I am so excited, I have just found a job posting from hospital that I've always been interested in. (even though I still have another year and a half left of school until I'm an RN) I am excited.
I think I want to be a pool nurse to start off b/c I get experience from different floors and I have a better schedule:rolleyes:...NOT TO MENTION THE $
The hospital I'm interested in advertised $50/hr for night shift pool nurses...and $46 for day. Thats a lot of money:yeah:! They are also a university so discount on rn-bsn which I am interested in. YAY!
Specializes in Emergency, Critical Care Transport.
$43-$48 /hr is the norm starting here in SF, as far as I've seen in my research, with up to $7 differential for nights. Per diem nurses make in the $60. Then again, our cost of living is ridiculously high. I say good luck, and I hope you enjoy your job. :)
Are all per diem nursing positions float pool? Are they one in the same? Or can you request a certain floor?
All depends on the facility. I usually work one unit but sometimes will get pulled to a few others. It definitely was hit the ground running at first but now I am comfortable with the different units where I might end up. I love my per diem job!
A lady in my Micro class just graduated in Aug as a LVN. She is working at our local hospital and was hired to float. She said she has loved all the experience but it has been extremely hard and most nights she is sick to her stomach before work. She said they got a very small orientation period and basically was just thrown to the wolves. She is already thinking about leaving nursing or at least finding a new job.
There is no way as a new graduate that I would work as a float nurse. The agency that I do staffing for doesn't like to hire any nurse unless they have a years experience, since that is what most facilites require. I won't say it doesn't happen where newer grads are hired but that is definitely not the norm. And if it does happen there might be problems. I just recently had a nurse on assignment in East Texas and she only had 6 months experience, she made some errors and has now been DNR (do not return) by the facility. She just screwed herself there, while if she would have waited and had more experience I doubt that would have happened. They just expect more from agency nurses and it is easy to be DNR by a facility.
I personally would not work float right out of school, Per Diem maybe if it was for one or 2 units. I worked in an ER for 5 year prior to getting my LVN and I saw the foalt/per diem/ and registry nurses in and out. The regular ER nurses would have to take time away from thier pt's to mini-train a few of these nurses. It takes time away from the regular staff if you are not able to hit the ground running and be able to jump right in. I am all for making the good money but I realize that I have to have my basis down and get some experience before I can make the BIG bucks.
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
Please do consider the wise words of the experienced nurses here and caveat emptor.......
You need to gain experience before taking on a float or perdiem position. It really is in your best interest. And be careful of places that are so understaffed that money is all they have to lure you. It sounds a bit dangerous to me.
I wish you all the success in the world. Please, be careful.
Please do consider the wise words of the experienced nurses here and caveat emptor.......
You need to gain experience before taking on a float or perdiem position. It really is in your best interest. And be careful of places that are so understaffed that money is all they have to lure you. It sounds a bit dangerous to me.
I wish you all the success in the world. Please, be careful.
But please keep in mind that a float position isn't always the same as a per diem position. At my facility the per diem nurses get the same orientation as the full/part time employees and depending on their contract may not change units at all.
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
I know float and perdiem are not interchangeable or the same thing. I am perdiem. But I never float. I do OB and that is it.
But I would never do either (float pool or perdiem) right out of school, knowing what it's like at the beginning to learn as a nurse. It's exceedingly hard to learn in either position the critical first year or two of nursing right out of school.
why not perdiem? In my department, per diem just means you are not used for more than a couple of shifts a pay period. Its still the same floor, hopping between shifts (one of our per diem people works just nights for example) I understand not getting a day in and day out orientation and all that, but I would think (atleast from my perspective) that getting that kind of part time schedule would be less stressful and crazy than going full bore.
why not perdiem? In my department, per diem just means you are not used for more than a couple of shifts a pay period. Its still the same floor, hopping between shifts (one of our per diem people works just nights for example) I understand not getting a day in and day out orientation and all that, but I would think (atleast from my perspective) that getting that kind of part time schedule would be less stressful and crazy than going full bore.
I wouldn't do per diem straight out of nursing school either. Going full time nursing is critical to learning the necessary skills in order to succeed when you're fresh out of school. No nursing school experience will equal that time during orientation and the first few months out of school you learn a WHOLE lot more than you do in nursing school. As much as you try, critical thinking and time mgt. are skills that are learned through experience, not a classroom.
Most places won't let you work per diem unless you've had a year's experience. Take the advice. Any hospital that would offer a new grad a float pool position is one where you should not be working. You need to have at least a year's experience to float from one unit to another. Remember it's your license and you don't want to put it in jeopardy and you will if you are offered this positioned. But in all fairness, I'm assuming that they would not take a new grad anyways. I'm assuming they are looking for someone more qualified i.e. more experience which would not be the OP. What were the preferences listed on the application? Did the job posting state they were looking for someone with experience?
star77, MSN, RN
219 Posts
$43-$48 /hr is the norm starting here in SF, as far as I've seen in my research, with up to $7 differential for nights. Per diem nurses make in the $60. Then again, our cost of living is ridiculously high. I say good luck, and I hope you enjoy your job. :)