Float nurse protocol in medical office

The paper ” Float Nurse Protocol in Medical Office” is an excellent example of an assignment on nursing.  Pozgar and Santucci 2007, p. 202, describe a float nurse as “ a health-care professional who rotates from unit to unit based on staffing needs”. A group of float nurses or a pod of float nurses has become the means of meeting the shortage of nurses and reducing the strain on nursing. It is in this aspect that float nurses are looked upon as a benefit in the nursing arena. However float nurses can also be a liability, particularly when they function in unfamiliar areas of nursing without adequate support and guidance (Pozgar & Santucci, 2007). It is the liability that float nurses pose that has led to opposition to the use of float nursing pods by some nursing professionals. This opposition is unjustified when we take into consideration the consequences of doing away with the practice of float nurses particularly in these times of shortage of nurses (Kane-Urabazzo, 2006). The need to retain the practice of float nurses and float nursing pods to augment nursing means that their strengths be utilized while minimizing the liabilities they pose. Generally, the liabilities from float nurses arise from their being not sure of the technical aspects of nursing in the new environment of their posting and the lack of support they perceive they will receive in this new environment (Kidner, 1999). In essence, the trepidation and lack of confidence of the float nurses and float nursing pod to function in new working environments is a major contributory factor to their liabilities. To remove this they need to know what skills to utilize and how to utilize them in new environments. In other words, float nurses become more efficient when there is guideline or protocol for them to follow and they are made to understand this in their functions in the new environment. This makes the development of guidelines and protocols for float nurses in the different environments of their functioning important to derive the benefits from the concept of float nurses.  Literary References
Kane-Urabazzo, C. (2006). Said another way. Our obligation to float. Nursing Forum, 41(2), 95-101.
Kidner, M. C. (1999). How to keep float nurses from sinking. RN, 62(9), 35-37.
Pozgar, G. D. & Santucci, N. M. (2007). Legal Aspects of Health Care Administration. Tenth Edition. Massachusetts: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
RN; Sep99, Vol. 62 Issue 9, p35-37,