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Discussion

Advice please on how to not burn out working five 8s/week

Hi everyone,

I am at my wits end, and would love to hear some advice on how to cope.

How do you survive working five 8-hour shifts per week and not burn out? Especially if those five days are sometimes not consecutive, I.e. 3 on, 1 off, 2 on, 1 off which means you don't get a full two-day weekend to actually rest. I feel like I never get to "turn my brain off" and it is eroding my sanity.

I also happen to work in the OR, if that matters. Factoring in call shifts, I work 6 days per week for half the month (because I'm on call for 2 weekends per month). It is exhausting and I am not bouncing back.

Can anyone please explain to me why 8 hour shifts are becoming so popular in the OR? It is making these 6-shift weeks inevitable (and too frequent).

I don't understand why it is so rare for ORs to offer 12 hour shifts like all the other units. Working 6 days per week is making me wish I went into investment banking instead. 

Thanks in advance!

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    I've been working in the OR for 1.5 years now...five 8's the whole time. I'm in the middle of a job change, and it's really discouraging to see all these OR job posts advertising the same five 8's. As much as I love the OR, it is making me consider re-training for a different nursing specialty. 

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    • Admin

    Generally, the OR doesn't need as much staff past 3pm or 5pm, depending on the setting. Unlike the inpatient units, we don't run 24 hours. My previous employer, about 90% of the staff worked 8s, with another 8% working 10s and 2% working 12s. We closed down to less than 10 rooms by 3pm and less than 3 by 5pm.

    My current employer is a large academic center, and most of our shifts are either 10s or 12s. We also only work every 10 weekends, and call is limited to 1-2 nights per month unless you're in a service line that takes specialty call (mostly cardiac... their call is brutal!). We run more ORs until around 5pm, and still run around 5-8 until 7pm.

    If you love the OR, then find the OR that offers what you want - academic medical settings that tend to run later because they're doing those long, complex cases (or that just take longer because residents and med students) may be where you want to look. Plus, they typically have more ORs, meaning more staff, meaning more people sharing the wealth of call and reducing the individual burden.

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    I don't work in the OR but I was, until this past week, working a M-F position that I knew fairly early on was not a good fit for a variety of reasons. I felt a guilty leaving so soon after starting  and after some people around me would make comments how they would live a boring job that paid well ,etc.  I know this position would be a dream job for some - for me, it was a nightmare. Just as your position may be a dream job for someone else, for you, it's not working. As Rose-Queen said, look at other ORs if that is the only flavor of nursing you are truly interested in, otherwise, look for other positions you have any interest in so you can move away from what you are doing now. You agreed to work for your employer, not die/give up most of your life for them. 

    I personally don't ever want  to work another M-F position again & the job would have to be stellar for me to consider it at all.

    I am moving back into hospice as an on call nurse and am, for the first time in a long time excited, about being in nursing. 

    My only advice is don't feel bad that your job isn't a good fit you, don't let guilt or what others opinions of the position be the deciding factor for hanging in there.  I allowed others/guilt to influence me/my decisions w/a job  and  wasted a lot of time that would've been much better spent moving onto something that was a better fit. Life is too short and there are too many other options for nurses now - especially w/you experience. 

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