8 Hour Night Shifts - Page 2

I think it's a difficult question to answer because you're using a premise that has been disproven; that 8 hour night shifts are better.

There are a few Nurses who prefer 8 hour nights, but overall they're inferior to 12's. They're more likely to cause errors, injuries, and even cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. So I think a more accurate way to ask this question would be; if it wasn't for the negative safety and health effects of 8 hour nights...

No way. I never want to work more than my 3 nights in a row.

The schedule I submit each month is as follows:

Work 3
Off 2
Work 3
Off 6
Work 3
Off 2
Work 3
Off 6
Etc.

The 6 days off every two weeks allows me to remain a human and to participate in my marriage. My wife works M-F 8-5, so this is the only way we can have any meaningful time together.

Never. Only way I'd consider 8 hour night shifts is if I only needed to work 16 hr's a week. 5 days in a row in an office job without the stress of nursing left me exhausted and the opportunity to leave that behind and work 3 days a week was to me one of the perks of going in to nursing. I'm as unlikely to do anything useful with my time after an 8 hr day as I am after a 12 hour day so those 4 hours on an 8 hour day are lost to me. Working night shifts in general is a tough enough balancing act with life in general without spreading the burden out over more days and reducing the days I have off a week. Plus, more days a week means more days of childcare, more fussing with making business hour appointments, etc. There's nothing about a 5 day noc workweek that is appealing to me.

Here's a good article on the pros and cons. It points out limitations in a lot of the studies that are in favor of 8 hour shifts. Patient Safety Tip of the Week Archive

And I would keep researching. Some classmates of mine did a similar project and the articles they found did not support 8 hour shifts as inherently safer.

Great article! Thank you. Personally I love 12 hr shifts because I only get to work three days and off 4 days. If I work 8 days x 5, there's a chance I'll have 5 miserable/ bad/busy days, I 'd rather have 3 terrible days working 12s . I love 8 hr shifts because they fly ! When I worked 8 hrs, I was able to think more clearly and I was alert at all times!!! The last 4 hours dragged no matter how busy I was! I was forgetful, weak, dizzy, not very focused, and could not stop thinking how tired I was!

In my area the hospitals do not schedule 8 hour people with 5 shifts. It is either 3 12s(.9 FTE) or 4 8s (.8 FTE) I have only been working 12s for 4 months, and I am still adjusting. Besides the savings on gas, the insurance is also cheaper because of the higher FTE.

I would not willingly go back to 8 hour nights. At least with only 3 days per week I don't feel guilty taking a full day to recover!

I feel the same way. I can feel myself starting to get crabby in the middle of my third shift in a row. I know myself, and have determined that 3 days in a row is my limit before I start to fall apart. In order to keep me really happy, staffing needs to only schedule me 3 days in a row...at 4 days in a row they're taking a huge risk.

I can't work 3 12's in a row to save my life. Tried it, hated it.