Floating too much?

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Hello. I am doing a local travel assignment. The census has dropped in my unit and for the last 3 weeks I have had to float to another unit every week for at least one shift! I am very frustrated with this and also trying to remind myself that its due to low census but I hate feeling dumped on because Im a traveler. What are your opinions on this matter? What has been the experience when traveling out of state and floating? I have several friends who travel out of state and they don't seem to float but I know that it depends on specialty and census. Also, the hospitals around here have the policy that travelers\agency float before anyone else! I hate that rule! Im in Texas, btw. Is this a common policy in other states? Btw, I still have 7 weeks on the contract and Im not looking forward to having to go thru it. I am floating to a comparable unit.

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When I was traveling us travelers had to float first. Luckily it was always to comparable units. Although once they tried to float me to ICU. They said that all staff from xyz floor go there. I refused and they sent someone else.

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Specializes in OB.
Hello. I am doing a local travel assignment. The census has dropped in my unit and for the last 3 weeks I have had to float to another unit every week for at least one shift! I am very frustrated with this and also trying to remind myself that its due to low census but I hate feeling dumped on because Im a traveler. What are your opinions on this matter? What has been the experience when traveling out of state and floating? I have several friends who travel out of state and they don't seem to float but I know that it depends on specialty and census. Also, the hospitals around here have the policy that travelers\agency float before anyone else! I hate that rule! Im in Texas, btw. Is this a common policy in other states? Btw, I still have 7 weeks on the contract and Im not looking forward to having to go thru it. I am floating to a comparable unit.

This is negotiable (but realize it may cost you some contracts). I have in my contract, and I bring up and discuss in interviews that I will float IN ROTATION with regular staff only. I also will only float to related (i.e.:PP, MB, NSY, L&D) areas except as an "extra set of hands".

Again there may be some hospitals that will not consider me with this clause, but I really don't want to go to those anyway.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I was floated to a neuro unit - bear in mind I have no prev. experience with anything other than non-surgical stroke cases - and given two fresh cranies with ICP monitors, one on paralytics, and one of them had a V-Drain. The offgoing nurse had to teach me how to level, read, and drain it properly ("So you don't collapse the ventricles," she smiled.) I had to take both to CT, assist with a bedside trach on one, and later assist with V-Drain placement on the same pt. The neurosurgeon was horribly rude and cruel, and I was in tears by about three pm. Everyone was helpful when they could be, and stubborn me tried to suck it up and be a team player. A regular unit nurse beside me had an "overflow" patient waiting to move to the floor and a brain-death potential organ donor pt that they later withdrew care on. Would have been a much more appropriate assignment for me, and would have been more appropriate for her to have mine since she had a new orientee with her.

I told my regular unit manager the next day that I didn't mind floating, but that I would therefore refuse any assignment I felt was inappropriate. The whole experience left a mark on me in general.

Lesson learned was speak up, don't try to be so accomodating that you have to go outside your comfort zone without the proper skills needed. I was lucky nothing went wrong, other than I got off work three hours late from being so behind. :no:

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Specializes in Stepdown/Tele/MS.
Hello. I am doing a local travel assignment. The census has dropped in my unit and for the last 3 weeks I have had to float to another unit every week for at least one shift! I am very frustrated with this and also trying to remind myself that its due to low census but I hate feeling dumped on because Im a traveler. What are your opinions on this matter? What has been the experience when traveling out of state and floating? I have several friends who travel out of state and they don't seem to float but I know that it depends on specialty and census. Also, the hospitals around here have the policy that travelers\agency float before anyone else! I hate that rule! Im in Texas, btw. Is this a common policy in other states? Btw, I still have 7 weeks on the contract and Im not looking forward to having to go thru it. I am floating to a comparable unit.

Pretty much all hospitals require you to float first as a traveler. One day a week is not bad at all, depends on the facility. Good thing you are local, would you rather be called off your shifts? I will take the float anyday.

I don't know why people don't like to float, I mean as a traveler you are already "floating" to a different hospital each contract:D

When you do have to float, always remember you can refuse if it is something you are not comfortable with. I had to refuse assignments before too when a hospital tried to float me to ER with no experience:banghead:

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I have been to only one hospital where nobody floated outside the ICU. Manager's attitude was she didn't try very hard to staff her unit every day just for other units to take them. Otherwise every other hospital I have worked at has travelers float first. It seems to me it wasn't always like this. We floated in rotation. (Does anybody have any insight as to why the change?) Anyway, as a traveler I have just learned to accept that I will be floating. I just suck it up and go with the flow. On the plus side I floated to the E.D. so much I decided to try a contract there. If you simply don't want to float or only float under certain conditions bagladyrn makes a good point--negotiate for it in your contract. It never hurts to ask.

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Let me say again, I am floating to a comparable unit. However, I do feel that I being used to staff another unit. That is not what I signed up for and can't help but feel that I could be at another facility with critical needs. I am trying to be reasonable, which is why I posted this. I am going to have say that I do feel that floating once a week is way too much. I feel dumped on.

I hate this rule of travelers floating first. I think it should be in rotation. Being a traveler doesn't mean that you should get used to floating and other sorts of "things" and I am really tired of hearing that from people. Travelers are people too and we wouldn't be here if there wasn't a need.

Thanks for all of your opinions. And, yes, I will be thinking of putting a floating clause in my contract. Be blessed.

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Ashes, I don't know where you are or how much your are paid. Likely, as a traveler, you are being paid much better than the staff at the hospital which you work.

Yes, you are filling the needs of the unit you were assigned to, but you also are filling the needs of the hospital in general. Like baglady said, you will likely lose contracts if you have a clause in which you float with core staff. It may work for you, but it may make it difficult to find an assigment. I have worked in hospitals that do it both ways.

I am not a fan of floating and would rather be in my home unit as well, but I can certainly understand as a former staff nurse that I would be peeved if they floated me (core staff) over a traveler.

Just my :twocents:

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Specializes in critical care.

I too am traveling, I was floated to a tele unit without any orientation of any kind. What is others experince? What a night mare of a day!

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Specializes in ICU/PACU.

I had to float at my previous assignment. I actually didn't mind the other unit...what I did mind was they would float me every 4 hours! They treated me like a piece of trash, and just another number.

That much floating wasn't even needed, the charge nurses could have figured out a better solution...but I was a traveler...so who cares right?

ALSO...I am a firm believer in floating regular staff with the travelers, or better yet...not floating travelers at all(a la Vanderbilt)

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Specializes in ICU, CVICU, Travel Nurse.

I have heard you can have it put in your contract that you will not float. I have been floated to floors where I have 6 patients and I am an ICU nurse who has never had more than 2. I thought I was going to go crazy.

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Specializes in L&D.

My biggest fear in life is floating. At my last job for some bizzarro reason they'd float us L&D nurses to peds and even peds ICU. NOT COOL!! In fact, they were known for sending a nursery RN to L&D so that the L&D nurse could go to peds! It was insane. Float me to postpartum, sure, but peds ICU? No way.

I'm currently on assignment at a different NYC hospital in L&D and they don't float us anyplace. We don't even work c/s recovery. If it's terribly terribly busy and for whatever reason there's no staff member available to do it we'll go to the birthing center. It's stressful because all the paper work is different and since we weren't oriented there we don't know where anything is! but at least the basic JOB is the same. Woman labors, baby comes out. End of story.

I will certainly add a contract clause regarding floating to comparable units. That's a very good idea.

I don't work peds for a reason.

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