Psych nurses being forced to float to med surg and tele?

Whispera, MSN, RN · Nov 18, 2015

That is ridiculous! Back in the day, I was floated to many units, but I was supportive, a sitter, or only took one patient (with lots of help) who happened to be a psych person who also had a medical issue.

They will give us 3-4 days of orientation and expect us to take a full patient load.

bebbercorn · Nov 19, 2015

No, no, no... It is a completely different specialty and a more thorough orientation would be warranted. Take a survey of med-surg nurses and ask how long they'd want before floating to psych?

hawaiicarl, BSN, RN · Nov 19, 2015

I remember back in nursing school they laid off the Med-Surg instructor, because she was low on seniority. Then they made the 20 year Psych instructor take the rotation .... it was disastrous. She spent the summer getting oriented by the floor nurses, but did not catch on well. She didn't even know how to give an IM! Thank God the floor nurses took pity on us, and took us under their wing. It was entertaining though, I would make some random stuff up, and tell her I read it in a nursing article. She would totally fall for it. I am probably going to Hell for that, but at least all my friends will be there. Who's packing the sammiches?

Cheers

Whispera, MSN, RN · Nov 19, 2015

Hmmm...a psych nurse who doesn't know how to give an IM? I suspect that instructor was just a poor clinical nurse...no matter where she worked...

wayemika · Nov 19, 2015

they tried to do this at my hospital but found out they can only pull from nurses with med/surg or ICU experience. which in turn is only 3 of us. But i often work up to 8 shifts a month on the tele/cardiac floor. its not safe to put psych nurses on the floor who dont have any experience with those areas

OnlinePersona, LPN · Nov 19, 2015

They actually do that at my hospital because theres tons of people who quit on them or call outs

imintrouble, BSN, RN · Nov 19, 2015

It's a new trend. RN means I can do any RN job in the hospital. At least where I work. We're shuffled wherever there's a hole that needs filled.

Hiring and training nurses for units that are understaffed is just not cost effective. Especially when you have nurses who are being sent home due to low census.

The only way it will stop is if every nurse who is not qualified says "NO". You'll be threatened with your job, but if we'd just stick together it would stop.

NurseSpeedy, ADN, LPN, RN · Nov 19, 2015

No, no, no... It is a completely different specialty and a more thorough orientation would be warranted. Take a survey of med-surg nurses and ask how long they'd want before floating to psych?

I had to float to psych when I worked in acute care and I hated it. I was okay with passing meds but when they started telling me that I had to lead med group (for an involuntary population that many opposed to their meds to begin with) and document on the patients for their psychiatric conditionseach shift, I felt inadequately trained, especially since there was no orientation.

Floating either specialty around without adequate recent experience and training should not be acceptable. Quality of care is diminished and in some cases unsafe.

MadelaineT · Nov 19, 2015

I agree with imintrouble. Nurses need to stand up and say no to being bullied and bulldozed into taking on responsibilities outside their skills set and training. There is power in numbers. Why don't you all get together and refuse the assignment because you're not properly, adequately oriented to med-surg and cannot possibly deliver safe, quality patient care? Go to the ANA website to read about floating and quote from it. Remember, if something happens to one of the patients in your care, it's all on you. And if your hospital is anything like mine, when you float to med-surg units, you'll be given the heaviest load.

DeeAngel · Nov 19, 2015

They will try to pull any warm body they can. They used to try to pull me to the telemetry unit until I would remind them I am not a cardiac trained nurse, don't have cardiac experience and can interpret only basic rhythms. Then again if you refuse you run the risk of being replaced. I found my own solution, I left nursing.

emmy27 · Nov 20, 2015

I remember back in nursing school they laid off the Med-Surg instructor, because she was low on seniority. Then they made the 20 year Psych instructor take the rotation .... it was disastrous. She spent the summer getting oriented by the floor nurses, but did not catch on well. She didn't even know how to give an IM! Thank God the floor nurses took pity on us, and took us under their wing. It was entertaining though, I would make some random stuff up, and tell her I read it in a nursing article. She would totally fall for it. I am probably going to Hell for that, but at least all my friends will be there. Who's packing the sammiches?
Cheers

Our Adult Health II clinical rotation we had an instructor who had done 20 years in the OR and not set foot on a med/surg floor since nursing school, and she didn't have a clue. She gave us all kinds of wrong information, couldn't prioritize on multiple patients to save her life, and gave me and several other good students our only ever "needs revision" evals over petty nonsense in what, in retrospect, I suspect was an attempt to cover her own embarrassment at not knowing what the hell she was doing.

Thankfully we were on the floor I actually worked as a tech, and my RN coworkers were able to kindly point us in the right direction when she was really out of line.

Her contract was not renewed the following year. I'm not sure what they were thinking hiring someone to teach a specialty they've never practiced in the first place, though. I guess it's because so many people don't think of m/s as a "specialty."

rynzoRN · Nov 20, 2015

I wouldn't mind but I would expect more than 3-4 days of training. I work in a Gero/Med Psych unit so I do some medical stuff but definitely not as much as they do on med/surg/tele floors.