ICU nurses pulled to general floors

[medi]

CCRNMaui when I used to work in SICU I remember being pulled to a floor once or twice & it drove me absolutely nuts that I could see all of my patients all the time- so I was constantly walking the hall peeking in & checking patients every 15 minutes- in between trying to keep up with everything to do. Absolutely maddening experience! *LOL*

[mercynurse]

There are so many adv vs disadvantages to floating....

Like you, I feel out of my realm. If they have team nursing or functional nursing you can offer to do the things you're familiar with...passing meds, doing treatments, etc. This cuts down on the amount of charting you have to do
Got pulled to post partum once.... volunteered to take the c-sec, I know surg pts...but all were on IVs with no pumps,,,ran around all night trying to get my gtts right!! At least they had foleys , incisions, things I knew how to deal with!!
I also worked in a closed unit...we never got pulled, but on the other hand, we couldn't pull anyone either....had to cover ourselves, so we had mandatory call time. Not the ideal solution, but it proevents you from being pulled to a unit you feel uncomfortable with.

There are solutions,you just have to find those that work for your facility.

mercynurse

[ceil blu rn]

We are a self contained critical care unit. We may have to work a little more over time, but we cover one another. We also have an on call 8 hour manditory sign up sheet. We sign up or we are signed up. It works out ok.

[Anonymous]

Please don't take this wrong. I feel for ICU nurses who get floated to M/S. They just are not used to working with so many patients, anymore than I could get used to having only 2 patients. We just have different priorities formed in our brains. I know ICU nurses work hard and are intelligent good nurses they just work and think differently..

There is nothing wrong with that. I am scared to death of vents..


WR,,, three commas for Becca

[Alexis14]

You do not understand the role of the ICU nurse. I've worked both in General Peds and PICU. They are different worlds. Once indoctrinated into the PICU there was no going back. Everything is different. Right now I'm in peds LTC, and that's different too. I'm going back to my general peds experience, and the Dr and FNP are not liking it. I'm used to doing things on my own. You have to think quick in ICU. This was my choice, but on the whole I don't think ICU nurses should be pulled to work on M/S floors. <font face="Comic Sans MS">Text</font><font color="green">Text</font> <span style="background-color:white">Text</span>

[edrn4hire]

I used to work ICU, now work ER. Back in those days, we would "pull" a floor nurse to take our STABLE pts., you know, those pts. who should have been on the tele floor, but their MD wanted them in the ICU instead. Great nurses, loved them!! We would also be pulled to the tele floor, those nurses gave us the 'easy' patients, or we would help out passing the meds, starting IV's, helping with baths, etc. After all these years in the ER, I have learned to appreciate each speciality, M/S, ICU, Peds, etc. Could I do what those nurses do? No way!! Why should a speciality nurse be floated to another unit? Would an OB/GYN accept being floated to the ICU? Would a cardiologist deliver a baby? Why should a speciality nurse?

[Anonymous]

So true...We LOAO once when our ortho guy said he heard the page..."Any MD to the OR stat". And he ran from PACU back into the OR.. They were "in the process" of a C-section and a foot dropped out of the vagina.. The OR nurse ask the ortho guy what do you think..He said "I think it's a foot"...LOLLLL


WR,,, three commas for Becca

[JeannieTaylor]

Is there an organization for RN's to get concerns turned into realities? If some of these ideas didn't turn into law, at the very least it could be a 'look up' list of hospitals that do XYZ instead of the miserable ABC. A black list of sorts but more importantly, a list of good hospitals to work at for RN's (I can't help myself, my father is a lawyer so my head goes in that direction).

I see a lot of caring good people who think they don't have a voice. What is the figure? 2,000,000 Registered Nurses in the US!!! That's a lot of people!

Jeannie

[Anonymous]

You might not like this post so ignore if you want to..

If you find two nurses who agree the sky is blue let me know.

Nurses are not notoriously pack animals. Usually all for one and one for one..JMHO


WR,,, three commas for Becca

[1mg.epi]

Boy that's the truth. To get solidarity in nursing would be a good trick. You can have ten nurses mad about something that happened in the unit. But you will only find two who will do something about it. The rest do not want to make waves.

Then you have one or two that make waves, but it is usually against other nurses, NOT management.

to get back on topic, I have never worked on the floor. I think most nurses that work the floor are very special people. I think after one day I would hang myself.