BROWN_KK

Some of the bigger centers I have worked in have gone to cluster areas of floating where you should be able to function and the patient population and load resemble your home unit. (i.e. monitored units, med-surg areas etc.....) This business of floating outside your region is ridiculous, dangerous and stressful. Indeed, stressful enough to drive nurses from their hospitals and from the field altogether.

Just curious what other nurses experiences were with floating. As an ICU nurse I am being told at my new place of employment that I must float essentially everywhere with as little as 30 min. orientation because it is a "lower level of care". Where is the respect for the organizational and assessment skills of the med-surg nurses who take care of these insane assignments of 10 or more patients? I simply do not possess these skills after 10+ years in an ICU. Why are they considered a "lower level of care"? And why do nurses endanger their licenses by taking assigments they are not really competent to handle? Where is JCAHO in all of this? I just do not get it!!!!!!!!!