so, i've been working the float pool at my hospital for almost a year and a half now, and to be honest, i've really enjoyed it. floating has it's benefits:
a- experience in many different areas (in my case, tele, icu, er, maternity, medical and surgical floors)
b- not getting wrapped up in the "politics" most of the time- you go in, do your job for 8-12 hours, and go home.
c- 99% of the time, people are happy to see you. if not for you, they know they'd be working short this shift. imagine walking in most nights to "yay, we've got gwen tonight!"
despite these benefits, i've recently accepted a transfer to one of our tele floors that was truly in need of staff. i'm just surprised by the reaction i've gotten from a lot of co-workers. "oh, you've finally decided to take a real job!" "it's about time you decided what you want to be when you grow up" etc. do people really thinking floating is only what you do until something "better" comes along?
float pool (or nursing resource department, as my manager was trying to get us renamed) is a real nursing job! i've worked 32 scheduled hours a week, with benefits, for well over a year. i've been oriented to every specialty in the hospital, (except or/pacu) and required to complete all the appropriate education requirements (telemetry and critical care courses, acls, etc) we have certain limitations, ie: in my facility we do post-partum or well baby nursery, but not l&d- that's something better left to those who do it on a regular basis. though i jokingly refer to myself as a "jack of all trades, master of none", the truth is, floating is an art to master in and of itself, and though i'm always learning something new on each floor, i'm also doing a lot of teaching, too!
when the er nurse has a question how to enter floor orders on her patient holding for a bed (the er and floor lab entry systems are different), or needs to know if the patient can go to a certain floor with this drip, i can answer it. i've worked that floor.
when the tele floor gets an admit with a hip fx, needing bucks traction, but none of their night nurses have ortho experience, i can show them all how to apply it.
when the surgical floor patient goes into an arrhythmia, and the ekg misreads the frequent pac's as an a-fib, i can help her to understand what she's looking at on the ekg before she calls the doctor.
i'm not trying to say i've learned everything there is to know about every type of nursing- anyone who thinks they have nothing left to learn is deceiving themselves. but there is an art to being able to hit the ground running on a different floor each night, remembering the subtle differences in policies and procedures from one place to another, even knowing which floors stock the earplugs when a patient can't sleep at 3am!
so the next time you have a "float" on your floor, try not to think of us as "just" someone "filling in" for a real nurse, but a valuable resource, and a specialty of our own!
Another misconception of our float staff is that they are "float pool". Not true. They don't have POOL positions - they are regular full time with benefits etc. and work as much as the unit staffs.
I know some positions are truly float "pool" but a lot of float positions are regular, just with a higher pay rate.
MommyandRN
342 Posts
Another misconception of our float staff is that they are "float pool". Not true. They don't have POOL positions - they are regular full time with benefits etc. and work as much as the unit staffs.
I know some positions are truly float "pool" but a lot of float positions are regular, just with a higher pay rate.