4 10-hr day workweeks?

Nurses General Nursing

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I got one of my nursing mags in the mail the other day and I noticed that many of the hospital ads offered 4-10 hr days as an option (5 8's and 3 12's were also offered at these facilities). Not a nurse yet but this seems doable to me when the time comes--you get 3 days off during the week, and you aren't pooped from doing 12s. I don't know of anywhere around here that offers that; it would probably be hard to schedule 10s along with the 8s and 12s. Anyone heard of this?

Specializes in L&D, SICU.

hi,

general concensus (save the last post) seems to be that 12 hr shifts are really bad (hard, tiring, undesirable, etc.) This has me worried! The hospitals I'm looking at working at all seem to offer only 12 hr shifts...even for new grads (which I will be). Is it that bad? (oh, and i'll be doing nights most likely...a concept I really can't imagine...working at night, sleeping at day? I know, "you poor little naive student nurse")

Anyhow, I would think the 4 10s would be good. I know they offer at Jefferson where I work part time, at least on some of the floors.

Sounds like people really liked it...maybe we can get back to that trend...

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I personally don't mind the 12's you get used to it, i suppose, ask me in 10 years what i think of 12's tho! haha....and I also think you're either cut out for the night shift or you're not.....and before you agree to a position you should make sure you can handle nights.....a lot of people don't realize the stress....I worked with 2 other new grads when I graduated and after about 4 months of orientation we all went to nights......BOTH OF THEM QUIT because they couldn't handle nights, they went on to day positions in OTHER areas....this was Labor and Delivery we were orientated to as new grads which, as most of you know is not easy to come by, tho, it's becoming less difficult, anyway, my point is.....no matter how much you want and desire to work in a position if your body isn't truly cut out for nights, you're going to be miserable....just look into it!

btw, i do like the idea of overlapping shifts, seems that was a nice concept, wish they'd bring it back!

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Originally posted by boggle

Many years ago I worked 4 10 hour shifts on nights (10pm till 8 am ). There was an overlap of the shifts with this arrangement, so there were more nurses on the floor between 10 pm and 11pm and again from 7am till 8am. Those were very busy times on that floor, and the extra staff smoothed over many patient care problems and led to better communication too.

I absolutely loved those hours. They were much less draining than 12 hours, and I began and ended my shift with much less chaos. When I moved away from that town, the hospital was looking into possibility of an overlap from days to evening shift also.

I wish the idea of overlapping nurses shifts would be looked at again. There was almost NO overtime charged to our floor during those years, so the hospital actually SAVED money while paying for the overlapping hours. Patients and Docs both liked the smooth start of the day.

we used to have this too. the overlapping shifts were SWEET! of course it was taken away to cut costs. but now that i am used to the 3 12s i don't know if i would wanna go back. 4 days off is nice, and like someone mentioned, if you are already there 10 hours might as well stay a couple of extra for the extra day off. my two cents.:)
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Specializes in Everything except surgery.

I agree...it's rare to be able to get out on time at most places. Either from trying to clear up things...or do am admits..or the oncoming shift getting out of report on time.

But there is a hospital that I did a contract at...where they did the over lapping shifts, and we almost always got out on time. I do like doing 12s...but would do 10's if there were overlapping shifts.

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4 10's is heaven. currently I work 12 hr shifts-- 3 one week and 4 the next--(mandatory OT) --- night shift--- On paper the time off looks great however I end up sleeping the whole 1st day off away because I'm so dead dog tired. on the weekend I work-- I do 3 12's in a row--Nights--- I feel like I have NO life......It looks like you'd have more time off----NOT!!! esp. if you work night shift the 7p--7a leaves you with no evening--and no time to catch up on anything if you sleep ok in the day-- if you don't sleep ---well then you are :confused: :imbar :eek: ---------------

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I know what you mean shrinky......your days off are when you work nights are usually spent recovering from lack of sleep.....so it's next to impossible to be productive unless you're lucky and get 4-5 days off in a row......but i still prefer nights! more money, less stress, what more could ya ask for? Now if i could just figure out how to live a couple hours of sleep every day for the rest of my life, it would be grand!

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The fewest amount of days I have to work in the week the better!

12's are best, 10's are better than 8's in my book! :)

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Specializes in Women's health & post-partum.

There's a hospital here that was offering 10-hour shifts, 7 days on and 7 days off. I don't know if they still do or not (my friend who worked there retired and moved to where the sun shines more than in Portland). The nurses I talked to loved it. A vacation was one week (7 days) off--which gave them 3 weeks, of course. They used the overlap for education-type activities as well as covering the busy times. I considered going there to work, but after some soul-searching stayed where I was.

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I did it for a few weeks. We were all rotating. Normal shifts were 12 hours~7-7. I came in 5a-3p to help get surgery patients ready and assist the fresh post-ops. It was Mon-Thurs which made it even nicer!

But, I am not a morning person. So, I hated it.:chuckle

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