[Sadie04]

Just curious - my fellow floats and I were working on our annual competancies yesterday and this topic came up. One of the nurses pointed out that most facilities pay their float staff an extra differential for floating. I work in a 600 bed teaching hospital; we float everywhere except NICU, L&D, and the OR, but don't get a differential. Does your facilty pay an extra diff to floats?

[nursemary9]

Hi

We call that In-House Registry at our hospital. Those staff get a higher pay but have no benefits. We are a large big-city teaching hospital.

When we full-time regular staff get floated, no extra pay.

Mary Amm

[fergus51]

No they don't. It was their choice to apply for float positions and they aren't doing any extra jobs the regular staff isn't, so I don't understand why they would expect to be paid more.

[tntrn]

During our last contract negotiations, we tried to get that, but our administration does not or cannot grasp the idea of a win/win situation. If nurses got a differential for floating, some would be willing to do so; some might even want to do it regularly. As it is, nobody likes to float, some call in sick at the last minute when they find out it's their turn, and nobody is happy. In addition, a nurse who is paid extra to float is far more likely to have the skills necessary to float to different areas (and function independently) and therefore be more help to the regular staff, be more sure of his or her own care, and assure that patients are getting proper care.

[mattsmom81]

We got paid according to how 'flexible' we were at my last facility. There was a graduated pay scale according to whether you were unit based prn (lowest prn scale)
or agreed to float to 4 areas (highest). Some facilities have graded payscales that take into account how many weekends and holidays the prns/floats will work too.

My float pool was critical care and we had our own dept director over the float pool.

Every place does it a little different in my area...but not too much different than other facilities or the nurses move on to greener pastures. Thats a perk to being in a bigger marketplace.

[CHATSDALE]

I have always believed that float team members do [and should] get extra pay....their value is that if someone is out on vacation/maternity leave etc that position is covered by a skilled worker...they even can cover for call-ins but usually they are for extended periods of time ... moving from floor to floor is not an easy thing to do...you have to have skills that other nurses might let get 'rusty'

[Nurse Ratched]

Our floats used to be called "in-house agency" and got a slightly higher rate in recognition of their ability to flex to almost any role (they floated everywhere in house.) Now we have no float pool and if people float to other units, there is no diff.

Last hospital I worked at there was a float diff of $2/hour. Not much but made floating suck a *little* less.

[fluffwad]

Our PRN nurses get paid more, and are expected to float anywhere. But everyone is required to float if necessary and those who refuse are terminated.

[Marie_LPN]

Ours do, i just found that out a couple of days ago.

[KRVRN]

No.

Sometimes one of the postpartum nurses will float down to work NICU with the level 2 babies. They had to get a bit of special training to do so but they no longer even offer that training, so the same people get floated and I'm not sure they all like it.

On the other hand, on the rare occasion that the NICU is over staffed and postpartum needs someone, a NICU nurse will get floated. Apparently we're all consiered trained to work up there just because we know about babies so we have to muck our way through the day and figure out where to go and what to do. ????! Luckily we only get floated about once a year. It really sucks having a ped want to do a circumcision and you have no idea what he needs or where to find it or how to assist.