Floats are "REAL" nurses too!!!

[NewWayofLife]

so, i've been working the float pool at my hospital for almost a year and a half now, and to be honest, i've really enjoyed it. floating has it's benefits:

a- experience in many different areas (in my case, tele, icu, er, maternity, medical and surgical floors)

b- not getting wrapped up in the "politics" most of the time- you go in, do your job for 8-12 hours, and go home.

c- 99% of the time, people are happy to see you. if not for you, they know they'd be working short this shift. imagine walking in most nights to "yay, we've got gwen tonight!"

despite these benefits, i've recently accepted a transfer to one of our tele floors that was truly in need of staff. i'm just surprised by the reaction i've gotten from a lot of co-workers. "oh, you've finally decided to take a real job!" "it's about time you decided what you want to be when you grow up" etc. do people really thinking floating is only what you do until something "better" comes along?

float pool (or nursing resource department, as my manager was trying to get us renamed) is a real nursing job! i've worked 32 scheduled hours a week, with benefits, for well over a year. i've been oriented to every specialty in the hospital, (except or/pacu) and required to complete all the appropriate education requirements (telemetry and critical care courses, acls, etc) we have certain limitations, ie: in my facility we do post-partum or well baby nursery, but not l&d- that's something better left to those who do it on a regular basis. though i jokingly refer to myself as a "jack of all trades, master of none", the truth is, floating is an art to master in and of itself, and though i'm always learning something new on each floor, i'm also doing a lot of teaching, too!

when the er nurse has a question how to enter floor orders on her patient holding for a bed (the er and floor lab entry systems are different), or needs to know if the patient can go to a certain floor with this drip, i can answer it. i've worked that floor.

when the tele floor gets an admit with a hip fx, needing bucks traction, but none of their night nurses have ortho experience, i can show them all how to apply it.

when the surgical floor patient goes into an arrhythmia, and the ekg misreads the frequent pac's as an a-fib, i can help her to understand what she's looking at on the ekg before she calls the doctor.

i'm not trying to say i've learned everything there is to know about every type of nursing- anyone who thinks they have nothing left to learn is deceiving themselves. but there is an art to being able to hit the ground running on a different floor each night, remembering the subtle differences in policies and procedures from one place to another, even knowing which floors stock the earplugs when a patient can't sleep at 3am!

so the next time you have a "float" on your floor, try not to think of us as "just" someone "filling in" for a real nurse, but a valuable resource, and a specialty of our own!

thanks for letting me vent!

[nrsang97, BSN, RN]

I am sorry your co workers had that reaction. Sounds like they are lucky to have you and don't realize it. :icon_hug:

[babydoll99_99]

I wholeheartedly agree with you. I work Postpartum and have shown many floats how to do the pesky fundal check and in return when I had a dialysis pt a float nurse sat with me for a half hour trying to figure out all the orders and how to put them in correctly. I can guess how hard it is to work different areas all the time and to be competent at all of them. If you put me on a tele or med/surg floor tomorrow I would sink...lol. Nursing has many niches and some of us have become so specialized that we can't imagine someone who doesn't want to be specialized and just work one area. I'm glad you found a job you are going to enjoy, but your last one was far from not real.

[NewWayofLife]

i am sorry your co workers had that reaction. sounds like they are lucky to have you and don't realize it. :icon_hug:

i don't mean to sound too down on my co-workers, because i have a lot of great ones! they are, like i said, nearly always very grateful for my help, and it's nice to feel like i have friends throughout the hospital. i just think a lot of people don't realize exactly what it is that floats do!

[rn-on-the-move]

God Bless the float nurse!! I floated for 5 yeras in a level 1 trauma center/ regionaly burn center/ level 3 NICU and like you said had to function independently in all areas. I had the fortunate experience of working with great people who appreciated the well educated float nurse. But just as in any area in an profession there are the good employees and the bad. We've had those floats who dissapear every time a code happens or actually think they're gonna float so they wont have a boss "watching over their shoulder" and they have given the rest of us a bad name.

And we've had that tele nurse who ******* about the ED being a joke then pratically cried whenever she/he got pulled to the ED and who's the 1st person they ask for help the float nurse.

I think that some people only see what's in front of them and never try to understand how a facility functions on a whole. And no faciltiy can function without it's floats!

[RNperdiem, RN]

I think there is a bit of jealousy going on. .

You are also an experienced nurse who is never in charge, does not do precepting, has no committee responsibilities.

When I left my full time job and went float pool in the hospital, I think I was regarded differently, so I do know what you mean.

[SmilingBluEyes]

Thank you for the reminder; float nurses are very valuable resource. I wish you the best in your new job. You are right; floats are lifesavers!

[oramar]

Float nurses get different reactions from different people. Some are so glad you are there they are ready to get down and kiss your feet. Others think you don't know what is going on and will use that as a premise to abuse you or treat you like you are stupid. When I floated once I actually caught a floor nurse sneaking into the conference room and altering the staffing asignment to transfer one of her bad patients to me. The head nurse had made out the asignment and expected us to follow it, it was not negotiable or changable. This person would have never tried that with someone from her unit. Also you can find yourself with all the isolation patients on the floor or all the completes. But I really like floating when I did it and like you I frequently would serve as a resource.

[NeoNurseTX, RN]

I don't see how you guys do it! I'd be perpetually lost!

[rn-on-the-move]

I think there is a bit of jealousy going on. .

You are also an experienced nurse who is never in charge, does not do precepting, has no committee responsibilities.

When I left my full time job and went float pool in the hospital, I think I was regarded differently, so I do know what you mean.

That must be a rule in your hospital. As a float I've been in charge and yeah I've precepted not only float nusres but staff nurses to NICU/Peds/ED as well - AND in my hospital floats sit on numerous committees. Plus I've been in on research studies and grant submissions.

[mcs1505]

I'm still a student but I love being paired up with the float nurses because, like you said, they have experience in different areas. I always get a lot of extra information from them.

[perfectbluebuildings, BSN, RN]

I love the float nurses at our hospital. They are always smart and helpful, and like you said, know the ins and outs of every unit in the hospital.