating anywhere idea. For example: Are efforts to standardize nursing care so that patients can expect to receive the same high quality care no matter where they go worthwhile? Of course. But this isn't about that as much as it's about supply chains, namely workers. Much of the efforts to standardize all work across very different settings is so that workers (who are supposedly professionals) can be shuffled here and there more easily according to the need of the day. Okay--but, well, that just changes how people feel about things. Maybe (?) fair to say a lot of people would prefer to have a workplace where they are known, where they have at least some relationship with colleagues and coworkers, where they see familiar faces, where their input matters, where they believe changes and improvements will be made on the merits of the situation (as opposed to campus B can't do something they need to do because that isn't the way it's done at campus A)...

I guess we'll find out how things look when people aren't encouraged to feel ownership or have any sort of human attachment to a particular workplace (campus, unit, etc). ??‍♀️

[OUxPhys, BSN, RN]

1 hour ago, JKL33 said:

I can understand business people thinking this way but what's a little baffling is the number of our nursing superiors who are so proud of coming up with (or assenting to) plans like these. It's a bit of a paradigm shift as far as how nursing is portrayed and our emphasis on specializing and the unit-based ways in which we have been used to operating.

Mostly I just think it's inconsiderate . While flexibility is important, this is realistically more than that; there's a lot that can be unpacked with this floating anywhere idea. For example: Are efforts to standardize nursing care so that patients can expect to receive the same high quality care no matter where they go worthwhile? Of course. But this isn't about that as much as it's about supply chains, namely workers. Much of the efforts to standardize all work across very different settings is so that workers (who are supposedly professionals) can be shuffled here and there more easily according to the need of the day. Okay--but, well, that just changes how people feel about things. Maybe (?) fair to say a lot of people would prefer to have a workplace where they are known, where they have at least some relationship with colleagues and coworkers, where they see familiar faces, where their input matters, where they believe changes and improvements will be made on the merits of the situation (as opposed to campus B can't do something they need to do because that isn't the way it's done at campus A)...

I guess we'll find out how things look when people aren't encouraged to feel ownership or have any sort of human attachment to a particular workplace (campus, unit, etc). ??‍♀️

It's mostly inconsiderate. However, even though the regional hospitals are in the same system it's still completely different from the main campus according to my friend. It's disorganized. PPE wasn't to be found. Working out of their area (both of us work cardiology and he was taking care of acute psych). Not a safe working environment. It's bad enough people dont want to stay at the bedside. All this does is expedite the exodus even more.

[TriciaJ, RN]

6 hours ago, FolksBtrippin said:

My union would not allow this. If you do have a union, this is the kind of thing you grieve with them.

My union contract specifically stated who could float where and postpartum could not be floated to pediatrics.

Then that is a fantastic union. We should all have such representation.

[TriciaJ, RN]

15 hours ago, Nurse Beth said:

It conveys a lack of respect when employers treat nurses like movable widgets. If you want to make employees feel powerless, this is how to do it.

Exactly. I always felt like we were chess pieces being moved around on a board.

[TriciaJ, RN]

4 hours ago, JKL33 said:

I can understand business people thinking this way but what's a little baffling is the number of our nursing superiors who are so proud of coming up with (or assenting to) plans like these.

It's called selling out.

4 hours ago, JKL33 said:

Okay--but, well, that just changes how people feel about things. Maybe (?) fair to say a lot of people would prefer to have a workplace where they are known, where they have at least some relationship with colleagues and coworkers, where they see familiar faces, where their input matters, where they believe changes and improvements will be made on the merits of the situation (as opposed to campus B can't do something they need to do because that isn't the way it's done at campus A)...

I guess we'll find out how things look when people aren't encouraged to feel ownership or have any sort of human attachment to a particular workplace (campus, unit, etc). ??‍♀️

It leads to a reciprocal lack of loyalty and respect.

[Golden_RN, MSN]

This happened to me years ago. Admin combined a telemetry and ortho floor. I don't think most ortho nurses wanted to be tele nurses and vice versa. It ended up being a failure. The MDs were not happy with the arrangement and many nurses left (including me). Within a couple of years the 2 units were separated again.

[RNTX31]

7 hours ago, FolksBtrippin said:

My union would not allow this. If you do have a union, this is the kind of thing you grieve with them.

My union contract specifically stated who could float where and postpartum could not be floated to pediatrics.

Yeah, this is Texas. And here, administrators would burn the hospital down before they would allow unionized nurses in. I’ve actually been told in orientation that if they see 3-4 of us congregating, or even inquiring about a union....we would all be terminated.

[JadedCPN, BSN, RN]

4 minutes ago, RNTX31 said:

Yeah, this is Texas.

Say no more!

[FolksBtrippin, BSN, RN]

1 minute ago, RNTX31 said:

Yeah, this is Texas. And here, administrators would burn the hospital down before they would allow unionized nurses in. I’ve actually been told in orientation that if they see 3-4 of us congregating, or even inquiring about a union....we would all be terminated.

That's a shame. I live in one of the few pro-union states.

This is why people organize in secret.

Best of luck to you.

[peachtreednurse, RN]

I would be far more concerned if floating to an unfamiliar unit became a common occurrence. The unit director may be working in everyone's best interest, preparing staff so there is a confront level in covering for absence or other unforseen event

[jpicurn]

I think the areas are vastly different, and would not be comfortable as a peds RN going to post partum, or vice versa. I would also worry about cross contamination; as a new mom with a newborn, I wouldn't want a nurse that just took care of a pneumonia, RSV kid the day before....it just seems unsafe. Those would be my concerns, but as far as learning new skills and tasks, peds is great for that and it is fun and patients are usually doing well, so it makes it nice.

Good luck to you, I know it is difficult being cross trained to areas you don't love....our sister units were always peds, PICU, NICU, and I am not a fan of NICU at all....we would take "feeders and growers" mostly but it is still not my area of expertise and it was a little daunting, to say the least. ?