New Nurse 6 Months-float ? - page 2

1. 
   Mar 19, '07

   This was the number one reason why my current hospital was loosing new grad's after spending all that money training them. It is now the hospital policy for new grads not to float until they have been there a year. Then they get 16-24 hours orientation to any floor they can be expected to float to. It has made a differnce in keeping new grads after that first year.
2. 
   Mar 19, '07

   The charge nurse, the secretary and the nursing assistants can help you through. At the beginning of the shift, seek out these important people and introduce yourself. Let them know you are a new grad and that their unit is unfamiliar. If upfront you can get the charge nurse to give you pyxis access, code numbers to supply rooms, and a mini tour, that would help.
   Personally, I jump out of my chair and volunteer to float just about anywhere. Burns? sure. Step-down? I'm there!
   Floating is an adventure.
3. 
   Mar 19, '07

   [font="comic sans ms"]most of us don't feel comfortable floating. (to those of you who do, i envy you!) it's a part of hospital nursing, though, and for you to have six months of non-floating seems like a gift. complaining to your supervisor that you don't feel comfortable over every little thing isn't a good move. just suck it up and do the best you can. if it's your turn to float, float with good grace. others will remember the fits you throw!
4. 
   Mar 19, '07

   I've rarely met a nurse who liked to float (well, not entirely true -we have a small group of nurses who are called the 'sst' team -basically, they have no 'home' and float where needed. But we are a very large facility, and each floor usually ends up floating someone to another floor (thats understaffed) -in short, we all float from time to time. Its not preferred because its not our own 'environment', but fall back to the basics (assessment, charting, drugs, etc) and you will survive
5. 
   Mar 19, '07

   Thanks for the good advice,
   I will try to float with grace and hope all goes well. I must say when the nurses on the other floor find out that i am a tele nurse, they said that if i can handle telemetry, i can handle anything. I hope that's true, i must admit that during my shift as a float 2-3 of my patients asked me how long i had been nursing, whereas when im on my core floor, i dont get asked that anymore. Well I will try to have a good attitude when floating!!! Ill try real hard.
   Sally:angryfire:spin:
   p.s. thanks everyone for hearing me out.
6. 
   May 7, '07

   I just wanted to know if anyone has encountered or in the situation of where there home unit is overstaff and have to pool/float to other wards to help out with staffing? If so how do u feel about it?
7. 
   May 7, '07

   I totally understand the principle of floating but I absolutely hated it. We had a log that we put our name in when we got pulled so that everyone took their fair share of float time. They didn't pay any attention to the log it was always the same people being pulled and others were never ever pulled. Likewise when we got a float nurse they always had a bad attitude and didn't want to take an assignment. I think they need to figure out something else like maybe premium pay for being pulled. I'm sure there are those nurses who would sign up. I wouldn't sign up no matter how much extra they wanted to pay me. 12 hours is a long time when you're ignored by the staff and given the worst patients. Floating is one of the reasons I left the hospital after 23+ years.
8. 
   May 7, '07

   What DutchgirlRN said!!!!!!
   
   I'm going to merge this thread with another similar one, where there has been a lot of action.

   Last edit by NotReady4PrimeTime on May 7, '07 : Reason: wanted to add something
9. 
   May 7, '07

   I am a person who doesn't mind floating as long as it's to a critical care area..I need a bit of orientation to Pyxis access, code cart location, etc.; other than that, it's cool.
   
   I have always worked a staff position and done agency or perdiem at other hospitals (good to get to know different places). So here is an example of what I consider UNFAIR.
   
   There is a small hospital about 20 miles from the large one I work at; it is a typical little town hospital (6 ICU beds) - whenever I went there as agency, I would work in the ICU only (this was the arrangement between the hospital and the agency)- in order for me to work in ICU, they would float a staff - yes- a staff member to the med surg floor.
   In fact, if they needed an extra nurse on med surg, they would bring in the agency nurse! Now that is an all time low!!
   Imagine how staff felt when they saw agency come in! Initially, I offered to go to the med-surg floor but that was refused. I finally stopped taking the assignment.
10. 
    May 7, '07

    The hospital I work at doesn't float brand new nurses until a year. I was floated first time to ER. The staff were great and I had a positive experience. 2nd time to ICU and the same experience. We have been so busy the last few months that it is rare to be floated off the unit right now.
11. 
    May 8, '07

    In my unit, if there is somebody to float, then you can say you will float or somebody gets to go home. Usually someone wants to go home.....so no floating.
    
    If no one wants to go home and someone has to float, it is done in this order:
    travel nurse
    agency nurse
    pool nurse
    staff nurse
    
    In the 6 months I have worked at this facility, I have seen someone float only once and she had to because she was a traveler. We are not staffed to float anywhere. If anything, we are short staffed and have agency in addition to staff.
12. 
    May 8, '07

    We float after 6 months, but we only float to maternal child. Mostly we go to the nursery and the peds floor, occas. to the PICU. We don't have an orientation to the other floors (basically they don't want to pay for it), but on all the floors, when we find out it is a new person, we go out of our way to make them comfy. We always treat our floats great, wish I could say that for the other places we go They figure that since we are NICU nurses we can handle anything...uh, if it is over 10 lbs, it is foreign to me LOL. We do refuse assignments that aren't age appropriate (like the 18 year old trauma with a bolt, ct and a million drips). The supervisors and our manager back us up.
13. 
    May 8, '07

    I dont mind the idea of floating to other units. The only issue I have is:
    
    * not so friendly staff to assist you
    
    * get a heavy load for an area your unfamiliar with
    
    
    I was once floated to CCU 4 months into my grad program and felt so lost. Initially the nurse in charge wanted to give me a case that really needed an experienced nurse to help the patient. In the end I got to look after 2 angiogram patients that made it nice. However giving handovers to the night duty nurses um was pretty technical.
    
    All I want is to be orientated to the ward, be noticed that I am a RN from another ward and come and see me now and then to see how I am handling the tasks and answer my questions and BE NICE as I will be nice back

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