Floating

No, not the kind you do in a pool, the kind you do when you are a nurse, in a hospital. Yes, indeed, every nurse's fear has happened to me! Twice in three months in fact! However, tonight is special because I have floated to the PICU (pediatric ICU), and in the past I floated to ICS and Infant Unit. Now, I have heard that the PICU charge nurses give us floating NICU nurses nice, BABY assignments. I do, indeed, have a baby. BUT, I also have a 13 year old. What do I do with a 13 year old?!! Seriously, I would be just as comfortable if they floated me to Mars so I could take care of some nice extra-terrestrials. Thank goodnes that this 13 year old comes with a very helpful family, which is making this whole experience tolerable (barely). I knew I was in trouble when I stopped by the Charge Nurse office to find out my assignment, and they immediately wanted to "explain" why they gave a NICU nurse this assignment. Well, this shift started off ridiculously busy, and I was wondering who had it out for me, but fortunately, things are much better now. As evidenced by the fact that I am blogging about it. Thank heavens for the fact that my dear friend Adrienne floated too, and has dug me out of several holes tonight. Even if she is on the total opposite side of the unit. Although I don't want to do this again anytime soon, I don't think I will be quite so scared next time. I've gained a bit of new appreciation for "the other side" and that's a good thing. I think I can safely say that I have (almost) survived the experience, and I still have a (little) smile on my face. Then again, it's almost time to draw AM labs. Let's see what kind of trouble that brings about.