Question about pulling to other units

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Just have a question about how things are done in other places. I've worked in several ICUs throughout my state. I am currently working in a CV surgery ICU.

My unit is in a lot of upheaval at this time over being forced to work our shifts on a different floor, or "pulling" (everyone has a different term, lol). The trouble in my place is that nurses can only be pulled to "sister units". Sounds like a good thing on the surface. My sister units are the other ICUs and the CV telemetry unit. CVTL used to be almost exclusively for CV surgery patients. However, my hospital opened 4 new beds for overflow patients. In addition, our CV surgery volume has decreased. Now CVTL has 3-4 surgery patients at any time with mostly regular telemetry patients, medical, and even in-patient hospice patients.

My hospital cannot keep it staffed because they keep CVTL without a CNA most nights. So they overstaffed my CV ICU to be able to pull us to work telemetry when they need to empty out the ER. That had been frustrating enough, but now that our CV ICU patient census is increasing, we need all our nurses in the ICU. The other ICU nurses can't go to CVTL because it's not their sister unit. So they are pulling an ICU nurse into CV ICU and sending us to work telemetry. Everyone is furious.

Their latest reason for doing it is that "all hospitals do this." In my experience, pulling is normal. Being replaced is not. Certainly not an every shift occurrence. So, for all of you out there, I would like to know if you've experience a similar situation. Does this sound typical? Or is some indignation a reasonable response?

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