Taking a Position as a Float Nurse as a New Grad

Been there,done that, ASN, RN · Jul 11, 2016

There are many threads on this topic that will give you other insights. Some nurses feel they can handle float pool, many do not.

I started doing agency work and float pool after 25 years of experience. Float pool was a challenge that took all that I had to succeed. I was on a different unit with a different patients every day. I personally feel new grads need to learn their skills in a stable environment.

Best of luck, wherever you land. Let us know what you decided.

sallyrnrrt, ADN, RN · Jul 11, 2016

For me my new grad job was a teaching hosp CCU, census demands I would occasionally be. Floated to ICU, cvicu, Micu, neuro ICU, and ER......it was doable as I was a critical care "junkie". It was also adult critical care..... But I had my home unit in CCU.......floating the whole house would be a challenge, esp. Peds., obgyn, ortho., oncology etc.....

as as a new grad I was adept in adult critical care......but my first love was CCU......

qnmimi · Jul 11, 2016

I started in my hospital's float pool as a new grad many years ago, and I can call it a success as I am still there, but have moved up the clinical ladder. Yes success can be achieved with a great orientation program designed to teach you basic nursing along with supporting flexibility, and constant learning. Learning all your co workers names on all the floors can be a challenge, but making sure people know who you are, and stressing you are part of their team for that day helps. You will learn many skills in nursing that nurses who are assigned to a specific unit will not, and your time management skills will be phenomenal with the right mentor. I have found float staff to be quite useful, especially for "that patient that they don't normally get" as you most likely will be able to teach those co workers something too! Be open to the possibilities. If you have the right personality fit for the float pool, talking to other float staff, or their manager during the interview process can help you mesh the float culture(and they do have one) with what type of job you'd enjoy.

Larry3373 · Jul 11, 2016

I transferred to float pool after almost 4 years bedside including 2 years in the ICU. I'm not sure I would fare well working in every unit of the hospital (excluding L&D and surgery) if I did not have that background. I would say it depends on the orientation and educational opportunities offered. At my hospital, float pool means we work in every unit. We are full time employees that are paid more than 10 dollars an hour extra for working float pool. So the advantages are that my check looks great, I know where most supplies can be found in the hospital, I get to meet many new people, and I'm building a great resume. I do believe that I might have made some serious errors by now without 4 years of nursing experience. Again, with a great orientation and some awesome coworkers, perhaps I could make it as a new grad, I don't know. Maybe float pool doesn't float to the critical care areas in your hospital. You can always try it out, and if you're not comfortable with your orientation, you can resign, or ask to be assigned to one unit only.

Kitiger, RN · Jul 11, 2016

I started out in the med-surge float pool, and I added critical care float after taking an EKG class. (Yeah, I know it's called 'ECG' now, but not back in the day.) I enjoyed float; it was almost always interesting, I got the easier patients when I floated to critical care, and I stayed out of the politics. Plus, the unit to which I floated was always glad to see me. Without a float nurse, they would have had to work short-staffed.

It helped me cement my nursing knowledge.

Granted, I was a hospital-based diploma grad, and I was working in the same hospital. I had worked all of these units as a student, and we had a LOT of experience on the floors.

From what I read here, it seems that nursing students don't get much experience with real patients. Certainly, they don't get anywhere near the time on the floor that we had. So I can't really tell you what to expect nowadays.

The times, they are a changing.

AutumnApple · Jul 11, 2016

I started out in the med-surge float pool, and I added critical care float after taking an EKG class. (Yeah, I know it's called 'ECG' now, but not back in the day.) I enjoyed float; it was almost always interesting, I got the easier patients when I floated to critical care, and I stayed out of the politics. Plus, the unit to which I floated was always glad to see me. Without a float nurse, they would have had to work short-staffed.
It helped me cement my nursing knowledge.
Granted, I was a hospital-based diploma grad, and I was working in the same hospital. I had worked all of these units as a student, and we had a LOT of experience on the floors.
From what I read here, it seems that nursing students don't get much experience with real patients. Certainly, they don't get anywhere near the time on the floor that we had. So I can't really tell you what to expect nowadays.
The times, they are a changing.

Hmph...........I love hospital based nursing programs. I did well in my community college program and wouldn't change having gone there. If I had to pick another school to attend, it would be the local hospital based program (which is still alive and strong) not any of the universities around here. Thats just my taste though.

I have seen how, especially with big university schools, you are right, students just don't seem to have the same clinical experience.

The hospital I used to work at before it closed had a good many students coming in for their clinical rotations. There was a wide variety of schools too: universities, ADN programs, LPN programs.

I'll never forget the clinical group that one day was on my unit learning 'leadership'. It was such an odd exercise in my opinion and it completely missed the point. Not to mention it promoted some bad habits/ideas that probably these students had to rid themselves of once they started working.

To learn leadership, these students were creating a ladder of authority. One student was the charge nurse, the rest were clinical nurses. The task was for the clinical nurses to delegate a task to a CNA, follow up after the task's completion, then report to the charge nurse that the task was done. The charge nurse had to fill out a form showing the group was 'in compliance' with said task being complete................so on, so forth.

So, it all amounted to these student nurses chasing the unit's CNA's around trying to convince them to fetch the patient a towel. They got mixed results, as I'm sure you can imagine. Then they spent the rest of their day complaining about the upcoming NCLEX preparation quiz or whatever.

Now, I guess I can see the wisdom in this exercise but, from my point of view, no leadership was established that day. Some students were told to 'go kick rocks' by the CNA and there was no follow up. They just told their charge nurse it was done in order to bee done with the task. I'd say this is the story for about half of the students in the group. That is just my approximation though.

Want to teach leadership? Get those students on an assignment with a couple patients (ADN programs and hospital based programs do this first semester, universities not so much), have the feel what it's like to be busy and drowning..........then have them delegate. At least then there isn't the problem of the CNA wondering why they didn't do it themselves. Even if there is.......we now get to see what it's really like trying to motivate others to help when it's needed.

I don't know. i just think there are ways to improve nursing theory and become more academic without losing touch with our roots and being afraid to get our hands dirty along with our team mates.

rnkaytee · Jul 11, 2016

I'm biased because I've spent 16 years in the NICU (started out of school). A couple of things - from what I've heard at my hospital, units tend to "dump" on the float pool nurse and tend to give them the more undesirable patients. Also, if you're floating into a unit it's because they need help and you'll be looked at to pull your own weight pretty quickly. Will the training you get prepare you for that? Also, as a new nurse you need some kind of consistently not only for your co-worker interactions but also clinical assessment skills. Part of growing as a nurse is being able to look back and say "hmm. . . that either did or did not work." If you're constantly moving floors you never have follow up on if your judgment was correct.

littlemissbookworm · Jul 20, 2016

I was a float nurse as a new grad. It was challenging at times. Some advantages is that you can list the units you've been trained on and worked on your resume (I got to put three different units on my resume after), you get to learn a variety of skills, and you get to know the different units to see where you'd like to work. I did that for about four months before getting a job on one of the units I was floating to. At that four month mark, that's when I began to feel like I needed a home. I wanted consistent support and to further develop my critical thinking. Floating was how I got into the hospital and I would do it again.