NOT an ICU nurse but assigned by SUP

[darren_callcareer18]

Hello! I am a med/ surg tele nurse and was just hired last December 2018 in this floor. So, the assigned house supervisor called in and so our ICU nurse became the house supervisor for this night. When I came to get reports I was told that I will be in ICU. There is only 1 patient there and she is being treated for CHF exacerbation. She pretty much stable and with only occasional VPC's but she has afib and LBBB all the time on the monitor.

So I am not sure if I should have declined the assignment since I am not an ICU nurse. I started to question my assignment (in my head) when I went to med/ surg floor to say hi to my fellow nurses. But I felt they are KINDA indifferent and asked me right away " You are not an ICU nurse right?" "The patient was not downgraded from ICU why are you there?". I just told them well I just accepted the assignment otherwise I might be put on call shift. I appreciate them but I don't know if I did wrong accepting the assignment.

A little background about me: I have a nursing experience as a PICU nurse (2 years) not in USA tho. But here in USA I worked in skilled nursing fulltime and per diem NICU nurse.

[beesnest]

With your PICU experience, I think you’d take great care of that patient, because you had the ICU RN to call about questions. The lack of orientation to the floor is concerning, but they ought to forgive you any errors, so long as the patient is well cared for.

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

It sounds like you had one patient. You had PICU ICU experience (yes, I know it's different, but at least you had some ICU behind you). You were able to handle the monitor, any drips and other meds, and everything turned out OK, right?

Not ideal, but you made it.

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

3 hours ago, beesnest said:

With your PICU experience, I think you’d take great care of that patient, because you had the ICU RN to call about questions. The lack of orientation to the floor is concerning, but they ought to forgive you any errors, so long as the patient is well cared for.

Forgive any errors? Dream on. They'd probably go after her license for accepting an assignment for which she knew she was unqualified.

[beesnest]

Probably. I was thinking more if the paperwork wasn’t filled out right.