Danielle Herrera takes a nearly six-hour long flight from Miami every other week to work as a float pool nurse at UCLA Health.
A single mom with a 12-year-old son, she has – for the past eight years – traveled to work in hospitals across California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington.
“Some people take cars to work,” she said. “I take airplanes.”
Herrera started working at UCLA in April 2024 with the understanding that she would work a total of four shifts throughout the month. But, during her first month on the job, UCLA changed the scheduling policy for float pool nurses, and Herrera received an email stating that, starting in May, she would have to work one shift per week.
Herrera said this policy change negatively impacts UCLA’s float pool nurses, many of whom commute to Westwood from far-flung locations.
Float pool nurses hold a unique position in hospital ecosystems. They perform many of the same duties as standard unit nurses but fill in other staffing gaps as needed, said David Yamada, an ICU nurse at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. Kimberly Anderson, a float pool nurse at the medical center, said float pool nurses are classified as “per diem” part-time employees, only working 30% of the hours required of full-time employees.
Under the previous policy, Herrera used to stack all four required shifts in one week. But now, she has to fly in and out of Los Angeles every other week rather than once per month.
Herrera said the change has negatively affected her quality of life and increased the financial burden of the job.
In a seven-month investigation, the Daily Bruin spoke to 11 UCLA float pool nurses, unit nurses and union representatives. Several said they are struggling to adjust to the scheduling policy changes, and some are now questioning whether they can reasonably continue working as float pool nurses at UCLA.
Anderson said the added flexibility and pay is an exchange for not receiving benefits.
“There was a lot of freedom and flexibility,” she said. “That’s the main benefit of the float pool.”
Simisola Ajidele, a float pool nurse at the medical center, said the flexibility in scheduling under the old policy allowed her to take care of her mother who lives in Houston.
She said she is now worried she will not be able to manage the stricter requirements of the role while still fulfilling her caretaking responsibilities.
“If things do come up with my mom and I have to go, I don’t want to feel like my job is in jeopardy,” she said.
But float pool nurses are restricted to four absences per year, Anderson said, adding that, in the fall, she used her quarterly absence after her flight home was canceled, making her unable to call out when she later injured her back.
Because of the policy change, one float pool nurse said they were unable to change their shift to spend time with their severely ill father. The nurse, who was granted anonymity because of fear of retaliation, said their father ended up going into cardiac arrest while they were on shift.
“They’ve taken away the flexibility, and that’s why people are on the float pool,” Anderson said. “People have children. People have elder care.”
Phil Hampton, a UCLA Health spokesperson, said in an emailed statement that he believes the current scheduling guidelines do not impact float pool nurses’ flexibility.
“Scheduling guidelines in place since July 2024 have provided enhanced consistency in the available ‘pool’ of per diem nurses,” he said in the statement.
Hampton added in the statement that per diem nurses previously satisfied their four-shifts-per-month requirement by working four days in a row, which reduced UCLA’s ability to adequately and consistently staff the hospital. The new guidelines were implemented based on input from per diem nurses and an extensive study, he said in the statement.
But Anderson said the nurses were not informed the hospital was facing scheduling or staffing issues with float pool nurses before the change. Hospital administrators also changed the reasoning they gave for the policy shift multiple times, Iain Ohkura, a critical care resource nurse at UCLA Health said.
“I never got a clear message directly from my manager why this was happening,” Herrera said.
Herrera was hired shortly before the new policy was announced, but she said she received no warning about the change.
“When I applied for the position, what I thought I was getting isn’t what I got,” she said.
When the new policy was first announced with 30 days notice, Elizabeth Maister, the senior director of nursing business systems at UCLA Health, told the nurses that they can be replaced, Ajidele said.
Another float pool nurse, who was granted anonymity because of fear of retaliation from UCLA Health management, said the new policy was forced onto the nurses without any opportunity to provide feedback.
The California Nurses Association is a union representing both float pool and unit nurses across the state and within the UC system with over 20,000 nurse members, said Yamada, the union’s chief nurse representative at the medical center.
Yamada said UCLA has been hiring more per diem float pool nurses to address short-staffing needs, something he said they do to avoid having to provide benefits.
Neil Rudis, a float pool nurse at the medical center, said the strong presence of unions in California hospitals attracts out-of-state nurses because they provide avenues for nurse advocacy. However, communication with UCLA about the policy change and other union grievances has been limited this year.
CNA representatives are supposed to meet with the chief nursing officer quarterly, but the CNO has canceled those meetings twice in the past year without offering to reschedule, Rudis said.
”That’s the time we can talk to administration,” Rudis said. “Unfortunately, by and large, we’ve seen an attitude from management that is dismissive.”
This sentiment is also felt by members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, a union representing hospital staffers, including groundskeepers, cleaners, security guards and parking attendants, said Todd Stenhouse, a spokesperson for the union.
“UC has come to the table with demonstrably bad faith,” Stenhouse said. “It takes two parties to negotiate an agreement.”
Anderson said she believes the hospital could resolve issues with scheduling vacancies by allowing float pool nurses to work more than 30% of the time. She added that the hospital avoids this solution because assigning float pool nurses more hours would require them to provide benefits.
Float pool nurses often have to increase their patient load at the last minute due to short-staffing issues. As a result, nurses are more burnt out, and the quality of patient care is decreasing, Anderson said.
“When the nurse is overworked and they have too much going on with patients, it’s … more of a potential for things to happen – more mistakes to happen,” she said.
However, Hampton said in an emailed statement that the new policy does not impact the quality of care.
“We value our nurses’ commitment, compassion, and skill, and are confident in the details of our staffing program,” the statement said.
Ajidele said before the policy change, most float pool nurses worked exclusively at either Ronald Reagan Medical Center or the UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center. But now, float pool nurses no longer have a home base and instead find out where they are working on the day of their shift, making it difficult to plan for housing and commute options, Ajidele said.
“They rent a car, sleep in the car and shower at the gym,” she said.
Linzy Canyock, a float pool registered nurse at UCLA Health, said one of her coworkers flies in from North Carolina and sleeps in her car before her shifts because she cannot find weekly housing.
Many of the nurses said administration made them feel “disposable” when they raised concerns about the policy change.
“They were just like, ‘If 200 people quit, we’ll hire 200 people more. We don’t care,” said Ohkura.
Ajidele said hospital administration has not been transparent about the number of nurses who have chosen to quit or take a leave of absence because of the policy change.
She added that nurse satisfaction is no longer a part of hospital culture.
“When I first started working there, I used to tell people, ‘I work in the best hospital in the country’ because they prioritize nurses, inputs and things like that,” Ajidele said. “I don’t know if it’s just the atmosphere, but I feel like – as years have gone – they’ve just been putting it back on the back burner.”
