I'm in my final semester (BSN) and getting ready to submit my first RN job applications in the next month. I'm still not completely sure what my passion in nursing is yet, and I was wondering if anyone would recommend strongly either for or against starting somewhere in a new grad float pool? I find this kind of scary because I worry that my orientation would suffer from inconsistency. On the other hand there is so much I still haven't seen based on my school clinicals and I don't want to be stuck on a unit I end up hating quickly after starting my career.

Has anyone here started their career as a float nurse, or have you had new grads float to your unit and what was your experience with that?

A friend of mine started in the float pool as a new grad. She had worked float pool as a CNA, and did her capstone with float pool, so that's the only reason they hired her. Her orientation was 6 months (the rest of us got about 2), and they had her on a short term assignment on one med-surg unit for her first three months after orientation.

Personally, the only way I would start in float pool as a new grad is if you are going to have that kind of support. Your first year you spend a lot of time just figuring out what the hell you're doing. Having the consistency of being on the same unit every shift, and getting to know the nurses you're working with can be a huge help.

I'm a new grad on a float team. I'm almost done with my orientation which is ten weeks long. I'm not sure how much I'm going to like it. Even during training it was hard to leave the group of people that I'd gotten to know to switch floors and train else where. I'm looking forward to seeing what the different floors hold and want to give it six months to see what I like and then try to get a position on one floor. Most of the new grads at this hospital are hired to the float team.