"I'm not floating."

Nurses General Nursing

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Yup. Unfortunately, sometimes in the facility we have need of nurses on other floors and hey, did you really want to be called off and lose more time? Trust me, the supervisor and I put thought into who gets floated - most importantly, if it's the person's turn to float, if they are a good fit for that particular specialty floor, do they have experience in that specialty, and so on.

I'm really tired of having my head bitten off when the next shift comes in and says "I'm not ******* floating" and then calls the supervisor to get the same explanation I give them, and they ALWAYS end up huffing off to their float floor with a monstrous attitude a half an hour after their shift started.

Is it like this everywhere? I feel like my unit's RNs have a bad reputation for floating because they make such a stink about it and it's so obvious they don't want to float. In the interest of full disclosure, I used to get really upset about floating as a new grad, but I made an attitude adjustment once I realized it sets a tone for your whole shift when you show up to your float floor with a miserable attitude.

If you are a non-union hospital, then there's a choice. You can float to the floor indicated, or go home without pay. Call in a per diem to work a floor that would need it.

If you are a union hospital, there may be some contract language about floating, being called off, and other nuances of staffing.

The only thing you can do is pre-warn the nurses that attitude adjustments will be made accordingly. The choice was given. Although the expectation is not that one arrives via float with a tiara and throwing glitter, it is expected that professional demanor is a must.

Or the option is that one IS sent home, and is on call off for a set period of time (ie: 3 months) and doesn't have the floating option. Sounds harsh, but honestly, if a nurse shows up having tantrums, why would that be good for the patient or the unit as a whole?

With all that being said, if you are floating a nurse to a completely unfamiliar territory, then it would make them take pause. However, you stated that great care is given to who floats where. A thought would be to have a sign up and have each nurse pick a couple of other units they would like to orient or re-orient to. Then make sure that this happens fot them. Finally, if floating is such an issue, then you may want to re look at your staffing plan, hire more per diem and floats, and adjust the policy accordingly.

have been floated as an agency nurse multiple times. Ive actually been floated three times with in the same shift. I can handle being floated but do not expect me to hurry up and rush to get to the next floor. Give me enough time to get things in order. So the routine is to take a deep sigh and start preparing to give report.

We used to have to float all over the hospital....the adult ICU's would be horrified when one of us NICU nurses would show up, just as horrified as us! We were more of a burden than help, that is for sure! At least now our hospital wiser up and we only float med-surg to med-surg, Adult ICU to adult and maternal child to maternal child, L/D is closed.

But when they come in and pitch a fit and then huff off, they are just setting themselves up for a bad day. They still do it when we have to go to the nursery...really? We keep a log of who floated last and your new date goes in. When it is your turn, it is your turn.

This is hilarious. I wonder how long it took before management implemented a change. (It doesnt make since for everybody to be scared, LOL!)

In my day they just fired people who refused. It's called insubordination. The uncooperative slugs were sent home and never heard from again. TPTB only had to do that once or twice before word got out and the rest of us shut up and went where we were told to go. No, we didn't like it, but the way things is the way things are. When you work for someone else, you generally have follow instructions, or else risk no longer working there. Choices- we all got em.

Here's the thing though, you cant fire every nurse in the organization. If banned together, you all should have been able to get the two nurses jobs back who were fired and also come up with some type of staffing compromise. This is why I honestly believe no nurse should just have one job. You can not side on the side of money when patient safety becomes a possible compromise. It is a privilege to take care of the public and our licensure is to ensure we uphold certain standards.

Haha! A miserable attitude sets the tone for anything in life!:angrybird13::angrybird1:

That's exactly what we do, it's not randomized. Even when I say, listen, the other nurses all floated in the past week and you haven't been floated for a month, I still get "I don't care, I'm not floating".

Why is that tolerated? It's never presented to us as an option. Unless someone else is eager to take our pull (some folks like visiting certain units and will volunteer when that unit has a pull) we go. Period.

I guess I must really be old school. It never dawns on me to say I won't take a patient or assignment or have a "hissy" when I see the assignment sheet. Not saying I am ever less than thrilled. Just wouldn't dawn on me to refuse unless it was an unsafe situation. What amazes me is the folks who get away with it time after time! Even the techs!

Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

we keep a log as to who went to which unit and when. This is an attempt to make it "fair", but in reality, it is part of the job description which the nurse receives on hire. If they refuse to cooperate it could be grounds for discipline. I think it helps if the receiving unit is careful to treat the floating nurse with respect, kindness and show appreciation!

