contingent

When I spoke with our nursing administrator he told us that we can listen to lung sounds and bowel sounds on anybody. He said everything that we weren't qualified to do would have to be taken care of by a nurse from that floor. My concern was that if I accept this assignment even though another nurse is watching the monitor for me what happens if something happens to this patient? There's a lot of things I'm, as a med/surg nurse, not qualified to do on that floor. Then if we go to court am I ultimately responsible for that patient? If I would loose my job over refusing to go to a different unit I think I would have to talk to a lawyer about that!! I would like a lawyer to tell me that if I refuse to go to a different unit due to being not qualified I can not be fired. Am I being to unrealistic???? I want to know who is suppose to be standing up for the nurses?? There are so many policies in place to protect the patient, but what about the nurses?? Thanks Angie for your response.

Does anybody know the legal remifications of being pulled to a specialty unit ex: stepdown, ER, telemetry, cardiac support, if you are a med/surg nurse? I have researched this and I haven't been able to come up with much. I contacted risk management about being pulled to these floors and she pretty much told me that it's up to the nursing administrator. If she says I have to go, I have to go. We can be suspended for 3 days if we refuse to go. I wanted to know if something were to happen and I had to go to court, first, would I loose my liscense, and second how could I explain that I was taking care of patients and was not qualified to? Is there anything legal out there I can take to work to show them that we can not be pulled to these units? Thanks! Contingent