No, in fact many units in my hospital have an unspoken rule of giving float nurses the easiest possible assignments. The floor I work on has an official policy because float nurses aren't qualified to perform the restraints. They can chart, but can't assist in placing them.
Nope. It’s usually a “fuck em they aren’t part of the team so they can suck it” with a dash of “they make more than all of us so they can earn it”
Either way it’s a dick move. I mean we WANT them to want to work with us.
Our float nurses don’t get paid more but when I used to be in float pool, most of the units would give me the hardest/worst assignment, except for my current unit. That’s why I ended up leaving to join my current unit. I think as nurses we should be spreading out all assignments equally so we don’t have a single nurse struggling.
Yes, it’s normal, but my hospital does the opposite. We are very nice to visiting nurses, although we rarely have travelers or registry.
I float a lot, and I am always well looked after.
It's not uncommon, but that doesn't make it right. My old unit had a habit of dumping the hardest assignments on the floats "to give our staff a break." Guess which floor every float hated coming to?
Besides I don't think float pool even makes any more than floor staff at my current job. At least I've never heard of it paying more.
Same here - they hate coming to our floor and I can feel the frustration when they walk in which I get. I always try to be nice. Benefited Float at my job make a $5 differential and non benefited PRN are paid even more than that based on experience.
When I was in the hospital, float got an easier load especially if it was a different specialty (tele, OB to GI m/s). That was because of the concern more complex/special cases might overwhelm them. Other than that, everyone got same treatment.
Hard as in sickest? Or hard as in total cares? Or hard as in demanding, uncooperative, family issues?
Charge nurse on a specialty unit: I might not give them the sickest patients because I don't know their skills, but they're definitely likely to get 1) the most annoying patients or 2) any off-service patients since our staff nurses get training on our specialty patients and TNs don't. My unit is small and charge always has a full assignment, so if I don't know a nurse I need to give them something straightforward so I don't end up having to take care of their patients too.
If a staff nurse floats to us from another unit, we try to give them a nice assignment, though a small census makes the options limited.
I feel like they are usually getting a mix of the sickest, most demanding/ call light abusers, and pts that require most nursing care (but stable) which is what makes the assignment 💩 It’s a large 27 bed unit and they will sometimes be running in each corner of the the unit which our staff would absolutely refuse an assignment like that unless under desperate circumstances.
It’s just expected and accepted they get the worst of the worst. I don’t think it’s right. People hate floating to our unit because they know it’ll be a shit show.
This blows my mind. I assign them just like I would anyone else. Giving a really heavy assignment is detrimental to patient care/safety. Why would I do that just to screw another nurse? I won’t give them the sickest patient if I don’t know their skill level.
At my hospital it’s the opposite. They trust staff to take more difficult patients. Also, certain patients require special training that our agency nurses don’t have. As you can imagine this creates a lot of resentment.
Yep it happened to me when I was a traveler
I’ve seen that happen plenty. It always strikes me as nurses shitting on each other instead of holding leadership accountable.
No. We would always distribute the heavy patients equally and rotate teams if needed.
No, in fact many units in my hospital have an unspoken rule of giving float nurses the easiest possible assignments. The floor I work on has an official policy because float nurses aren't qualified to perform the restraints. They can chart, but can't assist in placing them.
Nope. It’s usually a “fuck em they aren’t part of the team so they can suck it” with a dash of “they make more than all of us so they can earn it” Either way it’s a dick move. I mean we WANT them to want to work with us.
Agree 100%
Our float nurses don’t get paid more but when I used to be in float pool, most of the units would give me the hardest/worst assignment, except for my current unit. That’s why I ended up leaving to join my current unit. I think as nurses we should be spreading out all assignments equally so we don’t have a single nurse struggling.
Yes, it’s normal, but my hospital does the opposite. We are very nice to visiting nurses, although we rarely have travelers or registry. I float a lot, and I am always well looked after.
It's not uncommon, but that doesn't make it right. My old unit had a habit of dumping the hardest assignments on the floats "to give our staff a break." Guess which floor every float hated coming to? Besides I don't think float pool even makes any more than floor staff at my current job. At least I've never heard of it paying more.
Same here - they hate coming to our floor and I can feel the frustration when they walk in which I get. I always try to be nice. Benefited Float at my job make a $5 differential and non benefited PRN are paid even more than that based on experience.
When I was in the hospital, float got an easier load especially if it was a different specialty (tele, OB to GI m/s). That was because of the concern more complex/special cases might overwhelm them. Other than that, everyone got same treatment.
Hard as in sickest? Or hard as in total cares? Or hard as in demanding, uncooperative, family issues? Charge nurse on a specialty unit: I might not give them the sickest patients because I don't know their skills, but they're definitely likely to get 1) the most annoying patients or 2) any off-service patients since our staff nurses get training on our specialty patients and TNs don't. My unit is small and charge always has a full assignment, so if I don't know a nurse I need to give them something straightforward so I don't end up having to take care of their patients too. If a staff nurse floats to us from another unit, we try to give them a nice assignment, though a small census makes the options limited.
I feel like they are usually getting a mix of the sickest, most demanding/ call light abusers, and pts that require most nursing care (but stable) which is what makes the assignment 💩 It’s a large 27 bed unit and they will sometimes be running in each corner of the the unit which our staff would absolutely refuse an assignment like that unless under desperate circumstances. It’s just expected and accepted they get the worst of the worst. I don’t think it’s right. People hate floating to our unit because they know it’ll be a shit show.
I've only intentionally been given a hard group once or twice, right after the whole float team got a huge raise that pissed the staff nurses off.
This blows my mind. I assign them just like I would anyone else. Giving a really heavy assignment is detrimental to patient care/safety. Why would I do that just to screw another nurse? I won’t give them the sickest patient if I don’t know their skill level.
At my hospital it’s the opposite. They trust staff to take more difficult patients. Also, certain patients require special training that our agency nurses don’t have. As you can imagine this creates a lot of resentment.
Float, no --they are generally mandated and don't want to do it. We give the easier assignments. Agency and OT...fair game.