Am I the only one who hates 12 hour shifts?

Based on some things I've read on this website, I know that I'm not, but I just cannot STAND how 12 hour work days consume my life! There is no time to do anything besides work on those days and prepare for the next work day. I would be so much happier if I could switch to 8s or 10s or even some combo of 8 and 12s... I need to be able to exercise and take care of myself in order to be happy at work!

Mostly I just needed to rant because I know I can't address this yet as a new grad, but has anyone else felt this way and taken action to get a better schedule? Better hours would make work a billion times better!

Let's see, I start work at 0700 and am finished at 1515. I have plenty of time to do what I need on the way home from work.

With 12's, you don't home home until nearly 20hr. Too bagged to do anything but grunt at the kids, make lunch for tomorrow, find clean scrubs and to bed you go.

Not every schedule bangs the three together. Some rotations have four one week, two the next. You turn into a zombie. The first day off is a lost cause.

12 work for management and the young and single. The mature and mothering, not so much. Try finding a daycare that will take a child for those shifts.

Oh, and let's not feed the animals that live under bridges who joined AN this month.

Specializes in SICU, trauma, neuro.

But your point about the extra time added onto an 8-hr shift is true for 12-hr ones also--commute time, extra 1/2 hr for lunch, finishing late etc. It's not that an 8-hr shift is more like an 11-hr shift, but a 12-hr one really is a 12-hr one. When I worked 0700-1930 I didn't usually get home earlier than 2100.

Like I said in my PP, that would mean that if FT, for three days per week (minus the Sat-Sun q 3 wks) I would not see my kids during all day. I'd leave before they got up and come home after they were in bed. Plus like Fiona said, it's extremely difficult to find daycare past 1800. Almost all daycares--centers or home based ones--close at 1800, meaning you have to be walking out the door w/ your child(ren) by 1759.

Also like I said, when working such long hours I need at least a day to recover...much more if it's a night shift. I'm not up and ready to play w/ my kids or work out or get caught up on housework.

I like working too. The reason I am working outside the home is b/c I love my job so much. :nurse: :) Hopefully this clears up some of the confusion why some of us prefer 8-hr shifts.

I'm confused about the number of nurses who would prefer 8 hour shifts.. {Edited for brevity} If you think about it, if you work 8's, you get up at 7 to be at work at 8 then get off at 430 or 5 and then get home at 6. Thats not a huge difference from working 7-7 and getting home at 7:30. The difference is, with a nurses schedule you may have the next day/days off.

I like working though, I enjoy coming to the hospital everyday and interacting with patients and coworkers.

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Let's see, I start work at 0700 and am finished at 1515. I have plenty of time to do what I need on the way home from work.

With 12's, you don't home home until nearly 20hr. Too bagged to do anything but grunt at the kids, make lunch for tomorrow, find clean scrubs and to bed you go.

Not every schedule bangs the three together. Some rotations have four one week, two the next. You turn into a zombie. The first day off is a lost cause.

12 work for management and the young and single. The mature and mothering, not so much. Try finding a daycare that will take a child for those shifts.

Oh, and let's not feed the animals that live under bridges who joined AN this month.

12s work very well for me and my retirement aged spouse, thank you!

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

I rotate 12 hour shifts, and rarely have to drive in traffic. When I'm driving home at 0730, I'm going OUT of the city while everyone else is going in. When I'm driving home at 1930, there is very little traffic. When I work an 8 hour day (it happens -- usually OT or meetings) and drive home at 1530, traffic is miserable and my commute takes twice as long. I don't think you can assume that working day shift makes your commute shorter.

If you haven't actually worked a night shift at a hospital, you have no real idea whether the work is as demanding as the day shift. Just so you know . . . it IS. just a different kind of demanding.

Specializes in PeriOp, ICU, PICU, NICU.

I love 12's. I currently work nightshift and do NOT work them in a row. I find that I nap the night off and have a great night sleep with my family. It works for me.

When I work dayshift I find on ONE off TWO and on TWO off ONE etc works best for me so that I don't feel my 3 in a row days are wasted.

Specializes in NICU.

I work 8 hour nights and I love it. We usually only do 4shifts/week, but depending on the unit, you may end up doing 5 or 6 in a row to get 3-5 off in a row. I love that I can still see my husband in the evenings, I don't feel like my life is on hold during stretches of work.

Specializes in Emergency Nursing.

I have never worked nights, 8's or 12's. I have children and I love 12's. I work 3 days per week/Every other weekend, which means I work 2 weekdays and have 3 off every week. My hospital does not schedule 3 days in a row when you work 12. (They staff both 8 and 12 hour shifts in my department) While this schedule does require I have assistance with my kids on the weekdays I work because daycare closes at 6pm, I find I have more time to actually live my life and enjoy my family on my days off. I do tend to go to sleep within an hour of getting home on workdays but for me it is worth it. When I worked 5 days per week I never really had the energy or motivation to do anything after work. My travel time was longer working 7-3:30 because there is more traffic and school buses at 3:30 than 7:30.