We have to float :( It sucks, but i understand. I am SO SO appreciative and nice when a nurse come to our floor to float. I know they don't want to, but we appreciate it SO much!!! we always make sure we give them decent patients. we always asign them to a nurse to ask questions to, or someone to have as a resource. We always make sure they are assigned with a tech that will be kind to them as well.

We try our best to make it good experience for them. And vice versa. When i go to other unit, yes i HATE it buuut at the same time i feel like i am giving back to waht they gave us. You guys gave us a nurse yesterday, you can have me today. If you think if it like that then it really helps make it go better. Instead of being selfish and "im NOT floating."

We go by dates, the date that is furthest out gets to float. So if you haven't floated for a year, your date is probably up!

Years back when floating became an option for staffing it was used to solve emergent staffing issues, maybe I floated twice a year.

Nowadays, it is a daily, preplanned arrangement, that is disguised as necessity, in morning and afternoon "huddles". Licensed personnel are traded like playing cards.

Look around your town. Billboards and newspaper advertising announcing "All Of Our Nurses Are Joint Replacement Certified". Ummm, no, cause half of the staff on ortho tonight are floats or travelers.

Hey administrators, take your evidenced based practice and best patient outcomes graphs and charts and study floating and its effects on patients.

I remember one hospital that made it protocol to have the resource nurse check in with the float nurse every two hours (in person). The supervisor was required to walk you to the floor and make sure the assignment was balanced and appropriate. I appreciated that support system and felt better about floating then.

We gave them an inch and they took a mile. Support unions!

So, if you say; "I'm not floating", doesn't it imply something unless you are the charge nurse? "I'm not floating or else..." Or else what? You'll quit your job? Do nurses really have that much power when so many recent graduates are chomping at the bit for jobs?

Specializes in Public Health, L&D, NICU.

I will never like floating, but I can tolerate it if it is fair. But it never is! I was an L&D nurse for many years. At my last hospital, it was incredibly rare that anyone in any of the other maternal child units had any experience in L&D, so we rarely had people float to our unit. If we were short, then our call nurse had to stay over or come in early. None of the other maternal child units had call policies, either, so we were screwed two ways. We were more than capable of working in postpartum and well baby nursery, so we were sent there if we had low census. If we were busy, and it was your day to take call, you had to work more hours. If THEY were busy, we had to go there, and none of them had to stay over or come in early. We covered our crazy days and their crazy days. If we had several really busy days, then you could expect to be called in early, work your shift like a mad woman, stay late, and then next shift (when it's finally calm in L&D) get pulled to work in postpartum or well baby. Totally unfair. We did have a "pulled list" to keep up with whose turn it was, but, again, it was rarely ever fair.

I was the only L&D RN who could be floated to NICU, so I took way more than my fair share of floats. It got to the point that I would call ahead to see if I were going to be floated, and if so, I would call in. I didn't care for the NICU nurse manager (nor most of the NICU nurses), and the feeling was mutual. It drove me nuts to constantly be stuck working with them. And, of course, when pulled to NICU, well baby, or postpartum, you could count on being dumped all over in the worst way. NICU baby that wouldn't take in more than 2 mls po but required a 60 ml feed q 3? Give it to the float RN from L&D, because none of us want to sit there and push 1 ml down a feeding tube every 30 seconds after you've spent 20 minutes trying to get the kid to eat! Sounds like the perfect assignment (when combined with a couple of other 'difficult' babies) for the float nurse! This was my last assignment ever when pulled to NICU. 4 babies, one of which took 50 minutes to feed, and all 4 babies had to be fed in a 60 minute window. And, of course, no one ever offered to help, either, because I wasn't buddies with any of them.

I also was floated to NICU once and got an assignment of 4 babies and got to watch one of the NICU RNs act as unit secretary. She sat and read the paper and unlocked the door for parents while I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off. I told my manager, and theirs, that Hitler would be ice skating before that would ever happen again. Yes, they HAD to have a unit secretary, and the next time the secretary called in, instead of letting a NICU nurse act as secretary and floating an RN from L&D to be NICU nurse, then they could float me to NICU to be the secretary. Oddly enough, once this was established they never again needed a float RN due to the US being out. It's no fun to float someone unless you get to watch them struggle all day.

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