Float Pool or Telemetry?? First nursing job offer..

[FreshRN05]

Hello:) I am a new grad and just recently passed the RN boards. I have applied for an RN position in 2 hospitals in my town. Both hospitals offered me a position...one is a FT nights in Telemtry and the other FT days as a float nurse ( Acute Rehab/Tele/Med-Surg floatation). I am more leaning towards accepting the FT days (3 12 hours shifts) Float pool position because I have 2 little kids at home and I'd like to be able to be home at night with them. I am asking for your opinion especially for those who are maybe in float position at their current job. How does (float RN) it work and what are the advantages and disadvantages of doing this type of nursing job? I have heard from a friend of mine who was once worked as a Float CNA that doing float is not a good idea because most of the time they will assign you the most unstable patients ( nurses on the floor you are floated to pick their patients and then give you the ones they don't want to care for)...Is this right? I have to make a decision by the end of next week whether to accept the FT night in Telemetry or the Ft days Float Pool because both hospitals are starting their new grad program on Jan. 9th. I would like my first nursing job a positive start for me and will not scare me off....What do you guys think? Telemetry or Float Pool? Thank you very much...:uhoh21:

[AngelsRN]

if you go to work at a later date, you will get much closer precepting. The hospitals are going to be stressed to the limits to find preceptors for all these new grads. It will be sink or swim time for many new grads. Those who sink will need to be replaced.

Often hospitals limit the number of new grads they will take -- where I am going, they are only taking 4 or 5 --- they do this so they can have good precepting and orientation for them. Well, a good hospital does that. Like she said, if they are more concerned with their staffing, you will get a terrible orientation.

[Sanuk]

The appropriate length of orientation depends on the type of unit you are working on. In a critical care area (ER, ICU) it should be AT LEAST 3 months, and some are 6 months. On the floor, I would say three would be sufficient. I don't think I would have felt comfortable coming out of school and being the only RN - I think I understood from your post that's how the tele job would be. But ultimately, it's going to depend on you and what you feel are your strengths. Are you interested in tele, med-surg? What type of nursing did you envision when you started school?

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

Please check this thread out, just posted yesterday to this forum. This is someone working day shift on a telemetry unit. The thread is entitled "Telemetry Nighmare".

https://allnurses.com/forums/f224/telemetry-nightmare-135680.html

[Indy, LPN, LVN]

Daytonite is right, you will need at least 12 weeks on telemetry orientation if you take it, and in my opinion, it needs to be a unit that is well staffed enough so that you'll be starting off orientation with a max of 4 patients.

The unit described in the "tele nightmare" post sounds like a combo of telemetry and stepdown, a full moon and yep, it's scary. You need to ask to have a day- or a night if it's a night shift position- to shadow a nurse and observe in order to make up your mind.

And keep in mind, sometimes they're gonna fool you. You can go through a couple of really good weeks and begin to think about how nice it all is, and then have a week where you wonder what truck ran over you. I'm currently in a paranoid mode where I keep thinking they are all likely to crash on me, because I had a night where they all either did crash, or tried to crash, with a very light load numbers-wise.

So tele can be the devil, and Daytonite knows what she's talking about. I saw this particular unit in school, and did practicum there, and then accepted a job offer, so I didn't entirely have my head in the sand. However, school and job are two different beasts. It's important on any unit to actually LIKE and get along with, your preceptor; so shadowing at the very least is a good start.

Med surg is well rounded and recommended as a base for everyone; patient loads on almost all units get larger at night and for the life of me I can not figure out what nuthead thought that one up. Seriously. If they are gonna puke feces, dissect their aortas, have a heart attack, go into respiratory failure, pull their foley out or just plain yell all night long, it'll probably be at night.

I gotta think, did you do any clinicals at any of the hospitals you're considering? Think back to which ones were pleasant and did any of these pleasant experiences have to do with nurses who were a team, and helped each other out? Consider applying to those units. Maybe, just maybe, if you know someone who works there you could have them introduce you to the unit director or nurse manager; they might be interested even if the HR department says they aren't.

What ever unit you decide on, make sure an orientation period is fairly long, none of this four-weeks-have-fun stuff, and that you have the option of switching preceptors if need be, and if you think your heart might not be in that unit, ask up front how long you need to work before you can do a transfer in the facility. I hope you find something good!

-Indy

[AngelsRN]

My orientation will be 10-12 weeks depending on how I am doing - minimum of 10 weeks, could be longer than 12 if I feel i need more support. I will be on a med-surg unit essentially with areas focusing on ortho, neuro and trauma.

[RainDreamer, BSN, RN]

I agree with what everyone else has said here.

The hospital that I work at won't let new grads work float until they've had some experience (at least a year). As a new nurse (I've been working since Sept.), I can't even imagine working on other units because I'm just NOW starting to get comfortable with my own unit. As a new nurse, you already have so much to learn on a unit, adding more units and more chaos would just make things so much more stressful, in an already overly stressful time.

It's really an exciting time, but it's stressful, no doubt about that. I agree with what someone else said about the importance of camaraderie on a unit. I work with some great people ..... when I get stressed out and feeling overwhelmed, I know there are people that I can go to for help. I never feel alone. As a new nurse there will be times in which you feel like you're drowning and you just want to cry ..... you don't want to feel alone during those times, you want to make sure you've got good back up. You can't get that kind of camaraderie if you work float pool, you just can't. Find a nice home unit and it'll make this stressful time more smooth.

I wish you all the best of luck. Congrats to you!!

[shomelggs]

I work Tele-nights as a CNA and I like it. I would suggest that position b/c having a stable floor to work is better that floating all over the hospita. Besided the float CNA-RN get the crappiest assignment. And you always feel like and outsider on their floor.

If you have a stable home so to speak you begin to build a bond and relationships with the people you work with.

Once I graduate I have a position on my floor. They prefer to hire RN that were once NA--we have had several people to convert and they really like. They said it is nice to know how the system works.

Good luck with your decision.

[twinmomoftwins]

yes,yes, YES!!:wink2:

Go for the Med-Surg position. You'll be on a stable unit, reinforcing everything you've learned in school. You can always transfer to a Tele-unit when you're comfortable with the routine. Nix the float pool - that is for seasoned nurses who have seen and done just about everything.

Good Luck in your New Job!!