Do nurses usually work 3 12-hour shifts a week for full pay?

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN · Jun 30, 2013

The job market for nurses right now stinks for nursing....like every other profession. Some areas of the country have a 47% unemployment rates for new grads with a preference for BSN grads in some states. As a part of your nursing program you will have to be CPR/BLS (hospital grade) certified....at your own expense....in order to do clinical at the facilities.

ACLS (advance coronary life support) , PALS (pediactric advance life support) require some medical knowledge and will be at yoiur own expense on your own time.....and they are around $250.00+/-. It will require knowledge of rhythm strips and have assessment skills as they are "advanced" courses.

Have you decided then on nursing instead of PA school?

gentlerain · Jun 30, 2013

Ah that is discouraging to hear! I am going to ask around my nursing department because there may be a chance that my school's nursing program integrates the BLS course in its curriculum.

Thanks for explaining. I plan to complete ACLS and PALS in my own time, since it should improve me as a prospective employee.

I have fully committed myself to pursuing the path of a nurse practitioner! I won't stray towards the PA profession, but in all honesty, I hope I am making the right decision. I had assumed the nursing market would provide flexibility and greater availability of jobs...

NicuGal, MSN, RN · Jun 30, 2013

Each hospital is different. I am on hiring and retention and we don't really look at if you have certifications such as PALS, etc unless you have been working in an area that requires. And as a new grad, we require you to take these classes at a certain point in your orientation.

For students to do clinical a at our hospital they have to be BLS certified.

Our new hires are hired in at 32 hours per week, 8 hour shifts only. As someone moves out of a 12 hour it goes by seniority as to who gets it.

applewhitern, BSN, RN · Jun 30, 2013

You work three 12's, you get paid for three 12's. You probably won't get paid for lunch, although you may seldom get to take the full lunch time. From my experience, lunch is automatically taken out of your hours, as is unauthorized overtime (clocking out late.) ACLS is required in my hospital for RN's. ADN, BSN, and diploma nurses are paid the same. An RN is an RN, period.

applewhitern, BSN, RN · Jun 30, 2013

Every hospital I have worked at paid for my ACLS and PALS upfront, or they re-imbursed you. Most have paid anywhere from 50-87 cents more per hour for these. BLS is required for everybody. Pay scales and requirements are specific to each facility, and they "come and go," meaning what things are like today, may not be the case tomorrow. My area is over-saturated with nurse practitioners, and many are finding the pay to be much less than they hoped.

PMFB-RN, RN · Jun 30, 2013

I also now sit on 3 hiring panels with my current company, we hire urgent care & case management nurses. We DEFINITELY prioritize candidates who already have their ACLS/BLS/PALS. I don't understand this whole mentality of "don't bother, your employer will pay for it." We don't want to hire people who are going to cost us money right up front. You want to be a full package, ready to work, with all your training & certifications ready to go! What makes you think we'd be more inclined to hire someone we'll have to spend more money on, who isn't prepared?

*** My guess would be because you are looking at ACLS and PALs as boxes to be checked off, rather than as vital skills that need to be taught closer to the time of possibility needing them. this is ESPECIALY true for new grads who take ACLS and PALS without context of what it's like to care for patients under real world conditions.

In every staff job I have ever had I was REQUIRED to complete all my certifications regardless of the status of my certification. I once took ACLS at my new job only weeks after having completed it at my last job.

LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN · Jun 30, 2013

Ah that is discouraging to hear! I am going to ask around my nursing department because there may be a chance that my school's nursing program integrates the BLS course in its curriculum.
Thanks for explaining. I plan to complete ACLS and PALS in my own time, since it should improve me as a prospective employee.
I have fully committed myself to pursuing the path of a nurse practitioner! I won't stray towards the PA profession, but in all honesty, I hope I am making the right decision. I had assumed the nursing market would provide flexibility and greater availability of jobs...

^There is flexibility STILL as a nurse, however, that comes over time, and it's dependent on the market, which Esme explained is tough! I was a LPN BEFORE getting a BSN and still had difficulty getting a job. It took me about 8 months, and I cast my net wide, and was looking before graduation. I'm now getting more contact with perspective employers now with the 1 year mark.

