Approaches of Nursing Leaders and Managers Concerning Floating

Floating
Name
Institution
Floating
Floating is one of the key issues affecting nursing practice. It refers to a resource sharing practice that is employed by healthcare organizations to address staffing shortages (O'Connor & Dugan, 2017). When necessary, float nurses are sent on duty to help when there is unusually heavy workload or in the case a member of nursing personnel is absent. Float nurses, therefore, carry out their assignments on an ad hoc basis. They play an instrumental role in addressing staffing fluctuating needs. According to Snavely (2016), insufficient nursing graduates, aging baby boomers, increasing chronic care needs, and the aging population point to looming shortage of nurses in the U.S. In this sense floating emerges as a way in which some of nursing staffing problems can be addressed. However, while floating may solve some nursing staffing problems, it affects the ability of the float nurse to deliver care. As informed by O'Connor and Dugan (2017), when nurses are assigned tasks on other units where the needs of the patients are different, it can evoke frustration, anxiety, and stress. This may put patients as well as healthcare institutions at risk. Therefore, on one hand, the quality of care and patient safety can be negatively impacted by floating. This paper addresses the issue of floating and how nursing leadership can address the challenges that come with it.
Nurses and nurse leaders ought to demonstrate professional standards of practice when trying to address the issue of floating. Professional standards of practice require nurses to gather all necessary information pertaining to a situation, analyze it and make a decision based on the information and theory (Maloney, 2016). In this case, nurses ought to acknowledge their limitations and strengths when it comes to floating. It is important to note that nurses have the right to reject or accept assignments that may put them or at serious risk (O'Connor & Dugan, 2017). In this case, therefore, professional standards dictate that nurses ought to take up a floating assignment only if it is within their strengths and it does not put them or patients at the risk of harm. Accepting assignments within their level of competence allows the nurse to give quality care. It also reduces the risk of harm to both the patient and the nurse. Nurses can also advocate for improvement if the floating assignments are beyond their competence. They can also report unsafe practice to relevant personnel. Therefore, while the issue of floating can be problematic to the nurse, professional standards of practice can provide guidance on what to do when faced with related issues.
Nursing leaders and nursing managers have differing roles when it comes to floating. They also take varied approaches in addressing the problem. In this case, it is important to recognize that while nursing managers are task-oriented, nursing leaders tend to focus on formulating and upholding standards. Therefore, nursing managers seek to ensure that the staffing requirements are fulfilled and workloads are completed while nursing leaders oversee quality measures and related activities. They thus take different approaches to ensure that floating promotes patient quality of care and ...