What About Float Nursing

westieluv · Jun 25, 2011

A float nurse is one who works on various units throughout the hospital. Each time you work, you will work on the unit where you are needed most. You may end up working on the same unit all week, or you may work on a different unit every day, depending on the hospital's staffing needs.

I would not personally recommend being a float nurse to a new grad, and here's why. In most hospitals, the various units have different ways of doing things. They will probably have the same type of charting and general rules and guidelines, but different clinical managers run things differently, so each time you float to a different unit, you will have to remember how things are done there. Also, things are kept in different places on different units. Not a big deal if you work in a small hospital with three Med/Surg units, but I used to work in a large teaching hospital where I floated to at least ten different units. Some of them were laid out completely different than others, and even though I had several years of Med/Surg float experience, I still had a tough time remembering how each unit was set up and where to go to find things that I needed. Also, different units have different specialties, meaning that you will have to be up on everything from orthopedic, to oncology, to renal, to cardiac stepdown and be ready to work in any of those areas at a moment's notice. Most new grads may have the knowledge to do that, but not the confidence or experience.

Another thing that I think is important as a new grad is the comeraderie that you develop from working on a specific unit. Being a float nurse can be a lonely experience and you can feel out of the loop if you work on a floor where everyone works together on a daily basis and have that special bond that you develop from that. Being a new grad can feel lonely enough, without not being a part of a group of nurses who get to know you very well and look out for you and become your friends. You can make friends as a float nurse, but it usually takes a long time because you have to be floated to the same unit many times to develop those friendships.

I have been a Med/Surg float nurse for many years, but I didn't start out as one and I wouldn't have wanted to. When I was a new grad learning the ropes, I worked on a specific Med/Surg unit where I got to know everyone and the older nurses took me under their wings and looked out for me. As a float nurse, you are much more on your own.

CJ2blpn2017 · Jun 28, 2011

Hello, westieluv:

I want to thank you for answering my post, you gave me some very helpful advice. Right now I am a pre-nursing major going for my BSN. I think when and if I get into a nursing program and graduate I think that I may do A year of Med/Surg It sounds like to me that this would be a better route to go. I thank you for your time.

Carmen

westieluv · Jun 29, 2011

You're welcome. :)

Another thing I forgot to mention is that when you float, the regular nurses on the unit like to give you the patients that they don't want. I once floated to a unit with four patients in contact isolation and they gave me three of them! I was only working a four hour shift, so I didn't say much, but that was ridiculous. They also give float nurses patients who are confused, combative, demanding, etc. that they are tired of dealing with. This isn't always the case, but it happens a lot.

The reason why I still float is because I want to work on a contingent basis so that I can make my own schedule and because the facility where I work pays me $2 more an hour to float to four different units. However, if I ever went part-time or full-time again, I would want to be on the same unit each time I worked. It's just easier.

tokmom, BSN, RN · Jul 4, 2011

You're welcome. :)
Another thing I forgot to mention is that when you float, the regular nurses on the unit like to give you the patients that they don't want. I once floated to a unit with four patients in contact isolation and they gave me three of them! I was only working a four hour shift, so I didn't say much, but that was ridiculous. They also give float nurses patients who are confused, combative, demanding, etc. that they are tired of dealing with. This isn't always the case, but it happens a lot.
The reason why I still float is because I want to work on a contingent basis so that I can make my own schedule and because the facility where I work pays me $2 more an hour
to float to four different units. However, if I ever went part-time or full-time again, I would want to be on the same unit each time I worked. It's just easier.

OMG, isn't that the truth! I always got the crap assignments when I floated.

Otherwise on the good days, I liked to float. Less politics that way,

Aeterna, BSN, RN · Jul 26, 2011

Depends on the hospital, I think. If you want to look into being a float nurse, be sure you know where you'll be going and if you want to do it.

I know several medical float nurses, many of them who started as new grads. Most of them seem to like it well enough. They enjoy the diversity of the patients they see, and if they get tired of one unit, they are comforted knowing that they won't have to stay there! Still, I can't imagine floating between 10 units, as one of the above posters said. Our medical float team only floats between 3 units.

They do often complain they get the "crappy assignments", though, and I think there is a bit of truth to that (I think, in general, the newer people get the less ideal assignments, not just the float team).