ICU floating to ED

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At my hospital ICU RNs are required to float to ED if they are short. The problem is mant times we are floated and medsurg tele nurses come to ICU to take our place. There have bewn times when it is only one or 2 icu nurses and multiple mst rns who have not been traind to handle drips or certain types of patients. I am just wobdering if this is the norm or of this is a potential patient safey issue?

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Specializes in Frontline stuff.

No, not the norm, and sounds dangerous for all involved.

8
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Specializes in ICU, trauma, neuro.

Our union contract prohibits this practice. I would decline this assignment as "unsafe". This illustrates why almost all hospitals would benefit from a union it's not just about pay and benefits, but also patient safety.

4
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We have union but the hospital was very stubborn during negotiations :(. Thank you for the replies, we are having a meeting about this next week, just wanted to see peoples opinions about this.

1
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Specializes in Varied.

Interested to know what happens with this. I don't think this is safe practice.

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On 7/10/2019 at 1:26 PM, 32539RN said:

I am just wobdering if this is the norm or of this is a potential patient safey issue?

It doesn't matter if it is the norm; it is a patient safety issue.

There are a lot of staffing-related patient safety issues that are the norm.

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