Shift availability for nurses in Cali (& elsewhere)

I am wondering what are the commonly available shifts for nurses in California, and in the nation in general. This is crucial to me, because I am starting a bachelor's nursing program in January and I need to know if I can expect to work at hours that will be congruous with my own life. Of course, i am talking about hospitals primarily here, but other considerations are noteworthy also.

It seems that I have heard and read (I have posted this question here before, last year) that the common shifts for hospitals (and maybe any other places, I do not know) are 7 pm to 7 am and 7 am to 7 pm. Neither of those shifts is even remotely acceptable to me. When I heard that, I just shrugged it off as unfeasible that the hospitals, etc... would limit their own pool of potential employees by only offering such terrible hours and I also could not believe that the nurses themselves would allow such a condition to occur. After all, nurses have enormous and unprecedented bargaining power right now... why would they accept such terrible hours as their only option? Long story short, I didn't believe it when I heard it, and none of the info has sounded very all-inclusive... It has occurred to me that urgently I need to learn the truth of this matter.


I may need to be able to start sometime from 10 am or later, and quit sometime before approximately 2 am.


Is it true that most shifts in the nation would require me to work at those hours? What about alternative nursing positions.... non hospital jobs, or anything else that you can think of?

Thank you for your help,

J