Ok..vent..advise...dunno

Nurses General Nursing

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I don't usually do this..and in fact I'm afraid to vent much because I never know who's reading it.

I need advise I guess, or vent...

OUr facility has recently gone to 12 hour shifts, I have stated I cannot work nights and been told that they would try not to put me on... I mean I dont mind doing one or two a month..but I can't do much more then that, especially when I'm doing 8 hour shifts as well day time...

I was told I would be doing day shift and the evening 8 hour shift this month. I picked up my schedule this month and found I'm doing *all* three! within days of each other...two eights...a day off...two nights...two days off...then a day shift...a day off, two more nights...two days off...an 8, two days, a day off...a night shift...and so on..I'm dizzy thinking about it.

Am I crazy and whiney or am I in rights to say WTH? :eek: I'm just so done...I don't even want to give a two weeks...one week maybe...if that...

Advise o learned ones?

Specializes in Peds, PICU, NICU, CICU, ICU, M/S, OHS....

I'd refuse to work it as it is putting both you and the facility at risk due to the fatigue you're sure to experience trying to work like that. If they don't value your hard work and dedication, then forget them. Find something else, somewhere else. There are plenty of jobs in LTC and in other areas of nursing that don't require a schedule like that. Good Luck, and BTW I don't think you're whining, at all!

Specializes in OR Hearts 10.
THe schedule is insane.... And I'm not sure... I just get told we're short staffed and if I don't like the schedule to look for another job. So trading would only make someone else work nights...and then eliminate the 8 hour shift... I just feel like I've given my last for this place and been screwed over for the last time...

That's what happens at a lot of places, that's why I'm changing units in 2 weeks.

Hang in there if you can until you find something else, it can be rough out there. There are jobs out there you just have to work to find them sometimes.

Good luck!!!

i guess one question is, if i refuse to do it or quit without notice is that abandonment?

i do not believe abandonment comes into play unless you are on duty and, without being properly relieved, walk off the job. however, you must check with your own state's board of nursing and a couple of attorneys in your state to be certain.

if you become ill at work, receive horrible news while at work and become unable to focus on the job/become unsafe to continue working (like you get a call that, heaven forbid, your child or spouse or another loved one has been hurt or your house has been burned down or robbed, something very serious that would tend to seriously upset a reasonable person and that reasonable person would simply have to tend to immediately), to me that is not abandonment if you tell your supervisor you must go and you simply cannot be humanly expected to continue working at that point.

if your supervisor is reasonable, she will agree that you are unsafe and you must stop pt care and take care of your own very serious situation. if she's not reasonable, if she tells you you must stay but you leave anyway, i don't know what that would be considered, but i'd bet that it would not be pretty for you. never mind her inhumanity, laziness, desperation about staffing. i'd bet the law sides with her, even if a jury would side with you. but i really don't know. that's not the question you are asking, i know.

don't quit without notice if you can possibly help it. don't throw away your job. it's hard times right now and you might not quickly get another. or, if you do get another, it might not be heavenly, either.

realize that, if you work because you must, because you have bills and will become homeless or starve if you don't work, you are a wage slave. you are up the creek without a paddle if you don't comprehend who has the power in your circumstances and if you don't accept your situation, warts and all. i don't mean to stay if you simply can't and if you've reached your absolute limit. but you can't throw away a job every time something goes wrong, either.

is it healthy to work a schedule like you've described? i don't know. but how healthy is it to be unemployed and have no income? at least you aren't working friday night shift and having to come back for a monday day shift.

take full and complete stock of your situation before you quit. are they inviting you to leave? have you been too verbal, complained too much? your boss is letting you know that you can keep your job if you are willing to stop challenging her and complaining. is it fair, is it good, is it easy? no. is it true life? yes.

i do wish you well, whatever decision you make. read "the jungle" by upton sinclair if you think you have it hard. read about coal miners, non-unionized steel mill workers in the days before workers' compensation laws existed.

Well...she took a week's notice with me finishing this week's night shifts and being rehirable once they went back to 8 hour shifts. I tried to think of a way to work it out and do it and I just can't..not even straight nights...unless I can't find another job..I guess we'll see.

I think you are kidding yourself if you think she'll re-hire you. But I wish you the best.

I think you should tell her you'd like to rescind your resignation and you realize, after sleeping on it, that you really would like to stay there, you love the patients, you want to be part of the solution instead of part of the problem, whatever you have to say to get her to take you back. But that's just me. You should stay until you actually have lined up another job. I think you've been rash. Of course, I don't know your whole situation, so I apologize if I seem too forthright.

Specializes in LTC.

Well Kooky..I did just that lol...I asked to be on straight nights so I could get a sleep schedule going and she let me...so that's that.

Keep looking.

:)

I don't usually do this..and in fact I'm afraid to vent much because I never know who's reading it.

I need advise I guess, or vent...

OUr facility has recently gone to 12 hour shifts, I have stated I cannot work nights and been told that they would try not to put me on... I mean I dont mind doing one or two a month..but I can't do much more then that, especially when I'm doing 8 hour shifts as well day time...

I was told I would be doing day shift and the evening 8 hour shift this month. I picked up my schedule this month and found I'm doing *all* three! within days of each other...two eights...a day off...two nights...two days off...then a day shift...a day off, two more nights...two days off...an 8, two days, a day off...a night shift...and so on..I'm dizzy thinking about it.

Am I crazy and whiney or am I in rights to say WTH? :eek: I'm just so done...I don't even want to give a two weeks...one week maybe...if that...

Advise o learned ones?

that is what my schedule is like. they don't care what you can or can't do. there is someone out there i am sure who can do it and they know it. i have no advice except to keep asking for what you want. all days/evenings or all days etc.

Specializes in LTC.
Keep looking.

:)

I'm always lookin darlin.

Mods..I'm done with this thread, good advice given and for now the situation is resolved...mind lockin her up?

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