Yup. Unfortunately, sometimes in the facility we have need of nurses on other floors and hey, did you really want to be called off and lose more time? Trust me, the supervisor and I put thought into who gets floated - most importantly, if it's the person's turn to float, if they are a good fit for that particular specialty floor, do they have experience in that specialty, and so on.
I'm really tired of having my head bitten off when the next shift comes in and says "I'm not ******* floating" and then calls the supervisor to get the same explanation I give them, and they ALWAYS end up huffing off to their float floor with a monstrous attitude a half an hour after their shift started.
Is it like this everywhere? I feel like my unit's RNs have a bad reputation for floating because they make such a stink about it and it's so obvious they don't want to float. In the interest of full disclosure, I used to get really upset about floating as a new grad, but I made an attitude adjustment once I realized it sets a tone for your whole shift when you show up to your float floor with a miserable attitude.
Specializes in Med-surge, hospice, LTC, tele, rehab.
Some floors were so horrible to work on at one hospital, that they were staffed mainly by floating staff from a "good" floor
that was deliberately overstaffed for that reason.
Maybe improving conditions and staffing would be in order.
The kicker is when you agree to come in extra thinking you will be working on your own floor and then get floated.
Yes, the floater always gets dumped on.
I don't blame people for not wanting to float.
I guess if they wanted to float, they would have joined the float pool.
I agree. I don't mind to do my fair share of floating but lately it has been happening to me once or twice a week. I am NOT in the float pool. I have a home unit. My hospital makes us do it all the time and we get NO extra pay for it. We never get any warning. We come in expecting to be on our home unit and never know we are pulled until we get there. We are told that we are not to complain about it either. We can get pulled two or three days in a row to different units and they never rotate who is pulled. I think they just pick a name out of a hat or something. It is completely unfair. No wonder everybody is quitting and they have to pull nurses all the time.
My hospital is also the kind that dumps the worst and hardest patient on the nurse that is pulled (because the nurses on that unit don't want to deal with them and know that the float person will be none the wiser). I was pulled tonight and they dumped the hardest patient on me. And this is a specialized unit. These nurses should have taken care of that patient. The other nurses even skipped rooms around all over the place to avoid that patient. Plus they left all the wound care for me to do, wound care that we rarely ever do on my unit and that I'm certainly no expert at. Then they will complain that you don't do it right. Gee thanks. This is why I hate floating. If I wanted to float every week, I would have signed on to the float pool. It's ridiculous.
Floating is garbage. I chose my specialty for a reason. If management on other units cannot staff them, it piss poor on their part and they should be disciplined.
Specializes in critical care, ER,ICU, CVSURG, CCU.
In my 43+yrs...as RN, the most scarred invade ever been, was being pulled to CV NICU, Amy exp CCU, cvICU, MICU, ER,....geeeeze.....15-30ml blood transfusion......my hats off to NICU, nurses í ½í¸
Floating is garbage. I chose my specialty for a reason. If management on other units cannot staff them, it piss poor on their part and they should be disciplined.
I used to hate floating until I realized literally every unit in the hospital is easier than mine. I'd go back to my unit to take my break and visit my coworkers and work harder in my 30 minute break answering call lights and trying to help them catch up then I would the other 12.5 hours when I'd be on the other unit where their hard patients are comparable to our easy ones. And I'd have 4 patients instead of 3 for the acuity difference. Bring it.
It seems like you and the supervisor put great thought into the necessary float assignment. That is more than a lot of areas I have worked in.
As long as you and the supervisor feel it is a safe assignment, the nurse needs to act like a professional and take their assigned turn gracefully. If their job description includes floating as necessary, and the nurse is not accepting the assignment in a timely fashion.. you have two options. Write them up and/ or inform the nurse manager of the problem.
Specializes in UR/PA, Hematology/Oncology, Med Surg, Psych.
I hate floating also and it should be an issue of safety that the ANA handles nationally, but they are too busy writing theories or something to do anything useful like that. Anyway, I honestly think floating should be outlawed. Administration thinks a nurse, is a nurse, is a nurse, since we all went to nursing school. Well why don't they have the Podiatrist over in L&D, or the Pediatrician over in OR; a Dr, is a Dr, is a Dr. They all went to Medical School right????
I am looking to leave acute care ASAP and floating is one huge reason why.
This is why nurses get walked all over by the hospital. People on this post acting like it’s their duty to get floated off of floors out of their specialty. Really, it’s a great way to make a medical error and lose your license. Dealing with a patient population you’re not familiar and equipment that you are not because your hospital doesn’t mind gambling with house money. It’s your license, what do they care? And frankly, I wouldn’t float for $3/hour extra. Wouldn’t touch it for less than time and 1/2. I’d rather make somewhat less at a hospital that never floats me than work at a hospital that does.
and like someone has already said, they overstaff good floors and start using them as float pools. The old bait and switch, you’re going to be a psych nurse but really your a float nurse that we tricked into being here. I’m disappointed in what nursing has become, everywhere I look, nurses afraid to advocate for their patients and theirselves. No unions, allow hospitals to use us as doormats: float here, take out trash, change linens, do dietary work, do house keeping, do stocking. Grow a backbone.
NurseFrustrated
116 Posts
I agree. I don't mind to do my fair share of floating but lately it has been happening to me once or twice a week. I am NOT in the float pool. I have a home unit. My hospital makes us do it all the time and we get NO extra pay for it. We never get any warning. We come in expecting to be on our home unit and never know we are pulled until we get there. We are told that we are not to complain about it either. We can get pulled two or three days in a row to different units and they never rotate who is pulled. I think they just pick a name out of a hat or something. It is completely unfair. No wonder everybody is quitting and they have to pull nurses all the time.
My hospital is also the kind that dumps the worst and hardest patient on the nurse that is pulled (because the nurses on that unit don't want to deal with them and know that the float person will be none the wiser). I was pulled tonight and they dumped the hardest patient on me. And this is a specialized unit. These nurses should have taken care of that patient. The other nurses even skipped rooms around all over the place to avoid that patient. Plus they left all the wound care for me to do, wound care that we rarely ever do on my unit and that I'm certainly no expert at. Then they will complain that you don't do it right. Gee thanks. This is why I hate floating. If I wanted to float every week, I would have signed on to the float pool. It's ridiculous.