5 days with days/evening switch is nuts!

Nurses General Nursing

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I'm seriously getting fed up with my schedule. They can't put me on 12's yet b/c of staffing. "maybe" April.

You want to know why some new nurses leave in droves especially if they've had a career doing something else? Because the scheduling is nuts!

I've just worked 5 straight days. Started with 1 daylight then 4 evenings. I'm off tomorrow, but then scheduled 3 more days before my weekend off, oh and just for kicks My 1st day back is daylight, but then of course I work the evening shift friday before my weekend :rolleyes: My schedule continues like that until the end of the month. Everytime I'm off I work the evening before and when I go back I'm on daylight for a couple days before switching back.

I think it's insane to work like this having more or less 1 day off between long stretches. And they wonder why some don't like floor nursing.

Sad thing, I acutally enjoy the work. I love the patient population, I just don't get enough time with them with the ratio. Don't even get me started on aide staffing.

I'm counting my time until I can get out of floor nursing.

Sorry, no questions just another useless vent from another burned out nurse.

Specializes in hospice, ortho,clinical review.
My schedule has a lot of flip-flopping too! I work 8 hour shifts but a lot of the time I have to work 7to3 then 3to11 the next day and back to 7 to 3 the day after that! It's so hard to do! On the days I work 3 to 11, I don't come home right after and hop in the bed..I just can't...I'm wide awake, so I'm up til 2 or 3 only to get up at 5 to be back at work.

Totally get this too. That's me, I can't go to sleep until 2 or 3 either, I've never been one to be able to get stuff done in the am before the shift, BUT I feel for you...I couldn't do 3-11 THEN 7-3 the very next day! That's INSANE! :uhoh3: That's a shame if you can't fight that. I was told they "try" not to schedule like that b/c they realize that's unsafe, but it's up to us to check our schedule when it comes out to fix anything like that. Oh and I check alright.

As for self scheduling, we do have that on our unit, but because those twelves could come up at any time, I'm at their mercy for scheduling as I'm sure not going to schedule myself for the 8's if they could have put me on 12's. Our schedule is done 1 month at a time.

The ridiculous part of the 12's is one of the nurses just left in December with 12's, so that left her partner needing someone to alternate with. Since that hole was left in the schedule I thought they'd fill it with me. No such luck, there's apparantly big gaps on the 3-11 and althtough they just hired 2 more nurses, one just started, the other not til the end of the month, but since they're GN's I was told it will take 6 weeks to have them up and running, though they both want 12's as does the nurse that replaced the one that left in December.

The NM is fed up with all of us wanting 12's but a good part of the staff is on them, except for some old timer's that don't work the weekends and have Mon-Fri days. It's one of the big reasons nurses leave the unit b/c most places are on 12's.

It's truly an exhausting unit to boot. On days you have the mad dash to get the meds out immediately get them bathed, get those God awful ted hose on into wheelchairs and down to PT by 9a. Then the post op's arrive 1130a until of course AFTER 3p sometimes keeping you there. Not to forget juggling the discharges. But then 3-11 although most meds start at 5p, there's the post ops that come sometimes until the end of that shift, not to mention ER overflow plus getting the TK's in their CPM's. I'm wiped out!

And we do hang a lot of blood and deal with an incredible amount of narcs. It's funny when I float to a general med/surg floor and maybe have to give a percocet and they have maybe 40 in stock while we have 200 plus in our rotation. It's definately not a unit that you can go through motions and be half asleep.

Oh, enough b!tching for me, thanks for the vent, it helped. I'm heading off to my Dr. to check my iron levels which were 8.4 in Sept. I fear they're not much better based on how I feel, and this about sums me up as I type this. :yawn:

Specializes in Psych.

If we are scheduled a 3-11 then 7-3 back to back shift we get "double back" pay (basically overtime) so they are really good at not scheduling us that way. If we do a schedule swap that results in a double back, we have to waive the bonus pay to get it approved.

Specializes in hospice, ortho,clinical review.
Schedules, shift roatations, and staffing - nothing has changed in the 31 years that I have been a nurse. Why expect it to change now??

I agree with you, I don't think it will. I do think it's going to cause the constant rotation of nurses in/out through the whole boomer crisis years coming up. All I know is I'm not staying with floor nursing longer than I have to.

I have a large amount of respect with the nurses that I work with that have been putting up with this for years. Many of the younger ones do move on quickly for more critical care units. I have no desire for that, my interest is in pain management, so I'd like a clinic setting, maybe down the line research.

But the ones that have been doing this, and b/c of the nature of the job, have been getting injured in the process, no thanks. I know not every job will treat you as a little more than a warm body and it seems that's what hospital nursing facilitates.

I came from a career that I worked 10-7p Monday-Friday, weekends off, maybe that sounds incredibly spoiled to the veteran nurses, but I had a life and I want that balance back. I felt no more appreciated there, but at least I had a life, here there's no appreciation from the employer plus my personal life is suffering. Fortunately I am blessed with a very strong marriage that is withstanding this b.s. My husband has been awesome with trying to match my schedule if he can, or staying up a little later. That's my only sanity right now, without that I'd crack, but it's still tough and not a sacrifice I'm willing to make longterm.

I talked to a pt last night who does pilot studies and one of them was a test group for 18mos that the nurses had a 1:4 ratio with one aide! He said in that time, zero turnover (ya think?!) but it's not realistic for budgets. Everyone recognizes it but no one can fix it.

I am grateful I have a job in this economy, many days that thought gets me through as well. But it just sucks that it pretty much comes down to that. I'm far from leaping out of bed and being elated to go to work. Heck I'd settle for just not feeling near dread that I gotta make it through another shift.

Specializes in Spinal Cord injuries, Emergency+EMS.
I've never understood this. If airline flight attendants (not to mention the pilots) are "illegal" to fly if they don't have a certain number of hours off before the next flight, how can nurses be asked to perform their potentially dangerous job with less?

Maybe we could get some off-duty, well-rested flight attendants to give drugs and hang blood?

again another thing where the 'evil' socialised NHS has it good, well actually anyone in the the EU has it good as you are mandated 11 hours between shifts in the majority of situations ...

Specializes in Long term care.
If we are scheduled a 3-11 then 7-3 back to back shift we get "double back" pay (basically overtime) so they are really good at not scheduling us that way. If we do a schedule swap that results in a double back, we have to waive the bonus pay to get it approved.

I wish it worked out that way where I work! Then at least it would be some sort of incentive for coming right back in to work after working 3 to 11, but if that was the case, they surely would stop scheduling me that way..lol.

Specializes in Psych.
I wish it worked out that way where I work! Then at least it would be some sort of incentive for coming right back in to work after working 3 to 11, but if that was the case, they surely would stop scheduling me that way..lol.

When I pick up over time I usually end working 8 hours of OT to get 16 hours OT in pay . Work a double into a doubleback. :)

Specializes in CVICU, anesthesia.

I rotate days & nights every 2 weeks. Torture. I hate it! I don't quite understand why they do this...there are lots of people that want straight days and also plenty who want straight nights (including me). Everyone COULD be happy, but management prefers to torture us lol.

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