Refusing to float

Get fired. Employment paperwork has that catch all phrase "all assigned duties"

When you are asked to float to another unit, you only perform duties you are comfortable with and have knowledge of, you must make that explicitly clear to the nursing supervisor on paper and retain a copy for yourself; but as others have said you are not allowed to refuse a float assignment.

For example, if you are not telemetry certified you wouldn't be pushing lopressor or titrating cardizem.

I float but refuse certain assignments. I've done safe harbor once too.

everytime I have been pulled I ve had no say-so in regards to what pts I take. As soon as I get down there the pts are already split up and I am forced to take whatever which in my opinion isn't fair at all..

When I had to float to telemetry as a med/surg new grad, I sometimes rejected complicated cardiac patients. I'd literally stop report, locate the charge, and get the assignment changed to one I could safely handle. Sometimes that meant I got a cardiac-stable patient with c-diff, bad diarrhea, giant wounds with dressings that needed frequent changing and soft wrist restraints instead- but that's the way it goes.

If you refuse to float, you get fired and someone will replace you that is willing to float.

Also, the onus is on your manager to speak up for your floor. I worked on Oncology, low census but high acuity (which the house supervisors obviously didn't care about), and on weekends, one of our nurses would always get pulled to one of the busier medsurg floors. it was like we were just being used as coverage for other floors. it's not fair to that unit's nurses when other units know they are busier and don't staff appropriately to save on their budget and instead have an unofficial policy to pull from our floor, which was exactly what was happening. It was borrowing from Peter to pay for Paul, except Paul was constantly borrowing and never paying back.

Exactly!!

I float but refuse certain assignments. I've done safe harbor once too.

Safe Harbor is only utilized in the state of Texas.

Some places will give the nurse a choice of using paid time off but that also means that you drain your hours.

If your floor is the quasi float pool for the hospital and med/surg it means that they are complying 100% with good and safe staffing on your floor/area (if it includes labor and delivery they do not want to loose that income due to low popularity because of staffing...). But it means that otherwise the hospital does not have a contingency plan that is sufficient in dealing with the usual up and down in census and staffing. Heck - they might not even plan sufficiently for those times of high census and low staffing... which is questionable.

Also, if the hospital is not doing well financially, they will not establish a float pool or hire sufficient staff and instead float staff around which "safes" them money as float pool nurses usually get paid something extra for the inconvenience and willingness to float.

Bottom line is that you can and have to refuse unsafe assignments. What you guys can do is to talk to your manager and request that if one of you has to float that the supervisor/manager/ charge nurse calls that floor and reminds them that certain patients should not be assigned as you guys lack proper experience and/or training.

Other strategies are to be super nice when you float as floor will be more willing to give you a "good" assignment instead of dumping everybody on you.

Most hospitals will float nurses nowadays but your floor should not become the floating pool - perhaps you guys can keep a running list of how often how float and ask the manager how it compares to other floors and what strategies the hospital has in place to deal with staffing issues to get a better understanding of what is going on. Unfortunately, maternal/child is very popular and they know that they will find replacement staff with no problems, giving you less leverage.