I am not sure if I am really working outside my scope of practice, or just my comfort zone. I have worked on multiple different floors and have been pulled to multiple others. I do not mind being pulled, sometimes it is a nice changenof pace, but, where I am being pulled to now is different. I am now a labor nurse and have found myself being pulled to a higher level of care (Level 3 NICU). I am really not comfortable with this pull, I do not feel that I have the advanced training needed to adequately care for these infants. If they are too sick to be under my care on the floor, then shouldn't they be too sick to be under my care in a NICU? To make matters worse, the parents of these babies are not told that a labor nurse is caring for their infant, so you look ignorant when parents ask you about the well being of their baby and you have no idea. If it were my child in the NICU I would be very angry that a basically 'untrained' nurse is caring for my baby.
If something were to happen to an infant under my care (in my control or not), would I be considered outside my scope of practice to where my facility can say that they never told me I could work in there and risk my license?
So am I just belly aching, or is this a valid worry? Any thoughts are appreciated.