When I was a new grad many moons ago the first time, lol, there was jobs aplenty...I had two jobs within a month in two different specialties after I was licensed, and enjoyed working that schedule for 2 years. Today, give yourself time to learn the role and become comfortable in your practice.

If you want to get your ACLS and PALS on your own, I suggest doing it in your last semester of nursing school, where the critical care components of nursing-ICU, Trauma, ER topics are covered, where the knowledge will be able to grasp.

You may land a job with three 12s, you may not. Right now, it seems from your posts that it is a little early to think about that right now. Enjoy nursing school. Good Luck!

mmc51264, BSN, MSN, RN · Jun 30, 2013

Where I am, they would rather we be trained in "their" way as far as PALS/ACLS. I am on a floor that has zero peds, so that would not have benefited me. We have RRT and Code teams so ACLS, although I wouldn't mind getting it, is not really a necessity. We have to take a class and be certified to insert PIVs. We have an IV team for that.

I work 36 and get paid for 36. We are expected to stay 36 1/2 to allow for 30 min lunch (HA!). I also have a part time prn home health job. Just had to cut my hours with them.

bratmobile · Jun 30, 2013

I disagree re acls and pals I was specifically ruled out for several positions because I did not have them. Where I live there are 800 new grads coming into the market at every semester completion with all the JC university and private school graduations. Competition is very very stiff for new grads and every certification you can get behind you will keep your resume at the top of the stack .. Around here anyway. Maybe there really is a nursing shortage where you are and these things don't matter. If so that's awesome for you!

wish_me_luck, BSN, RN · Jun 30, 2013

bratmobile, as I explained in a different thread, ACLS and PALS can make you more competitive if you live in a huge city that everyone meets the minimum and preferred criteria and they have to get into who has this certification already; however, if you are in a smaller area where you can have a better chance at a job by moving a couple hours or so up the road and let the employer take care of ACLS and have them train you their way, it is better.

Like it was mentioned earlier, ACLS can be very confusing if you are just taking it as a class and no real world hands on experience with it to help. By the time you land a job with it, you may not remember everything.

KelRN215, BSN, RN · Jun 30, 2013

I'm having difficulty finding statistics concerning this and average salary.
If you could also tell me the salary you earned (or average) straight out of college, that would be awesome. Also, as a new grad, should I expect flexible hours? Ideally, I would be able to work part-time elsewhere because I don't know what to do with my four days off.
Also, are new grads able to easily find positions in hospitals of different states? I don't want to settle down just yet.
Thanks!

The days of working 36 hours and getting paid for 40 are LONG gone.

You should expect your employer to flexibly alter your hours to THEIR benefit. In my area, EVERYONE rotates so you could expect to be on days, evenings and nights all in the same week and to never have the same day off two weeks in a row. You could also expect to not receive your schedule until about a week in advance making things like scheduling doctor's appointments next to impossible.

I was making $27/hr directly out of college 6 years ago but that was before the economy tanked. Salary is also HIGHLY variable depending on where you live.

You shouldn't necessarily expect that you will have four days off. Not everyone is on 3 12s. New grads are the bottom of the totem pole and may be working primarily 8 hour shifts and a lot of off shifts, making working a second job more difficult. I don't find it wise to work 2 jobs as a new grad, you need to get your feet wet and figure out how to be a nurse first.

Whether or not you will be able to easily find a job in a different state depends on a lot of things:

#1. Is your school nationally known? Mine was and students came from all over the country and the world to attend (the university, not necessarily the nursing program though the nursing program is also nationally ranked) so students who wanted to go to a different state didn't have a problem in that aspect. If you attend nursing school at places like Georgetown, UWashington or UPenn you're going to have an easier time getting a job in another state than someone who attended a community college that's known only in that community.

#2. What is the nursing market like in the state you want to work in? I don't know anything about the job market in, say, Nebraska or the Dakotas but I'd be willing to bet it's easier to find a job there than it is in New York, California or Massachusetts.

#3. What is your degree and what do the hospitals in that area demand? If you have an ADN, for example, from an out-of-state school and want to work in a major city that only employs BSNs in another area of the country, no one is even going to glance at your resume.

nurseladybug12 · Jul 1, 2013

O*NET OnLine , search RN, scroll all the way to the bottom and you can select whichever state and see the median salaries, as a new grad expect to be in the bottom 10 percent.