Refused to float without orientation ...Terminated

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I recently accepted a travel assignment for an ICU position that turned out to be Trauma heavy (I have little experience in this area). I met with the director of ICU and we discussed my moving my contract to TCU. I was more than happy to do so. After completing my orientation of 2 shifts...I showed up ready to get to work. Approximately 3 hours into my shift I was told that I would be floating to a Med/Surg floor. I explained that I hadn't worked medsurg and hadn't been oriented. This was an 8 hour shift, so I told the charge nurse I didn't feel comfortable taking that assignment but would gladly go orient so I could be available for any future needs they may have. I also offered to float between the 2 floors and do admissions. I was told that I had to discuss it with the Nurse Manager who they got on the phone. I again explained that going from ICU to TCU then to Med/Surg without orientation in one week was too tall of an order for even the most seasoned of nurses. I was very respectful and even used the words "I mean no disrespect but no prudent nurse would take an assignment without having been oriented to a floor." I also asked him what he would do if someone asked him to work a floor he hadn't had experience with in 9 years without orientation. His reply.... "turn your pts over to the nurse following you and you wont be coming back here or to ICU."I mean When this all started I called my recruiter and did so a couple of times throughout the evening as this situation unfolded. The next day I received my termination notice and the nurse manager blatantly lied...he said that I refused to float and that HE offered me the chance to do admissions and I said NO!!!!I cannot describe how shocked I am. The night supervisor who was in attendance when this all took place knows the truth as I asked her directly if I could do admissions. My problem .... I find myself over a thousand miles from home with no job! I need some advice!

Specializes in FNP/FPMHNP-BC.

I work on a med/surg floor and can't wait to transfer to ICU and then float back to med/surg to do overtime. I honestly think that nurse was not thinking clear. She have 9 years of med/surg. How much more experience in med/surg do she need?

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Specializes in FNP/FPMHNP-BC.

Sfnrs. I feel bad for you. You really miss an opportunity to learn from your future teammates. I would of floated and ask a whole lot of questions that night. Med/surg the patients are stable which would of given you enough time to get oriented to the floor.

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Thanks for the replies... I spoke with HR from the hospital and they agreed with me... This was not a case of not wanting to float... I was willing to go just to orient first. I don't have 9 years of medsurg exp...not sure why someone came to that conclusion. My license is all I have....I am an extremely compassionate and huge on teamwork. Regardless - Administration at both my agency and the hospital are supporting me. This has restored my faith in doing the right thing. Again thanks for the input.PS...hospital offered me a FT position. :-)

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Capecod Mermaid (love mermaids btw) If you have ever worked ICU it is VERY different than medsurg....charting, knowing the layout, obtaining access to pyxis, availability and access to vitals, etc... the time management is completely different...no patient is going to feel comfortable having a nurse who can't find the most basic items to do their job. It is a valid question though :-).... At my last assignment I was oriented to several different units and happily floated to all of them. No unit is less work...just different in their approach. I absolutely enjoyed every experience I had at this hospital other than this particular encounter. The staff nurses were all top notch and every other supervisior and administrative person I came on contact with were completely professional, helpful, and friendly.

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Nurseaig..... with all due respect...med/Surg patients code as easily as ICU pts do. There have been many instances when Rapid Response is utilized on a medsurg floor or a code blue. We cannot assume that a patient will remain stable simpley because they don't start out in ICU. I do appreciate the question though and hope my response makes sense.

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Specializes in none.
Capecod Mermaid (love mermaids btw) If you have ever worked ICU it is VERY different than medsurg....charting, knowing the layout, obtaining access to pyxis, availability and access to vitals, etc... the time management is completely different...no patient is going to feel comfortable having a nurse who can't find the most basic items to do their job. It is a valid question though :-).... At my last assignment I was oriented to several different units and happily floated to all of them. No unit is less work...just different in their approach. I absolutely enjoyed every experience I had at this hospital other than this particular encounter. The staff nurses were all top notch and every other supervisior and administrative person I came on contact with were completely professional, helpful, and friendly.

