This Is My First Post, I Am A New Nurse, And Am Working On Med-surg Telemetry, I Love My Position On The Night Shift And Enjoying My Coworkers. My Problem Is That Before I Hit Six Months On The Job, They Wanted To Float Me To Another Floor, I Wasnt Comfortable With That And Told Them That I Had Not Been Working For The Six Month's Required Before Floating Someone. They Looked Into It And Said Ok And Sent And Icu Nurse Upstairs, Who Was Not Happy, Because She Says That Its Not In Her Job Description, The Only Floors She Is Suppose To Float To Is Telemetry Or Pacu. Anyways She Went. When I Did Have Six Months, To The Day, I Was Sent To The 5th Floor, Med Surg Without Any Orientation To The Floor, I Went But Did Not Feel Comfortable And Told Management, . A Per-diem Was On My Floor And Should Have Been The One To Go, But She Said She Was Not Comfortable About It Either So I Had To Go I Was Sent, Even Though She Has Been A Nurse For Over 2 Years. Well , It Happened To Me Again Last Night, I Was Not On The Schedule When I Arrived For My Shift And Was Told That I Had To Float To 5th Floor, , So I Told My Manager That I Didnt Feel Comfortable With This And Was Not Happy Again About Having To Go Without Any Orientation To The Floor, But Of Course I Went, Had No Choice. I Got Up To The Floor And The Nurses On 5west Said That I Was Not On The Schedule For 5 West, And I Should Go To 5 East Ortho, I Went To 5 East And Was Told Again That I Was Not On The Schedule For 5 East, Go Back To 5 West, I Did Go Back But Called My Supervisor And Told Her The Situation, And Long Story Short I Ended Up On 5 East Ortho Unit. I Was Totally Upset By Now And It Was Around 11:,15 Shift Starts At 10;45, Nurses Were Chatting And I Sat Until 11:50 With Not Report, While At The Same Time Er Was On The Phone Wanting To Give Me Report On A New Admit That Was Going To Be My Patient. I Called My Supervisor Again And Told Her The Situation And That I Did Not Feel Comfortable About Getting Report On A New Admit Without Even Seeing My Patients, She Said Hang In There And That She Would Talk To The Resouce Nurse To Clear Up Matters, And To Take Report, Which I Did And Got Report On My New Patient, Then Report On My Other Patients, While The New Patient Was Allready Getting To The Floor. Anyways, Im Not Comfortable With This, And Felt Like I Was A Mess All Night, I Know That People Say Welcome To Nursing, And That This Is Just How It Is, But It Doesnt Seem Right. Is This Just How It Is? And Am I Just Being Paranoid, I Felt Like I Was A Real ***** On The Floor, Because I Was Not Happy, But Honestly I Felt Very Uncomfortable And Unsure Of My Self, Ortho Is Different Than Telemetry And I Just Felt Lost? Any Suggestions.
Yes, unfortunately this is the way nursing is. They feel (hospital admin) that a nurse can work any where and if you have telemetry or critical care you can do anything. I do not believe this is true, but you can use the same skill set anywhere. Meaning, lower your expectations for yourself when you float. Finding humor helps. I floated to the floor once and couldn't for the life of me find the light switch. This is with the pt and family all there. I made it seem like a big joke, hospital hiding the switch like hiding the remote at home. It is hard to get use to it. You dont have anyone you know to help you be a resource or anything. Trying getting that units charge nurse to give you a mini-tour and find out where things are. Smile tell your self you can get through this shift. Ask for help, tell the other nurses there your questions be eager to help them when you can and they should do the same for you.
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.
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!
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
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!
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 :)
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.
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?
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.
Specializes in ICU of all kinds, CVICU, Cath Lab, ER..
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.
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.
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.
sunshines66, BSN
73 Posts
Yes, unfortunately this is the way nursing is. They feel (hospital admin) that a nurse can work any where and if you have telemetry or critical care you can do anything. I do not believe this is true, but you can use the same skill set anywhere. Meaning, lower your expectations for yourself when you float. Finding humor helps. I floated to the floor once and couldn't for the life of me find the light switch. This is with the pt and family all there. I made it seem like a big joke, hospital hiding the switch like hiding the remote at home. It is hard to get use to it. You dont have anyone you know to help you be a resource or anything. Trying getting that units charge nurse to give you a mini-tour and find out where things are. Smile tell your self you can get through this shift. Ask for help, tell the other nurses there your questions be eager to help them when you can and they should do the same for you.