Float Pool Vent

[Bezoars]

I love floating.... for the most part. Yes, my experience is more wide and less deep... but I have broader experience then most. Here's my biggest pet peeve. Everywhere you go, the staff treats you like you don't know as much as they do so you "can't handle it". You hear phrases like "oh don't give that patient to her or him, they're float pool".... Sometimes they treat you like you're such an idiot. Can anyone relate?

[wooh, BSN, RN]

Not float pool, but float frequently enough. There's one floor, that because of some of their float policies, when I go there, I can't take the overflow from my own floor. So according to them, I'm not qualified to take a patient from my own floor. :)

We don't give floats a couple of diagnoses, but that's because we've got odd policies that we don't expect people that don't deal with those diagnoses everyday to keep up with. Heck, we can barely keep up with them.

But mostly, it's a trust thing. If I don't know you, I don't trust you. If you're a float, I don't know you. If you want an assignment that I'd have to trust you with, you're going to have to spend enough time with us for us to get to know you and actually KNOW what you can do.

[NicuGal, MSN, RN]

We have guidelines we have to follow for our float pool. We can only give them certain patients. We know they can take other things but we are held to the policy. When we get floats from PICU they would live to have vented kids, etc but according to the policy they can only have feeders. When I float up there ( and I worked there) I can only take under one year old non vented. Kind of sucks when they are slammed. But from a legal stand point you have to follow policy.

[Caffeine_IV]

Sorry I cannot relate. I haven't worked float pool officially but floated often in times of low census and got horrid assignments. I would much prefer to be on the easier end than harder end.

That said, I would let the charge know that I can handle a more complex assignment if I felt insulted by certain comments.

Allow them a chance to fix it.

[Delicate Flower]

I don't think OP is asking for harder assignments necessarily. It's about being automatically dismissed as being competent to take care of sick patients, just because you are a floater. Less sick does not mean easier, and vice versa. There are sick patients, and then there are sick of 'em patients. When the regular staff gets sick of taking care of them, they give them to the float.

I have floated for four years in many different facilities in three states for four major health systems. What I can say, is it all depends on the facility and unit culture. There was one place that always seemed to stick me with the crap assisgnments. If there was a difficult family, "needy" patient, or volcanic poop explosion on the floor, that assignment had my name all over it.

I'm not asking for balloon pumps of fresh open hearts. But clearly if you feel "comfortable" with my competence in giving me a STEMI admission, you should feel comfortable giving me an actual acutely ill ICU patient.

It's better where I work per diem now. I asked management to get us the "CCRN" badge buddy because that gives validation to your skills when you are otherwise an unknown on a new unit. If you have certification, that can give you some credibility.

I can understand why one PP's hospital's float pool nurses quit within 6 months. It sounds like a horrible environment for floating. I wouldn't last long either if I was being blamed as a scapegoat for everything that went wrong and met with an attitude of "the float nurse did it." When you get good at floating, you get good at knowing the various nuances of different types of units, and you know when to ask questions. If those units have such obscure policies or ways of doing things that the float nurses can't adapt, something is wrong.

[PacoUSA, BSN, RN]

For those of you that work in hospitals that use travel nurses, does this same float pool mentality prevail there as well with the travelers? Meaning: give them certain easier patients or dump them with the problem ones because we don't know them that well.

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[delphine22]

I also don't want to be treated like an overpaid babysitter either. .... I want to be treated like their own staff...

I work ICU at one hospital and stepdown per diem at another hospital. At my per diem gig the other night they floated me to ICU. I told the charge to feel free to give me more challenging pts, but I just sat and babysat two PCU boarders for the night. Super boring. But I was happy to collect my sizable check and not stress out. Take the easy nights to relax, you'll make up for it another night.

If you want to be treated like regular staff, pick the unit you like best and stay there. But I assume you float bc it's more pay, so same thing as I do -- collect your nice fat check and enjoy your night. :-)

[Bezoars]

"How funny that you actually want the terrible assignments, I feel that since you are not on the floor that much and do not really know the dynamics of the floor too well, you should be content with an easier assignment.... what would happen if they consistently gave you hard/high accuity patients"

OhioSICUrn, It's not that I want terrible assignments, I just want typical ones. I am NOT content with an easier assignment because then I become nothing more then an overpaid babysitter.

I don't think OP is asking for harder assignments necessarily. It's about being automatically dismissed as being competent to take care of sick patients, just because you are a floater

^^^^^ This ^^^^^^^ is what I'm trying to say. I get the whole "gotta make a name for yourself" thing. Here's the funny thing. I was on Med/Surg float where I never had this problem... In fact, people would routinely give me hard patients because they knew I could handle it. OR, they would ask for my advice with a patient that had another medical issue that maybe they didn't see all the time because they always deal with heart, or cancer, or whatever, and knew I worked on ALL the floors. Med/Surg people thought I walked on water. THEN I moved over to perinatal float for a change... and they treat me like I've been complaining about. Been doing this awhile now, and they still treat me like I'm an amateur. It's just frustrating is all. The other day on MBU there was a patient who needed an IV and they couldn't get it. They called anesthesia to come do it. I was like "why don't you let me take a look". Came out having gotten on the first go-round and they were like YOU did THAT?????

[Morainey, BSN, RN]

I feel like the float pool nurses deserve a lot of respect because they are able to go between units flexibly, they don't get the same assignment back every shift, and they never know what they are walking into. High fives for float nurses

[firstinfamily, RN]

As a charge nurse I would give the float nurse the patients who were the most stable. As a staff nurse I always tried to make the float nurse feel like I was there if help was needed. As a float nurse, I hated getting dumped on when floated to a unit. I think it is only normal for the regular staff to feel a little "protective" of the float nurse. Hey, I always wanted the float nurse to have a good shift because I wanted the float to come back!! I would not take it so personally, and if you feel you are not being utilized to your full potential then offer to take a more challenging assignment. Make yourself available to others, don't just assume they are giving you the lighter assignment because of lack of knowledge, maybe you have the lighter assignment so you are available to help the regular staff with theirs. Maybe you are truly a mentor to others and no one told you!!

[~PedsRN~, BSN, RN]

Our float pool nurses are usually the ones that end up staffing the PICU when they are short, so they get regular assignments on our floor. We don't give them the serious pain in the asses just because we are nice, but we don't give them the "easy" patients either. When I'm charge I do try really hard not to make them spend all day discharging and admitting, just because I'm a nice person. :) Now, floats form other floors? That's an entirely different beast. I am not going to give someone who works every day with bili babies a post op day 0 scoli 16 year old. That's just mean.

I appreciate the "easier" assignments when I have to float to an unfamiliar floor. Please do not give me your unfixed heart kid on progressive or someone on a vent, because I will just stand in the door like "What do I do with this?"

But the actual float nurses from nursing office who I know? Oh yeah, you get the real mccoy. Enjoy that POD #0 scoli.... .