Second job at same hospital

[nampa1]

I currently have a non-floor job at the hospital; however, I have seen several nurses in the same non-floor, non-clinical job work as a nurse in other hospital systems. My questions are:

1. Do the nurses work second jobs for employment safety (in case they are fired at their primary job), primarily or is it to keep clinical skills up, primarily?

2. Given the former consideration, working a second floor job as a back up in case of firing, is it usual, or smart, to work the floor job at the same hospital system as the non-floor, non-clinical job? That is, if one is fired from one job, are they automatically fired from the other job, and, therefore, it is smart to hold two jobs, each at different hospital systems/employers? 

Thanks!

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

1. Some do it for extra money, others do it to keep up clinical skills, others do it to keep a foot in the door at two facilities. For example, several nurses in my OR dropped to PRN to travel during the crazy travel boom. They'd do an assignment, come back and meet their PRN shift requirements, and go take another assignment. Then when the travel contracts started drying up, they came back full time.

2. If you're fired by an employer, you're typically fired fired. It's not fired from one position but keep another, it's complete separation from all employment. Also, some employers may not allow people to hold more than one position that adds up to more than a 1.0FTE (40 hours/week) because then they'd have to pay OT rates.