0.9 is not full time?!

[simvee]

Our hospital just quietly transitioned to a new policy, wherein 0.9 FTE nurses (3 12 hour shifts) are not considered full-time. They reassure us that this policy only affects new nurses, and old 0.9ers will be grandfathered into full time.

Of course, some of us just recently moved to 1.0 status because they asked us to​, so we're not happy that we can never go back to 0.9 without paying sky-high part-time insurance premiums!

Has anyone else heard of this? They're insisting that the "0.9 = full time" thing was an incentive to attract nurses in a shortage. I think they're just lying. I thought the whole idea was that employers wanted nurses to go to 12 hour shifts (which nurses wanted as well) because it's financially better for the company, but the only way they could convince anyone to do that was to make three 12's count as full time.

I think the take-home message here is "It's a bad economy, you're not going to find a job anywhere else, so eat it."

Anyone else's thoughts? What's the history of this?

[MunoRN, RN]

I don't want a nurse taking care of me who is working the third day of 3 12's in a row. Poor judgement on both the nurse and the employer for allowing it to happen.

You're actually safer with a Nurse who's on day 3 of 12 hour shifts than you are with a Nurse who's on day 5 of 8 hour shifts. There are multiple studies on the subject (Stone, Smith, Rogers, etc). Nurses who work 8 hour shifts full time are more sleep deprived and more fatigued than Nurses who work 12 hours. Most of the studies show little no increase in errors with 8-hour shifts but some show substantial increases in errors with the additional workdays required of an 8-hour schedule.

[snuggles49]

I don't want a nurse taking care of me who is working the third day of 3 12's in a row. Poor judgement on both the nurse and the employer for allowing it to happen.

Excuse me "poor Jugement" to work 3 12 hour shifts in a row! It happens everywhere esp in acute care settings and surprise it is what most nurses want to work. It is not just what the employer wants. Who would want to work one 12 hr shift then off a couple of days then back on a couple then off again etc. Most people like to have a stretch of days off to relax , others go to school . No one is scheduled more than 3 days per week unless they request OT. Our nurses are not anymore tired working 3 12's in a row then having the days split up and what about Continuity of Care.... what nurse wants to come in to different patients every time she works...... so please don't accuse Nurses who work 3 12 shifts in a row as having "poor Judgement".

[subee, MSN, CRNA]

I don't think doing 3 12 hour shifts in 4 days is such a hardship. Done both. Fatigue sets in on the long shifts and its hard to get enough sleep.

[chris_mnd]

Three 12 hour shifts is kinda hard for some people, but I'm totally agreed that it's better for the patient. Think about it. You're practically living with the patient, and you can't get better continuity of care than that. Many changes and mistakes have been caught by continually-caring nurses rather than new ones. Remember that caregivers and nurses in the bad old rural days did live at their patients' bedsides.

Anyway, the reason I'm griping about the change is obviously that 12 hour shifts are our only option. Well, that's not entirely true, there's always wiggle room, but it's the standard. If it's standard to take on a new hire at three 12 hour shifts, then that should be considered full time. Can you imagine hiring a hundred new nurses and telling them "Well, 36 hours here is part-time, so you're ALL part time. Anyone who wants to be full time has to come in for another four hour mini-shift." That's incredible.

It also means that they're going to have practically no 1.0 nurses, which means they're just doing this to hide a benefits cost raise.

I really don't know how they're going to tell new nurses that they're all part-time, except that HR will be doing it and they can do nothing about it so it doesn't matter.

Why are people so negative about their employers? Because while I realize my hospital is a business, it treats nurses like a disposable resource​ rather than their main means of surviving and thriving.

[anotherone, BSN, RN]

I don't want a nurse taking care of me who is working the third day of 3 12's in a row. Poor judgement on both the nurse and the employer for allowing it to happen.

You might get lucky and get one who is in her/his 5th-6th 12th in a row, mandated for four more hours! I have seen that plenty of times!!!And the doctor on call has been there 30 hours! Everyone gets a turn!

[subee, MSN, CRNA]

Did those awful hours a lot in the 70's but I was really young. Was in NYC during the Libby Zion case and medical students, anesthesia students were mandated a 3 hour break in the 24 hours after her death. Of course, coffee breaks, meals counted in those 3 hours. Who can leave an OR and fall asleep for an hour knowing you have to get back to work? Worked 24 hour shifts until in my 50's...torture. I KNOW what happen when your way past tired.