Are 12 hour shifts going extinct?

[MunoRN]

A hospital in my region recently announced all staff will be transitioning to 8 hour shifts over the next year, 12 hour shifts will no longer be available. The word from my Hospital and others in the area is that they plan on making this change in the near future as well.

As someone who's worked an 8 hour night shift schedule, I don't agree that 5 night shifts a week is less fatiguing than 3, but that's the argument they are making. I personally could not handle working a full time 8 hour night schedule when I did it in the past, although I handle 3 12's a week now just fine, and I was younger when I worked 8's so I'm pretty sure it would kill me if I tried doing that now.

Is it just my area that's making this move? If other areas have tried it, has it worked?

[SandraCVRN]

I just went back to floor nursing so I could get away from 8's.

[Multicollinearity, BSN, RN]

I've been doing scheduling at work, and the word from above is that 12 hour shifts are not preferable because productivity slows after about 8 hours. You are there, but not as productive and accurate. Eight hour shifts extract more work from each worker, supposedly. That said, most of us want 10 or 12 hour shifts and get them.

[MunoRN, RN]

I've been doing scheduling at work, and the word from above is that 12 hour shifts are not preferable because productivity slows after about 8 hours. You are there, but not as productive and accurate. Eight hour shifts extract more work from each worker, supposedly. That said, most of us want 10 or 12 hour shifts and get them.

I've heard that as well, but when you look at the evidence that isn't the case. Productivity does decline in the last 4 hours of a 12 hour shift, but not as much as it declines on the last 2 days of a 5 day work week. If we are just comparing an equal number of 8 and 12 hour shifts then 8 hour shifts appear preferable, but in reality working 8 hour shifts mean working more days, which has been shown to reduce productivity and produce more error and injuries than 12 hour shifts even though they are longer. You also get more sleep working 12 hour shifts, which is my favorite part.

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

I MUCH prefer working 12s to 8s. I work 36 hrs/week and I love the fact that I work fewer days than not. On my floor, we do a mix of 12s and 8s and, while we have discussed changing to all 12s in the past, the argument is always made that we can't staff 7-11 that way. I would argue that the problem is that they keep cutting our staffing on nights... we used to have 8 including charge (charge RN is not supposed to have an assignment) and they recently cut it to 6 on certain nights (5 for patient care) for a 26 bed unit. 8 RNs would be sufficient to staff the busy 7-11 period, 6 not so much. (Although somehow they magically think it's enough on weekends, because when the floor is full, patients must somehow be less sick on Sat/Sun.)

Overall, I think 12s are all around better. The patient has 2 nurses in a day instead of 3 (or 4 when they end up with one nurse from 7-3, another from 3-7, a third from 7-11 and a fourth overnight from 11-7) and the hospital only has to cover 2 shifts.

[Lennonninja, MSN, APRN, NP]

One of the reasons I first started thinking about nursing was for the 12s. I'm done with the 5-6 day work weeks, no thank you! My hospital might have some 8 hour shifts in the float pool, and places like outpatient surgery, but that's it as far as I know.

[Mare73]

Kill me. If we are ever forced to go back to 8hr shifts. Just do it.

A primary reason I chose nursing was because of the lifestyle. I can enjoy my family and hobbies 4 days every week, instead of being beat down and exhausted 5, leaving me two short days to squeeze life into.

Really: if they go back to 8s, this is one nurse who will find a new career. And for the "older nurses" who've stated that 8s are easier on them; that they're too fatigued to pull the 12? I say find a new area of nursing that will allow that, instead of trying to use your mass to create a change that affects all. I know of countless RNs who'd love your 12-hour shift and who would bring good energy to their job because of the balance they're able to find with that schedule.

[KaroSnowQueen, RN]

My last 3 jobs prior to my present job all started out as 8 hrs, followed fairly quickly by 12 hr shifts. I would work 2 12's, have a day off, work 1 12, then have 3days off, repeat.

I HATED working 5 8-hr days!!!!

That being said, my current job is 8 hrs a day, 5 days a week. BUT I tele-commute from home. THAT I can handle!!!

[beeker]

I work 12's. One of the hospitals I inteviewed at had both 12 and 8 hour shifts and the older more senior nurses do 7am-3pm and refused to go to 12 hour shifts. The nurse manager told me they are often short from 3pm-7pm.She said they had plenty that wanted 7-3 and the night shift all does 12hour shifts. So the poor day nurses that actually do 7-7 get a few more patients dumped on them from 3-7 most days and that made it harder to keep to nurses on 12 hour shifts. She said she was hiring prns to cover that, but was having a hard time finding prns that only want 4 hour shifts. Seems like it would be easier to just force everyone to 12's and replace the few that quit rather than constantly making everyone else work short and begging prns to come cover. In my opinon that is poor management letting the inmates run the asylum. Either go with the 12's or don't. don't do some and leave everyone short. Anyway, I did not take that job obviously!

[beeker]

Karosnowqueen-What do you do?

[Daisy86]

Doubtful. I work two 16hr days.. Its nice because I'm in school. . Lets hope it stays this way until I'm out of school..lol