[ER/ICU/OP Supervisor]

At our facility if there is not an ICU patient the nurse may have to float to the medical/surgical unit. I was wondering if there is anyone who has a policy on this. The charge nurse wants to give that ICU floating nurse up to 7 patients, but the catch is if ICU gets an admit that nurse has to then go to ICU and care for that patient and the charge nurse takes over her patients. I as a supervisor would love to see a policy. I believe that the ICU nurse should either be the Charge Nurse or only have to take 4 patients. HELPPPPPPPPPPP

[1mg.epi]

In our CCU/CVICU if we float a nurse to an other unit, before we do that we will call and see if some one who is not working will take call for $2.00 an hour. This way the nurse does not get pulled back to the unit and the floor is not put in a bind. If an CCU patient comes in we call the in the call nurse.
By the way our ICU, CCU only takes 3 patients and the CVICU only takes one patient if within 18 hours and only 2 patients if greater than 18 hours post op, or what clinical situation allows.

[JASRN]

I work in a union facilty that has addressed the floating issue thru our contract. Critical care ares are a closed unit. This means that we can not be floated to other areas. Our hospital has 2 ICU's. One is surgical (open hearts) and the other is cardiac (and everything else!) Rn's are floated to the other unit on a basis of rotation. We keep a book on the unit and when you are floated you sign your name and the date. This way everyone takes turns. We do float to other areas only if they ask us and we agree. Usually to the ER or tele floors. It sure beats using up all your vacation time to cover low census days. Other areas in the unit that are considered closed are OB and ER. Teles only float to tele areas. My suggestion is that you need to work with the union and hospital for the sake of patients and nurses to come up with something that works for the parties involved. While most people don't like to float this option has helped. We also have a critical care float pool that floats between both units. These people are reg staff are paid $4/hr more because they like to float and they go between both units to cover the staffing needs. Hope this helps.