New Job in hospital float pool - advice??

Hi!

I work full-time (90%) as a float CNA (we're called Hospital Assistants or HA's here). I'm not sure where you're from but here at our hospital in Seattle, we work on all the floors/units. Cardiac, stem cell transplant, oncology, med-surg, ER, etc. We're trained to work as a floor HA (where we help with ADLs for the entire unit), CO (aka constant observer - 1:1 sitter with 1-2 patients that are confused/fall risk), and SPM (suicide prevention monitor). As an SPM, we make sure the patient is safe at all times (no sharp objects in room, that they don't try to hurt themselves, etc).

I'm not sure if other hospitals in the area do the same thing we do but we also have a transport/lift team that does turns, floor transport, bed/chair transfers, etc. I've had the priviledge to be trained to do this as well (to spice things up a bit).

As I'm sure other posters will tell you, working as a float can be challenging for some. You must be able to orient yourself to the unit quickly so that you can find things in a hurry if you need to. Each of our units are pretty similar but the layout can be slightly different. Each unit definitely has its own routine (i.e. when they do VS's, showers, weights, etc) and you need to make sure you stay informed (by asking the charge RN) on what is expected of you while you are there.

Hope this helps! Congrats and good luck with the new job.