Today I have officially decided that I hate floating. When you're nice enough to come in on your off day, I think it's B.S. to have to float to an unfamiliar floor. I'm not a whiner. I accept my assignment and report to my unit like I'm expected to. But I felt like I was doing the bare minimum to get through the shift, and I don't like working or feeling like that.
I could go on and on about how horrible my noc was, but I won't and I'm too frustrated. I'm sure many of you have felt the same way about floating. My biggest problem was that the nurse I was working with didn't lift a finger to help. I'm courteous to nurses that float to my unit because I know how it feels to be out of your comfort zone.
Just needed to vent and say it again... I HATE FLOATING!
I hear you! I work CVICU and get floated pretty frequently to SICU MICU, and ER. It's so irritating because we purposely sign up for OT days on my unit so we aren't understaffed. The other units don't do that, so we end up floating to staff theirs. When we float, it's never a choice on your day off either. It is one of your scheduled days...definitely leads to some resentment. I've worked with some pretty nice and thankful staff so far, but I have heard of them making some unfair assignments to some of my fellow CV nurses. For example, assigning a fresh craniotomy or tripling someone with an admission. If one of our surgeons found out we assigned one of our open hearts to a float nurse, heads would roll.[/quote']
That's when you stand up for yourself. Even if you have to get ugly about it.
One floor in my hospital is notorious for playing "screw the help". First thing I do when I arrive is check the assignment. If I think I'm getting dealt a raw deal, I refuse report until the assignment gets rebalanced.
Another thing I will not miss about floor nursing! A nurse is a nurse is the facility's thought but so untrue. I worked oncology and was floated to L & D once.....really?
Yep. In a local hospital I applied for, an employee told me that if they were overstaffed, they would send me home and bring in a float nurse because they get paid less that me (on mother/baby). Yikes!
My employer gives us the option to say that we don't wish to float if we sign up for overtime, and it's noted by scheduling. If a float is needed when our overtime shift rolls around, then our shift gets cancelled.
I'm an aide, but this definitely applies to me. I am floated SO often that people always ask if I am part of their floor and/or a different unit. Granted, I like being floating (on most occassions) because I get a taste of different kinds of nursing. However....
I hate it when I pick up a shift on a different unit and then get floated onto another floor. If I am picking up hours at Unit B (when my home unit is C), I do NOT want to be floated to Unit A. I don't mind getting floating back to my home floor, but I don't appreciate picking up hours at another unit and then they turn around and decide they don't need me and "give me" to some other floor that I am NOT familiar with.
In that case, they should give me the option to stay home.
I can only believe that it is worse as a nurse. I couldn't imagine being a NICU nurse who is then floated to an Oncology floor, or a Psych nurse being floated to an Orthopedic floor.
Well lets see...I'm an ICU nurse so our Nursing office figures that I ought to be able to work in EVERY dept in the hospital from OB to Psych. And I've even been put IN CHARGE of different units such as our inpatient Detox unit and the Geriatric med/surg unit without any proper orientation to such roles. And when I voiced my concern over it I was basically told to put up and shut up!!!! Detox is a LOT of paperwork. Our ICU and Med/Surg depts are completely computerized. Detox, OB and Psych aren't! It's VERY frustrating. When OB nurses float to our unit they aren't required to take an assignment, which they'd be given a non-critical patient. But I've been given a mom-baby couplet when I've been pulled to OB!
When OB is floated to ICU, they frequently 'disappear' because they have to go ready a room for the next days scheduled c-section and check the warmers. Umm, really? It takes you FOUR HOURS to do that? Meanwhile, I haven't even had a chance to PEE yet, let alone EAT my lunch?? I don't ask them to do much. Check temps, tip foleys and do bloodsugars. The OB girls constantly lie to our nursing supervisors telling them they were places when they weren't, instead they were sitting down in the OB dept watching movies on their laptops. And they are the HIGHEST paid nurses in the building. The weekend program OB RN's are making MORE than the Weekend Nursing supervisors.
The ICU I work in is the cotton-picking float pool for most of the hospital that I work at!!! Thank goodness we do not have OB or Peds!!
There are a couple of units I refuse to work in because I have not been adequately oriented to the area. I was pulled to the ER today. I was thankful because the 2 patients I would have gotten In ICU were pains in the butt
dansamy
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