Happy ending? I hope so, Sweet Soul. And the guy that caused you all this, may he get struck with emerods.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
Thanks for the replies... I spoke with HR from the hospital and they agreed with me... This was not a case of not wanting to float... I was willing to go just to orient first. I don't have 9 years of medsurg exp...not sure why someone came to that conclusion. My license is all I have....I am an extremely compassionate and huge on teamwork. Regardless - Administration at both my agency and the hospital are supporting me. This has restored my faith in doing the right thing. Again thanks for the input.PS...hospital offered me a FT position. :-)

I am glad they are supporting you. They offered you a position? good for you! They must know they were in the wrong. Good Luck!

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Specializes in Adult/Ped Emergency and Trauma.

Unfortunately, Many RNs from Med-Surg, LTC, and Swing Bed used to get pulled to Emergency Department at a small rural hospital I worked at as ER Coordinator during Grad School. I say Unfortunately because they were tore up about it.

I treated any nurse pulled to my floor as a NEW GRAD RN, they helped out with the basics, (ALL OF YOU KNOW THIS WAS A HUGE HELP)!!!!!!!!!! If I could just get them through the INITIAL SHOCK, and then CULTURE SHOCK, . . .

MOST ALL OF THEM LOVED IT!!!!! The charting was better, the patients were entertaining, the drunks were funny, and mostly we just needed help babysitting a tweeker, killed by 1:1s, and just needed BASIC RN ASSISTANCE, like IVs, Foleys, Medication administration, D/C Teaching, and so on, stuff you do everyday.

PLEASE KNOW I'M NOT BELITTLING OR COMPARING WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!

Though I have never broken an assignment yet, I HAVE COME UP ON SOME WILD ONES (LIKE NOW), and I just bite down and pray the stars and planets are in allignment, and the STATE BOARD OF NURSING won't bust down my door at 3am (LIKE A SWAT TEAM, and hall me off to a Dungeon (WHICH WOULD BEAT CURRENT ASSIGNMENT)!!!!!

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Specializes in Case Management.

My Best Advice would be pack your bags honey, Turn on the GPS, and push "Go Home!"

. . .and next time FLOAT.

Lots of love,

XOXO

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Dumb comments here - if you could work ICU, couldn't you work Med-Surg? Why are you traveling if you don't have experience?

Just random thoughts, probably not at all fair to you.

but I wouldn't let the inaccuracies in the manager's comments stand. Write out your version and make sure it gets into your record and into the record at the hospital where this happened.

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Specializes in They know this too!.

Hope you get home! Let us know!

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You and probably alot of other people are not going to like my response but here it goes... You screwed up. I was a traveller for years and I never had a choice of floating or not. It almost is never written into a contract that you will not float. You will be the first to float and you wuill float everytime over regular staff. It is unreasonable of you to request an orientation to every unit that you may work. You are given a brief orientation to the hospital and that generally is it. You have to be sure of your skills and be ready to walk into any situation they may throw at you. You are a hired gun and they expect more from you than from their own staff. As an ICU nurse you are more than capable of taking care of med surg patients, as for pyxis access, I am sure they would have given you access to the machine as well as shown you where the supplies are kept and been more than happy to answer any question you may have had. I do alot of agency work still and I go into areas blind only knowing I am supposed to work ICU and when I show up I am told they need me in the ER or the floors, I go. I do not know where anything is but I still manage to find out pretty quickly where things are.

You already had a major strike against you when they brought you in for ICU and you could not function there. You are lucky they offered to move you to another unit, then when you refused to float, that was the straw that broke the camals back. They cut their losses and got rid of you before anything else could happen. the hospital did not see you as a good worker, but rather as someone who was not as advertised.

Next time be flexible and remember ytou are there for them, they are not there for you.

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