Do you really get the worst of the worst when you float?

[Curious1alwys, BSN, RN]

I have an opportunity for a POOL/float position in a hospital but pretty much this has always been my experience in the hospital since being hired on as a new grad (went to a few different hospitals but stayed in the same specialty). This new position would be a TRUE float/resource type gig. I am reconsidering this and wondering if I should make a real attempt at a floor nurse PERMANENT position? I know this does not exclude you from floating occasionally but I guess what I am asking is are there real benefits to having a "home" floor? I kindof feel like a orphan who's never really belonged anywhere (because of the floating) and I wonder if that is clouding my judgement of my nursing career thus far. I wonder if working on one unit most of the time would really help me. I don't feel super confident in my skills/abilities as a nurse yet period so I am in some ways terrified of floating every shift. What do you think? If you have a permanent position on a floor, how often do you float in general?

Also, if you are part-time, will you get floor training of longer than a week or so?

TIA!

[JWG223]

Yep, until I lit into someone about it. Now, I get fair assignments. Unless you run into a uniquely fair charge nurse, or you make a racket, expect the dregs when you float. The mentality is that you'll only have to put up with it 1 night, and the other nurses on the floor need a break from the most problematic patients. This in and of itself is cool with me, and I don't mind as it does make sense, and we do that to nurses who float to our floor. Good for the goose, good for the gander. What I REFUSE to deal with is taking 2-3 admits while the regular nurses on the floor take 1 or none.

[AJJKRN]

Yep, until I lit into someone about it. Now, I get fair assignments. Unless you run into a uniquely fair charge nurse, or you make a racket, expect the dregs when you float. The mentality is that you'll only have to put up with it 1 night, and the other nurses on the floor need a break from the most problematic patients. This in and of itself is cool with me, and I don't mind as it does make sense, and we do that to nurses who float to our floor. Good for the goose, good for the gander. What I REFUSE to deal with is taking 2-3 admits while the regular nurses on the floor take 1 or none.

We will probably agree to disagree but as a float nurse and a charge nurse, this is not cool with me! Anyone being floated to your floor, or any floor in your entity, should be getting an appropriate assignment if not a bit easier assignment! The regular floor staff should be keeping their problem children regardless of whether they feel they need a break or not. This nurse would be a guest on your floor and deserves to be treated as such...so would it change anything if you had to just work short instead and take on the extra patient workload? Sometimes every nurses assignment is just plain bad on the entire floor but to purposely screw over a nurse coming to help a floor out is just wrong...the staff should be made to work short instead and maybe their perspectives will be enlightened after their initial shocks

[thenightnurse456]

Unfortunately previous posters have nailed it on the head. The mentality is that you are getting paid more and only have to deal with it for 1 shift so you'll get the heaviest/sickest/most difficult/agitated patients (and their families).

It never made sense to me. I always gave registry/float staff an easy assignment because they'd be coming to me with more questions if I gave them the hard ones.

[Nonyvole, BSN, RN]

I get float nurses all the time. Unless I know them and that they are comfortable in my ER and with the more critical patients, I'll give them the easier ones. Most of the nurses that float to my unit don't know where we keep everything or our usual protocols, nor how the particular physicians work.

Even the odd ICU nurse that ends up floated to my unit. They may be amazingly comfortable with the critical patients, but again, they don't know where things are, our protocols, and there have been times that they've hit six patients and have started to look a little stressed.

[dirtyhippiegirl, BSN, RN]

It got so bad on day shift on my old unit that floats were outright refusing to come to our unit.

I got **** on during my first mandatory float. I always made sure to never screw over people like that when I eventually started charging.

[brownbook]

I floated 10 years, I never felt I was dumped on. I loved floating and it has repaid me in so many ways. It gave me so many opportunities to grow and learn.

I feel sorry for nurses who only stay in their one safe area and are afraid to try new things. Yes many times I felt anxious, uncomfortable, unconfident, but a little anxiety keeps me on my toes. No one in the medical field should ever be nonchalant with even the most routine procedure.

I have been exposed to such a variety of different experiences that even now where I am extra help, sometimes the regular staff is cancelled and I am called into work because it is an area, procedure, room, etc., where regular staff won't, can't (refuse to) float.

[flipflopsNsweetTea]

This.

I get float nurses all the time. Unless I know them and that they are comfortable in my ER and with the more critical patients, I'll give them the easier ones. Most of the nurses that float to my unit don't know where we keep everything or our usual protocols, nor how the particular physicians work.

Even the odd ICU nurse that ends up floated to my unit. They may be amazingly comfortable with the critical patients, but again, they don't know where things are, our protocols, and there have been times that they've hit six patients and have started to look a little stressed.

[Twinmom06, ASN, APN]

I floated for several months and never felt **** on. I got the same assignment as everyone else. I usually got the first admission, but never got more admissions than anyone else (in fact I've taken multiple admissions on my own floor).

I got sick of not having a home, locker etc...the good part was that I got to learn different stuff and meet a lot of people.

[Palliative Care, DNP]

In my experience with floating yes it was always the worst assignments. The super demanding, the bed jumpers, the Q2 hr pain meds, the completely immobile total cares, or the difficult family.

[CountryMomma, ASN, RN]

I floated to the women's unit for a shift. When I came down for report they immediately started apologizing for my "heavy load" and told me they hoped I would float to them in the future.

Sure, I could've freaked out at the start, but I read up on my assignment. A heparin gtt/dilaudid/TF CA pt, a d/c'ing anemia pt, and a pt recv'ing 2 units of blood.

So in other words, my usual assignment on my home floor.

I think it's what we make of it. The floats that come to our floor are generally treated like the rest of the crew but we don't have them do many d/cs b/c each floor has their protocols. We try to protect them.

[anon456, BSN, RN]

Usually when we need float pool RN's its because our floor is swamped and heavy. We try to give the float pool RNs the less complicated assignments because most of our floor is complicated trach/vent/PICU stepdown/chronic kids with picky parents. We try to assign the RN's who have the higher skills or know those kids well to those patients, and float pool gets the generic kids.

I would definitely speak up about if you notice a pattern happening. Or maybe it's just your perception because the whole floor is ugly.