Do float nurses in your facility get paid more?

[Sadie04]

Just curious - my fellow floats and I were working on our annual competancies yesterday and this topic came up. One of the nurses pointed out that most facilities pay their float staff an extra differential for floating. I work in a 600 bed teaching hospital; we float everywhere except NICU, L&D, and the OR, but don't get a differential. Does your facilty pay an extra diff to floats?

[Nurse Ratched, RN]

Our floats used to be called "in-house agency" and got a slightly higher rate in recognition of their ability to flex to almost any role (they floated everywhere in house.) Now we have no float pool and if people float to other units, there is no diff.

Last hospital I worked at there was a float diff of $2/hour. Not much but made floating suck a *little* less.

[Nurse Ratched, RN]

Our floats used to be called "in-house agency" and got a slightly higher rate in recognition of their ability to flex to almost any role (they floated everywhere in house.) Now we have no float pool and if people float to other units, there is no diff.

Last hospital I worked at there was a float diff of $2/hour. Not much but made floating suck a *little* less.

[fluffwad]

Our PRN nurses get paid more, and are expected to float anywhere. But everyone is required to float if necessary and those who refuse are terminated.

[fluffwad]

Our PRN nurses get paid more, and are expected to float anywhere. But everyone is required to float if necessary and those who refuse are terminated.

[Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN]

Ours do, i just found that out a couple of days ago.

[KRVRN, BSN, RN]

No.

Sometimes one of the postpartum nurses will float down to work NICU with the level 2 babies. They had to get a bit of special training to do so but they no longer even offer that training, so the same people get floated and I'm not sure they all like it.

On the other hand, on the rare occasion that the NICU is over staffed and postpartum needs someone, a NICU nurse will get floated. Apparently we're all consiered trained to work up there just because we know about babies so we have to muck our way through the day and figure out where to go and what to do. ????! Luckily we only get floated about once a year. It really sucks having a ped want to do a circumcision and you have no idea what he needs or where to find it or how to assist.

[mattsmom81]

Something I forgot to mention: our float pool is not eligible for benes, so the higher hourly rate compensates for that as well. we are not guaranteed hours either.

But I hear a new director in my last ICU raised the fulltime part time rate to higher than the float pool to entice the pool into the fold.

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

Never even heard of the idea before. I'm a float nurse (primary on Med/Surg, float to ICU and the Women's Center) and I can't imagine even asking for more pay based on that. I do, however, receive a 3% differential for being certified in my own specialty, and maybe it's because of that extra pay that I don't feel slighted. :)

[Niki79]

I work in the float pool and asked a nurse about compensation. He said that the hospital gives the nurses in the float pool a $5000.00/yr "bonus" each. It is paid out twice a year ($2500.00 each payout).

[mr-jangles]

I am a part of the Flex Float pool. We float to ICU, CVICU, and CCU. We are all very experienced. We have to work every other weekend and more hollidays than reg staff. Our hospital started this program to get agency out. We get higher pay and benifits. We are also the rapid response team 90% of the time. I feel we should get paid more than reg staff. Been floating for 4 years now and the everyother weekend is getting to me, but other than that, I like it. I've been in critical care for 11 years now.

[McGyverRN]

My hospital has three classifications of staff. Regular staff who can be pulled within their cluster of units for no differential or be pulled out of their cluster of units for $5.00/ hr differential., FLOAT pool staff are regular employees with benes that get paid $5.00/hr more., FLEX staff are not guaranteed hours, have no benefits, and make a couple of dollars more per hour than regular staff, but they can choose their schedule. My hospital has had a lower than average census the past 6 months, so I get pulled out of my cluster (and get the 5 bucks differential) pretty frequently.

[burn out]

Where I work they are per diem nurses and do get paid about $4-6 more on the hour without benefits. If a perdiem is scheduled on our unit and someone has to float then they are the ones that have to go to the other unit.