being floated

Depends on the facility

When you asked your nurse manager or preceptor what did they say?

It isn't a law it's a policy and policies are determined by your employer. Only your own facility's people can answer this one for you

Do you want to float? Or are concerned you will have to float?

Legally speaking - whenever your employer feels like it.

As to your your employer's policy... ask them. 6 months is pretty common, but not by any means universal.

Both hospitals I've worked at (excluding LTACH -- that was a 60 bed facility with 3 acute wings and 1 ICU wing, so no differentiated-by-specialty depts) has been 6 months.

But it is by facility policy

For me, it was a month (as soon as I was off orientation). I usually didn't mind too much. It was a chance to broaden my experience.

I was floated a month after being off orientation. The floor I got pulled to was aghast and said they don't let their new nurses float until they've been off orientation for a year! It was pretty amusing.

Find out your facility's policy, so you can be prepared. Floating to a comparable unit should be a minor adjustment for you.

If you are asked to float to a unit that requires a higher skill level, THEN it becomes a problem.

I became a float nurse so that I wouldn't have to deal with any one floor's politics, and because I got tired of being the one pulled to another floor when I was just about to get comfortable with one unit. That one move allowed me to meet and become familiar with staff and locations of other units so much so that all I looked for were float positions when I changed jobs. Not to mention the pay being so much better!