Any nurses here who work as a float nurse in a clinic/clinics?

VinoLover2030 · Oct 2, 2012

Personally if you have no experience with those, I would take it. Im a hospital RN and I float to critical care, step down and med surg. I realize that I have no home unit, I may have different patients daily and get admissions but I dont care. I love to break out and see different things everytime I come to work. I make a bit more and it is worth it to me, not just for the experience of it all but that I dont get too bored. I made friends with most folks on the floors I frequent so I am not just some strange nurse who just happens to show up. I have friends on all floors and if I dont then I make some. Makes it all the easier when you do float( to ask for help etc) I carry a notebook with every floors specific instructions on what they require(ie ICU does hourly rounding while Neuro step down is every 2 hours). I am full time. I dont get canceled often. I like it

So try it you might just like it.I would go where you would get the most variety

LTCNS, LPN · Oct 2, 2012

Thank you SShannon. Even though the pay is significantly less than what I'm used to, it sounds like something I would like. Not to mention I REALLY need a job right now so I hope it's offered to me. In all honesty I have been wanting to go in a different direction for a long time now, and most LPNs I know who work in clinics love it. I need a change badly.

I love working with the elderly and have been in LTC my entire nursing career, but it has gotten so that it is dangerous to work in LTC homes because of nurse to patient ratios and having to cut corners so patient care suffers, not to mention management not caring about staff burn out and staff health or well-being. It's all about the bottom line these days.

lindseylpn · Oct 2, 2012

I've worked as "kind of" a float nurse before and for me it was not an enjoyable experience. I worked for a large practice and worked 3 days a week in one town and 2 days in another town and float as needed. I was the main nurse for the Dr. I worked for 3 days a week and would float the rest of the week. They had other nurses that floated all the time too. I loved the Dr I worked for so, that wasn't the problem. Each office and Dr did everything different and even used different labs, hospitals etc. Something that I did right in one office would get me yelled at in another office. Each dr had a different way they wanted things charted or had a flow sheet or used computer charting that I couldn't log in to. An office in one town would use this lab but, that hospital and wouldn't accept so and so insurance and another office it would be totally different and I was supposed to remember which was which. I kept a notebook that I wrote down how things were done at each office because I got tired of constantly asking questions and I would refer to it but, apparently that wasn't good enough because it made me "too slow." When one of my main drs patients would have a question and it was one of my float days they would transfer the call to whatever office I was working at that day but, I couldn't help them because I didn't have their chart. I was told to anticipate which patients would call and take the charts with me, they bought me a lock box to put in my car but, then the office would get mad if I had the chart with me and they needed it for some reason. It just didn't work. The pay was awful too, it was $5 less than I make now. I took a $2.25 pay cut at the time because, I thought it would be less stress than the nursing home but, I was wrong.