Do nurses have free time?

I work three 12-hour night shifts per week from 6:00pm to 6:30am. This week I work on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, essentially leaving me with four days off per week to make productive or waste as I please.

So to answer your question, I would say that I receive plenty of free time to live my life or waste it via unstructured free time.

Ditto

Free time outside of work? Absolutely! At work? Consider yourself lucky to eat lunch or pee!

Yup, I have a social life. I feel like I'm off more than I'm on, depending on how I schedule myself.

I currently work on a unit where I don't get the burnout feeling afterwards. On days I have off, I'm not in bed recovering either.

Sent from iPink's phone via allnurses app

Free time outside of work? Absolutely! At work? Consider yourself lucky to eat lunch or pee!

I am an LDRP RN in a small unit that does about 250-300 births a year. Some nights are busy as hell, but I regularly have shifts where I have just one stable postpartum patient. It's a GREAT job, I usually have time to do all my homework on the clock (I am in CNM school).

But I am thoroughly aware of how uncommon my situation is :)

Sometimes you can find a weekend option position (like I've got). I work 12 hrs Saturday and 12 hrs Sunday but get paid for 36 hours (plus full time benefits).

It's not a bad gig. And if something comes up (say, my nephew's birthday party) I can usually get a few hours off to attend. Other than that I have M-F OFF.

I have to say, I wish I could work 2 or 3 twelve hour shifts. I work Monday thru Friday at a full time career as an LPN. Every other weekend as a casual employee as an LPN charge nurse. I have been on vacation and go back tomorrow and wish I took until Friday. Sometimes I feel I have no life because of school, but I am very ambitious. I have been on vacation and still read articles about nursing, EMT, and EBOLA with education but when you LOVE your profession you can't help it. So I have a life when my friends tend to become livid at me for not giving any attention to them and force me out of the books and to live a little. Also, since my vacation I have worked out every day effortless than making my self work out the two or one day a week I do get in. So as a nurse regardless of your shift you have to find WORK LIFE BALANCE...? And enjoy your profession.

I currently work a weekend track position, Sat & Sun from 7a to 7p; pay is comparable to working three 12 hour shifts + fulltime insurance benefits. Therefore I have M-F off for family, life, and school. I will be transitioning to a fulltime position again soon, but there is much flexibility in nursing. Some units offer self scheduling and I know a NICU nurse who works in such a unit; sometimes she works six 12s in a week, and then has the next two weeks off. I don't think I could pull that off, but she can and it works great for her.

Why would you not have a social life? 40 hours a week is 40 hours. Yes it may be more physically demanding than say an office job, but it's not like you just work 24/7. You will need to find a life/work balance. Everyone has to. The job is what you make it.

I have plenty of time for a social life! What gets in the way is my schedule. I'm sitting at home 3 days a week in the middle of the week when everyone else and their mother is working.

But two weekends a month, it's on. I'm booked from morning till night. ✌️