Why You Might Want to be a Traveling Float Nurse

Float nurse jobs offer opportunities for travelers to earn higher pay, learn new skills, and impress their hiring managers.

When you’re reviewing possibilities for your next travel assignment, and the hiring market is tight, the willingness to float can give you a real advantage. Hiring managers are looking for RNs who can be flexible and take on a variety of roles.

A "floating" travel nurse assignment usually requires an RN to fill one of two roles. First, it can mean that the hospital is seeking a nurse who will regularly float among a variety of interrelated units. For example, an employer may hire a med-surg RN to work on various medical and surgical units or a mother-baby nurse to float among several postpartum, antepartum, and well-baby units. In other instances, “float nurse” may mean that the traveler is expected to report for shifts at a variety of affiliated, closely-situated hospitals instead of working all of their shifts for an assignment at one facility.

There are obvious challenges that come with either type of float assignment. It is likely that as a float nurse, you will spend less time on any given unit. This can make it more difficult to settle into a routine and can make it take longer to develop relationships with other staff members. It means learning where different tools are kept on several different floors, knowing who to ask to sign off on your timesheet, and familiarizing yourself with several different potential commutes.

At this point you’re probably wondering, “Why would any travel nurse in their right mind take a float nurse travel job?” We asked our nurses, and here’s what we learned:

Facility employers know that float positions require extra flexibility and adaptability from travel nurses. In an effort to offset additional challenges and attract the highest caliber nurses, most healthcare employers offer high pay rates for float positions, sometimes raising rates by as much as 15%. If you’re pursuing a travel nurse career to make money, you might consider talking to your recruiter about float travel assignments.

Maybe you’re a med-surg nurse who hasn’t had much experience with neuro or ortho patients, or a critical care nurse who hasn’t dealt with burns. As a float nurse, you often have the opportunity to experience specialized units that wouldn’t usually be part of your job description. Whether you end up loving the specialized unit and pursuing it long-term or you merely have something new to note on your resume, diversifying your experience is sure to deepen your skills as a nurse and increase your marketability as you seek future employment.

In the past, we’ve talked about the fact that seeing “travel nurse” on a staff nurse's resume is highly appealing to hiring managers. Managers know that being a successful travel nurse requires a high degree of clinical skill in addition to personal attributes like adaptability, communicativeness, and dependability. The reality is that seeing “float travel nurse” denotes an extra measure of all of these characteristics. Float nurses must be a little more clinically sound, a little extra adaptable, a little better at communication, and a little more dependable for hospital employers to trust them to constantly be on different units or even in different facilities at their assigned time, potentially working shift after shift without ever returning to the same unit twice. A hiring manager can have confidence that a nurse who withstood the pressure of being a float nurse successfully will excel under the pressures of a staff nurse position.

While it doesn’t happen often, travel nurses often worry about the possibility of being called off of scheduled shifts or sent home early during periods of low hospital census. Float nurses don’t usually face this concern. The hospital knows you’re adaptable and will quickly acclimate to whichever unit needs you. This means they’re more likely to find you somewhere to work even during rare periods of decreased census.

Travel nurses float. If you talk to any traveler with a few assignments on their resume, they’ll tell you you are likely to encounter a request to float. The reality is that the needs of a hospital employers are constantly changing; travel nurses are adaptable, and many travel jobs require that the hospital pays the traveler even if the nurse doesn’t work. The employer is going to pay you, so they will find a unit for you. As a result, they float you to a unit similar to the unit you’re working on. We encourage new travelers to venture a bit outside the comfort zone. After all, it can be an opportunity to make some extra money and gain some extra experience.

The next time you’re reviewing positions with your recruiter and you hear about a float nurse travel job, we suggest you consider it. If you’re comfortable being flexible, the potential for higher pay and diversified experience could well be worth the effort!