When I was a floor nurse, my personal experience was that 12 hour shifts provided more continuity of care for the patients because the same nurse was with them for most of their day. I had time to follow up on most things and never felt rushed to finish up everything. Leaving at 3:30 things are often still pending because lab results aren't back or the doctor hasn't written all the orders after rounds, which meant passing things on. Now that I work in the ED, I am not sure continuity is really a factor as far as shift end times because patients come and go all day but I still prefer the 12's. I never feel like I am less alert or more prone to errors because of the extra 4 hours being tacked on to the end of my day. This may be because I go to sleep at 9pm, 10pm at the latest when I have to work the following day.

Another thing I do not miss about the 5 day work week was that the only time I ever was able to have 2 days off in a row was my weekend off. In the summer it is nice to have 2 or 3 weekdays off in a row to do things with the kids when places like amusement parks and beaches are less crowded -without having to use vacation time. Plus even though I work 4 less hours per week, with the shift differential from 3-7p, I make just about the same as when I worked 40.

I have never worked nights, 8's or 12's. I have children and I love 12's. I work 3 days per week/Every other weekend, which means I work 2 weekdays and have 3 off every week. My hospital does not schedule 3 days in a row when you work 12. (They staff both 8 and 12 hour shifts in my department) While this schedule does require I have assistance with my kids on the weekdays I work because daycare closes at 6pm, I find I have more time to actually live my life and enjoy my family on my days off. I do tend to go to sleep within an hour of getting home on workdays but for me it is worth it. When I worked 5 days per week I never really had the energy or motivation to do anything after work. My travel time was longer working 7-3:30 because there is more traffic and school buses at 3:30 than 7:30.

When I was a floor nurse, my personal experience was that 12 hour shifts provided more continuity of care for the patients because the same nurse was with them for most of their day. I had time to follow up on most things and never felt rushed to finish up everything. Leaving at 3:30 things are often still pending because lab results aren't back or the doctor hasn't written all the orders after rounds, which meant passing things on. Now that I work in the ED, I am not sure continuity is really a factor as far as shift end times because patients come and go all day but I still prefer the 12's. I never feel like I am less alert or more prone to errors because of the extra 4 hours being tacked on to the end of my day. This may be because I go to sleep at 9pm, 10pm at the latest when I have to work the following day.

Another thing I do not miss about the 5 day work week was that the only time I ever was able to have 2 days off in a row was my weekend off. In the summer it is nice to have 2 or 3 weekdays off in a row to do things with the kids when places like amusement parks and beaches are less crowded -without having to use vacation time. Plus even though I work 4 less hours per week, with the shift differential from 3-7p, I make just about the same as when I worked 40.

I agree completely with all of your points...your point about time with the kids during the summer and days off during the week without using vacation time are important to me. My daughter is just a toddler so when I finish nursing school she will be able to and want to do the amusement park, zoo, museum stuff. I only get days off during the week on potential holidays, vacation time and that is few and far between.

Specializes in ICU.

I really love 12s. I find I have plenty of time to get things done, when I feel motivated enough to do them. I'm usually home by 0730 and I spend a couple of hours talking to friends/family, watching TV, eating "breakfast" or whatever you call the last meal before sleep, and going to bed. I get at least 7 hours' sleep and I wake up refreshed and ready to go back. The other best part of 12s is that working a couple of extra shifts per week means I only work five days a week and net 60 hours of pay for it. I can't even imagine what it would look like to try to get 60 hours a week on eight hour shifts... even if you worked 7 days per week and never had a day off that still only comes to 56 hours! I find I really just need one day off per week, and I can do all of the dishes, laundry, and housekeeping in that one day so I'm ready for the next 5 12s in a row. I would definitely be very unhappy if my workplace went to eight hour shifts.

I wish we did 10's! I hate 12's, but 10's sounds more manageable to me. I work 8's partly because it was the only position available and party because I just don't think I could survive all that many 12's.

Specializes in Critical Care.

Ideally we'd all work the shift length that works best for us. There's certainly an argument for the availability of both 8 and 12 hour shifts, but there's also a limit; you can't have all the night shifters working 12 hour shifts and the all the day shifters working 8 hours, without having a lot of odd ball 4 hour shifts.

As a result, one side (days vs nights) has to give a little and work a shift length that isn't ideal. I get the complaints of day shifters who don't like 12's, but those complaints just can't compete with what working 5 nights a week does to someone, so I'm sorry to turn against my fellow day shifters, but get over it.

I wish we did 10's! I hate 12's, but 10's sounds more manageable to me. .

10s would be great. How do you recommend those happen without rotating shifts? I doubt the earth's rotation is going to be cut by 4 hours anytime soon, so we'll still be dealing with covering 24 hours.

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