Float Pool Nurses

The existence of float pools and resource teams in the medical sectors serves to supplement the inadequate nursing staff in the hospitals and cut costs for hospitals. Float pools are beneficial to the hospitals, patients, but leaves nurses dissatisfied. While the research was conducted it utilized the use of other written articles and materials to find out the benefits and disadvantages of float pools Float pools serve as a source for nurses when hospitals need them. Hospitals can easily hire more nurses if need be or reduce them if they do not need them. Float pools are beneficial to hospitals as they help them save money on recruitment, beneficial to patients who have people to look after them. However, nurses felt dissatisfied with the use of float pools because the jobs are unstable. They therefore leave the float pools anytime for more stable jobs. Overall, float pools are a benefit to all stakeholders in the medical sector. The patients, hospitals, and the nurses benefit in different ways. While the nurses are in the float pools, they can be able to get work before they get permanent jobs. The use of float pools should therefore be encouraged through the country. In the future, however there is the need to conduct more research on the financial benefits of study pools to hospitals. The research implied that float pools are beneficial for the practice of nurses. Nurses should therefore take up jobs through float pools. Moreover, nurses should not be forced to float so that they can be less stressed. The research sought to find out how to help nurses cope with unfamiliar units while working. How do nurses cope with the stress associated with unfamiliar units? The research was used by collecting data with the use of questionnaires from float nurses. When the research was conducted, nurses identified four areas of concern for them as float nurses. Communication, routine, storage of personal equipment and admissions, transfer and discharge. When the nurses moved to unfamiliar units they are worried about the places available to store their personal equipment in addition to the routines they should follow in a given station. Further communication with other medical personnel such as doctors and pharmacist is a problem and the unit specific information they should know. In conclusion, nurses need to learn unit specific rules as well as hospital wide rules. Each unit has its own routine where other nurses can help a new nurse while hospital wide rules, which are applicable in all hospitals, care applicable. Future research should sought to help nurses cope with any kind of stress that they might encounter while working in a new unit. The practice implies that there is stress that nurses undergo when they join a new unit. Therefore un it nurses should be helped to cope with a new situation so that they can give their best at work The study sought to find out the staffing patterns between float pool nurses and scheduled unit staff nurses. Are float pool nurses given more difficult tasks than scheduled unit staff nurses are? A survey was carried out though observing and interviewing 217 nurses in various units. The study showed that there was great difference in the staffing patterns between float nurses and scheduled unit staff nurses. The float nurses were given more difficult tasks such as caring for patients in critical conditions or mentally confused patients. On the other hand, scheduled staff nurses were tasked with caring for nurses who were more stable both mentally and physically. As result, float pool nurses prove to be more stressed at work than the scheduled staff nurses. Float pool nurses are not contracted permanently and therefore they might be tasked by hospital heads to care for the difficult patients. However, they should not be marginalized because they are not permanent. If they are stressed at work, it will affect their performance. They should be distributed in hospitals equally to other nurses in the field. The nurses should be treated well because they help hospitals cut on administration costs as well as recruiting costs. The study is necessary for future studies concerni9ng float nurses. However, the number of nurses to be used in the research should be increased and the units to be researched should be well defined for clearer comparison. The study implied that float pool nurses receive more difficult patient’s situation than staffed nurses. Therefore, it is clear that float pool nurses have a hard time while practicing. The research finds out whether some nurses are given more difficult assignments than others are. Is it a fact or fiction that there is inequity of patients’ assignments? The research was carried out with the use of observation where nurses with over one year of experience were observed on the number of shifts they had and the tasks they were given. After the research was conducted, it was realized that some groups of nurses were given more work than others. Therefore, research proved the theory that there was inequality in assigning patients assignments. Nurses with more experience were given more tasks and more shifts than those with less experience do. The hospital heads were not aware of the fact some nurses had more tasks despite being the ones that give assignments. This shows that the heads are not keen on how they give assignments to nurses. Even after the observation was completed, it was discovered that the unfair distribution of work continued. The more experience that a nurse has at work the more work they are given. However, the inequality on work distribution leads to stress at work as those overloaded are pressured to work more hours involuntarily. The research will affect future research as in the future there is the need to go into deeper research on whether the people who are given more tasks are in good terms with the management. Moreover, those with lesser workloads should be observed to note whether they are deemed incompetent in their work in any way. The study implied that there might be unfair distribution of nursing duties not only in one hospital, but also in many institutions. It is therefore important for hospital heads to be more conscious while allocating duties to nurses to avoid stressing some nurses.

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