I'm adult tele. Got floated to peds tonight because they were short and "a nurse is a nurse." I had a 3 year old on maintenance fluids and spent half the shift triple-checking weight-based everything because I genuinely don't know what normal looks like for a toddler. Their nurses were kind and helped me constantly, but I could tell they were drowning too and I was one more person to babysit.
I kept thinking, if this kid goes south I won't even recognize it in time. That's not me being dramatic, that's just true. I drove home shaking.
Is it even worth refusing a float like that? I don't know if I'd have a leg to stand on or if I'd just get written up. Has anyone actually refused and had it go okay?
Posted anonymously. Your name is never shown.
Post reply"A nurse is a nurse" needs to be retired. Nobody would send a cardiologist to cover peds and call it fine, but somehow we're interchangeable parts. Then when something goes wrong it's your license on the line and not the staffing office's.
Pull up your hospital's float policy before next time. A lot of them say floats only go to units where you've completed competencies, and peds usually needs its own. If yours does, you can point to the policy in the moment, and you're not just someone who doesn't want to go. Also look up whether your state has safe harbor or something like it. Find out on a calm day and not at 1900 while the sup is staring at you.
Did anyone actually go over anything with you when you got there? Or was it just here's your kid, good luck?
Driving home shaking is so real. I got sent to postpartum once as a med-surg nurse and replayed every assessment in my head for two days straight.
I refused a NICU float a couple years ago. I didn't say no and walk away. I told the house sup I wasn't competent to take a primary assignment but would gladly go help with whatever was within my scope. She was annoyed, but she sent me to cover breaks on another adult unit and moved one of their people over instead. No write-up. How you frame it matters a lot.
I'm going to push back a little. At a lot of places a flat refusal can get treated as abandonment or insubordination, especially if you're already on shift. I think the smarter move is usually to accept the assignment and file an assignment despite objection form, if your hospital or union has one. That gets the unsafe situation on paper without putting your job on the line.