Nursing hours and family

Fiona59 · Aug 11, 2015

Honestly? Don't make the switch.

How long have you been reading this board? Nursing jobs don't grow in trees in Canada.

L&D, basically Women's Health services in general, are very hard to get into. My hospital serves a huge are and does 1000s of deliveries a year and has on average 4 openings a year. Every other new grad wants to work there, it's not all happiness and catching babies.

You talk about compatibility with a large family. My health authority is doing a wonderful thing called workplace utilization. Basically, revamping all nursing and aides rotations to get maximum coverage for the floors. In a nutshell, they don't care about your life. You are there to work for them not them to work to your needs. The 12 hour shift people no longer get long stretches off between clumps of shifts. Some 8 hour staff are looking at 7 shifts back to back with 3 days off.

As a new nurse, you will be on the bottom of the seniority list for vacations, so unless you have some very kind co-workers, you can kiss goodbye to summer and Christmas/Hannukah holidays. Some of the old girls on my unit block book the summer months. I have 15 years in and still don't have enough seniority to get a crack at these prime times.

Nursing is 24/7. If you work 12s, you do both days and nights. If you work 8s you do d/e or d/n rotating shifts. This in the hospital and long term care facilities and rehab.

Doctors offices don't hire RNs and they are hiring fewer and fewer LPNs.

Public Health might be an option, but usually require seniority.

Most of my coworkers with young children have cut back to casual positions so they have some control of their shift times, but don't have a guaranteed income or benefits. Those who still work rotations either have live in help or family close by.

So stick with your original plan. No patients or bodily fluids, defined workspace, shifts that end on time.

If I'd know then what I learnt in my first five years of work, I'd have done Health Records Admin.

joanna73, BSN, RN · Aug 13, 2015

I would have opted for the degree in nutrition and either become a dietician or taken a job with public health. I was also accepted to nutrition and turned it down. I regret that some days.

Everything Fiona says is true. You may decide to work casual and then pick your hours, but that could mean zero shifts in a month.

I now work Mon-Fri days because I'm in management. Experience is required for management roles. Clinics are often day positions but those are also not easy to get.

Plan to work nights, weekends and holidays as a new grad and possibly beyond, depending where you end up.

loriangel14, RN · Aug 13, 2015

Nursing is just like any other job when it comes to having a family. I have 2 coworkers with 7 children. One even home schools hers.

ruralgirl08 · Aug 14, 2015

If you want alot of kids part-time work for a large portion of your career, may offer you the best balance. Administration has better hours, but you will have more days off with 12s (working more weekends, nights, & holidays though). Administration you likely gets your break, nursing...not so much.

ltothew · Aug 14, 2015

Its interesting because in BC on the L&D unit I work on most of the nurses have families, and many of them like the hours as it works better for having young kids, as you don't need daycare Monday-Friday, its more flexible. For Public Health (here at least) it is required that you have one year experience in post partum before applying, but public health is mon-fri, and no shift differentials, so you make less money (but that is not relevant for many people, only really if you have student loans at first). I mean i figure if you get into nursing you know you will do shift work, and will work some holidays etc