By now many of you have read about Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s new policy requiring nursing staff to perform janitorial tasks.

Many points have been raised including the possibility of cross contamination (scrub a toilet, administer IV meds – what could go wrong?) There’s also the illogical decision to eliminate lower paid employees and reassign their tasks to higher paid employees (staff retention, anyone?) But probably the worst aspect of it, as NotRatched points out, that lately nursing seems to be a dumping ground for extra tasks and responsibilities.
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