Kaplan and Lacharity seem to answer these questions differently..?

[blondie1887]

For floating nurses, kaplan said to give them the same patient you would give to an LPN (with expected outcomes and predictable procedures), but Lacharity says to give patients based on where the nurse works normally. This is going to confuse me when it comes to NCLEX.

[RN403, BSN, RN]

I received conflicting information on how to approach these questions as well. The "technique" I used was to treat them like a brand new nurse. Give them the most stable/basic patient. Once I thought I had my answer I went back to the question and took another look at where this nurse was coming from and decided if there was a more appropriate yet stable patient for this nurse. If not, then I just went with my original answer.

Think: "Does this patient need specialized care specific to this unit?" If so, it is probably not the correct assignment for this floating nurse.

[rob4546, ADN, BSN, MSN]

Think: "Does this patient need specialized care specific to this unit?" If so, it is probably not the correct assignment for this floating nurse.

I think this is the key. Overall I believe that both Lacharity and Kaplan are the same, just discusses them differently. Look closely at the questions, they may not be that similar.

for the most part if a nurse from surgical center floated to the oncology floor they would be assigned to a patient needing TPN not a patient needing chemotherapy. Providing TPN is a skill that all nurses should know, but providing chemotherapy is specific to the unit.

[RunBabyRN]

I would follow Kaplan's guidance on this one, based on the questions I remember from the NCLEX. I had a few questions regarding which patient you'd assign to a floating nurse. Sure, if you have an OB nurse floating and you have a patient who just had a hysterectomy, assign that, but chances are you have a guy in renal failure and a woman with a hip fracture, one who had a stroke, and other such cases, so you need to be able to pick out the most stable based on what info is provided and go from there. The NCLEX won't give you the luxury of having a patient within the nurse's specialty. Too obvious.