how many calories do you think we burn during a 12 hour shift?

Nurses Stress 101

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I am currently working as a PCT in a hospital while in school for nursing. one more semester left woohooo! anyways i was just wondering, as a pct, i run my butt off all day. during a 12 hour shift, how many calories do you think we burn? i am trying to stay fit, but sometimes i cant make it to the gym.

Becky

Specializes in Cardiology.

I wear a pedometer (http://fitbit.com) every day to work and depending on how busy I am in the ICU, I walk anywhere from 2-6 miles in a 12 hour shift. It's great to see how far I've walked during the day, especially after an exhaustingly busy shift.

I was curious about it too so I used my fitness tracker to help me answer the question. In currently working as an ICU nurse on 12 hour shifts. It's total care so I'm responsible for keeping my pts clean and helping the other nurses with their patients. Some shifts I change up to 20 beds. I also rarely sit and walk between 4-8 miles in a shift plus climb between 3-10 flights of stairs. Based on my height and weight, I typically burn between 2,000-3,000 calories a shift.

On the days I work, even if i don't work out in the morning before work, I burn more than 2000 calories. And those are the days I go over 10,000 steps.

Specializes in ICU, Postpartum, Onc, PACU.

It SO depends on the size of the unit, if you're new (and constantly looking for things in the wrong places), and the pt load. Some shifts I do 12K+ steps and others, I barely do anything at all (since this hospital's ICU isn't really an ICU most of the time and super small).

xo

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